BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — For most of his two terms in office, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum approached his job like a CEO running a corporation.
The wealthy former software executive, now on the shortlist for Donald Trump’s vice presidential nomination, focused squarely on priorities like strengthening the state’s economy and cutting taxes, largely avoiding, and sometimes even resisting, social issues that concerned many of his fellow Republicans.
In 2020, Burgum criticized an anti-LGBTQ resolution from the state Republican Party as “hurtful and divisive rhetoric.” He vetoed a 2021 measure banning transgender girls from playing on girls’ teams in public schools, saying it “would unnecessarily involve the state in a local problem by creating a ban with countless unforeseen consequences.” In 2023, Burgum vetoed a bill he said would turn teachers into “pronoun police.”
But as Burgum prepared to run for president in the spring, he also signed a series of bills that imposed restrictions on transgender people — including two that were nearly identical to the sports ban he vetoed in 2021. Another bill banned gender-affirming medical treatments for children, and he signed a bill in 2023 with provisions nearly identical to parts of the pronoun bill he previously vetoed. Burgum also signed a bill to ban books, though he vetoed a second, more far-reaching bill. Opponents condemned both bills for targeting LGBTQ issues.
While conservatives cheered, others close to Burgum – who praise his independence and inclusiveness as a leader – said the signing of the 2023 bill was disappointing and marked a shift as the governor entered the national stage. Some saw Burgum’s willingness to support the measures as an attempt to gain ground with Republicans while eyeing a presidential race, or in response to measures in other GOP-led states.
Moderate Republican and House Speaker Emily O’Brien, who opposed the bills but supported Burgum’s presidential bid, said it was shocking that Burgum signed them because of his business mentality, which is to “make a difference” and improve government, not to advance social issues.
“Social issues don’t help make a difference – economic development, quality of life … in his words, ‘treating taxpayers like customers,'” she said. “I think it’s this business model mentality: ‘No matter who walks in the door, you treat them with respect.'”
Burgum, through a spokesman, declined an interview request for this article. After the 2023 session – Burgum’s last regular legislative session as governor – he told The Bismarck Tribune that he would have to “pick his seats” because Republicans would have enough seats in the state legislature to override his vetoes. He also lamented that the time and energy spent on social issues was “a missed opportunity.”
“I talk to real people who are creating real jobs, building real businesses and hiring people, and some of the things the legislature is focusing on are not what the citizens are focusing on,” Burgum said.
Caedmon Marx of Bismarck repeatedly testified against the anti-trans bills when they were introduced in the House. Marx previously viewed Burgum as a centrist who had North Dakota’s interests at heart.
“After the last session, it was like someone had their own interests and their own political advantage in mind,” said Marx, whose boyfriend, a transgender man, moved to Minnesota earlier this year because of the recent laws.
Who is Doug Burgum?
Burgum, 67, grew up in miniature Arthur, North Dakota. After earning a master’s degree in business administration from Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Burgum took over as CEO of Great Plains Software. In 2001, Microsoft acquired the company for $1.1 billion, and Burgum remained as vice president until 2007. He has run other companies in real estate development and venture capital.
When Burgum announced his candidacy for governor in 2016, his announcement — like other speeches he gives — felt like a TED talk, complete with slideshow and no lectern. Burgum ran with a vision to “reinvent” government as the state faced a billion-dollar revenue deficit that was depleting reserves. He defeated North Dakota’s longtime attorney general in the Republican primary, a major upset.
Burgum is a policy expert who can speak at length about issues that matter to him—his recent State of the Union address lasted two hours—such as promoting carbon capture or reducing regulations. He sometimes visibly chokes back tears when discussing earnest topics, such as his wife, Kathryn,’s recovery from addiction.
He’s a huge North Dakota State University football fan and occasionally throws in a so-called dad joke during his speech. But people who worked with him as governor say he’s also extremely curious and works long hours.
When former political consultant Sean Cleary was dating his current wife in 2019, he sometimes returned to the Capitol after dates to work for a few hours until 11 p.m. or midnight, he said.
Former Lieutenant Governor Brent Sanford recalled a late-night meeting where Burgum looked at him and the others in the room at 1 a.m. and said enthusiastically, “Isn’t it fun to work for North Dakota?”
Business priorities are shifting
Burgum most frequently advocated for business-oriented priorities: income tax cuts, updating state government websites, improving internet security, raising capital for the state, and reorganizing the early budget process with state agencies.
He praises a data-driven approach to problem solving and often speaks of “innovation instead of regulation.”
Burgum took office during the often disordered protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline, the controversial project that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has long opposed. Sanford said Burgum showed courage and listening amid the controversy by inviting the tribal chairman to his office and holding a hearing on the tribe’s reservation. In 2019, he announced the hanging of tribal flags near the entrance to the governor’s office at the state Capitol, a law he has pushed for years.
Today, North Dakota’s finances are in a fit state. The 2020 census showed the state to be one of the fastest growing. North Dakota, along with South Dakota, had the lowest unemployment rate in the U.S., which was 2% in May.
Burgum has had to work with a legislature that has focused more on social legislation in recent years and passed more such legislation than in previous sessions. The North Dakota legislature only meets in regular session in odd-numbered years.
Two bills banning books were passed by Parliament last year. He signed one that targeted “explicit sexual material” in children’s libraries in public libraries and required them to establish guidelines for reviewing their collections and submitting a “compliance report” to lawmakers. But he vetoed the other bill, which he said went too far by criminalizing “potential disagreement” over certain content and did not provide money for libraries to review their materials.
In 2023, Burgum also signed one of the strictest abortion bans in the U.S. The law largely overhauled or reorganized North Dakota’s myriad abortion laws after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade ruling in 2022. North Dakota’s ban prohibits abortion with a few exceptions: in cases of rape or incest up to six weeks of pregnancy, or to prevent the death or “serious endangerment of the health” of the mother.
Both this law and the ban on gender-affirming child care are the subject of ongoing legal proceedings. Burgum has not commented on abortion or transgender issues.
‘Why did you do that?’
After the state Republican Party’s anti-LGBTQ resolution gained attention in 2020, Burgum called the state’s first openly gay congressman and then-House minority leader to tell him he disagreed with it.
Democratic Rep. Josh Boschee said Burgum told him he would work to keep the resolution out of politics and to ensure North Dakota “remains an open and inclusive state because that’s one of its values,” Boschee said. Burgum also shared personal stories about LGBTQ people he knows who have had a positive influence on him, said Boschee, who called it a good conversation.
But during the 2023 session, as Burgum was planning his presidential campaign, Boschee sensed that “the independence that I think many of us admired in him” was disappearing.
“He had to solidify that base,” Boschee said. “When you go on the national stage, other people don’t know that nuance. They would see that he signed, and he could say he did those things if he wanted to say it out loud.”
Burgum does not appear to have run for president on these bills or touted them at rallies. “So the question is why did you do it,” Boschee said. “Was it to get into orbit so you don’t have to worry about it anymore and now you can get behind it if necessary?”
The real Doug Burgum begins his speech with gratitude before turning to energy and tax policy, he said.
“I have a lot of positive things to say about Governor Burgum because I know him for the man he is. It is all the more disappointing to see what kind of man he has become in the last few months,” “in the way he has now attached himself to Donald Trump,” Boschee said.
