Prior to July 2023, the name Doug Burgum barely registered to any Americans outside of North Dakota. Given his low profile leadership style and the reality of being the head honcho in one of America’s least populated states, even the most politically astute Americans were completely unaware of his existence.
Throughout the Great Plains, Burgum styled himself as a governor characterized by a pragmatism and a politically passive tone that carried over from his days as a senior executive at Microsoft. Everything pointed to the stint in Bismarck being the absoulte height of Burgum’s political aspirations.
Yet the notoriously low profile governor decided to pivot into the spotlight, when in June of last year, he
For the first time in history Americans could *make money* simply by donating to a politcal campaign. In exchange for a $1 donation, donors received a $20 Visa or Mastercard gift card that was mailed to their address by the Burgum campaign. He creatively labeled the voucher the “Biden Economic Relief Card.”
The gift card gambit succeeded, and Burgum was able to secure the unique donor roster that once seemed pretty much impossible to obtain in such a short time period. Burgum went from a political nobody to a somebody overnight.
After his short stint on the presidential campaign trail, Burgum leveraged his newfound national stature to link up with the Trump campaign, dedicating his time and energy to the mission of defeating Joe Biden in 2024. And of course, Burgum has waged an all out internal effort to convince President Trump that he would be the best pick for his ticket.
According to prediction markets, as of June 25, 2024, Governor Burgum is now the significant favorite to become Trump’s vice president.
Sources within the Trump campaign told The Dossier on Tuesday that although President Trump has said that he knows who his VP pick will be, he has continued to keep that name guarded in a circle of trust of one.
The North Dakota governor will let his term expire in December, as he hopes to continue to cash in on the ultimate assymetric bet he made last year. Even if Burgum doesn’t get selected for the VP slot, he will in all likelihood end up in the next presidential cabinet, should the GOP ticket win the day in November.