Burgum explains why he’s running for president

Ahead of his expected 2024 presidential campaign launch, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) wrote in an op-ed that fixing the country’s economy is his No. 1 priority.

“We need a change in the White House. We need a new leader for a changing economy. That’s why I’m announcing my run for president today,” he wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.

Burgum is slated to announce his bid for the White House on Wednesday, then travel to Iowa and New Hampshire to campaign in those early primary states. He released a campaign video ahead of the announcement Monday, highlighting his Midwestern roots as well as painting him as a “a new leader for a changing economy,”

Burgum relied heavily on his experience as CEO of Great Plains Software, which he made public in 1997 and sold to Microsoft in 2001, in his op-ed. He said that to be successful in his business, he needed to “go against the grain,” which he likened to his 2016 gubernatorial campaign in North Dakota.

“If you’re going to launch a tech company in North Dakota, you need to be willing to go against the grain and reimagine what’s possible,” he wrote. “When I ran for governor in 2016, we shook up the political establishment—then cut more than a billion dollars in spending, balanced the budget, unleashed energy production, and diversified the economy.”

He said that as governor of North Dakota, he “achieved pension reform, helped pass term limits, and enacted the biggest tax cut in state history,” noting that he wants to do the same for the country by focusing on the economy, strengthening the dollar and upping energy production.

“The economy must be our top priority,” he wrote. “We need to get inflation under control, cut taxes, lower gas prices and reduce the cost of living.”

Burgum faces an uphill battle as he is set to enter a growing field of Republican candidates. In a CNN poll last month, just 1 percent of Republican primary voters put the North Dakota governor as their top pick.

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