Doug Burgum pushes back against calls to drop out

Republican presidential candidate Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND) defended his continuing campaign amid the growing calls among the GOP for the 2024 field to winnow into a two-person race between former President Donald Trump and one other rival before the all-important Iowa caucuses next year.

In one of the most recent articles questioning Burgum’s campaign viability, John Hendrickson of the Atlantic wrote that the North Dakota governor was an “affable midwestern guy with virtually zero national name recognition.” National and state polling backs up this claim.

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In a RealClearPolitics poll average, Burgum polls at 0.7% support, one spot ahead of former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is at 0.5%. A recent NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa poll showed Burgum faring better at 3% support, a 1-percentage-point increase from August, when he polled at 2%.

Yet Burgum remains unfazed by those wondering why he is running for president. “I know I have the skills and experience to turn this country around,” Burgum said defiantly on Thursday. “I’m running to unleash the best of America and improve every American life. It’s that simple.”

Best of America, the super PAC supporting Burgum, claimed that its $2 million investment in television and voter contact since the second GOP primary debate, including $700,000 on Fox News placed on Wednesday, has seen Burgum’s poll numbers move up. The financial investment is hyper-targeting voters in the first two nominating states, Iowa and New Hampshire, along with voters across the country.

“Our innovative voter contact campaign combined with cable television advertising is making sure Republican voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, and across the country know that Gov. Burgum is the conservative business leader and tech entrepreneur with the expertise and experience to turn America’s economy around by putting his job creator experience to work for every American,” Best of America PAC spokeswoman Emily Benavides said.

Yet Burgum lags far behind Trump and doesn’t qualify for next week’s third GOP debate in Miami despite appearing at the first two debates.

Last week’s surprise announcement that former Vice President Mike Pence suspended his campaign, the first major GOP candidate to drop out, has only intensified calls for other candidates, including Burgum, to step aside.

Other long-shot candidates who have dropped out include conservative radio host Larry Elder; Michigan businessman Perry Johnson, who has endorsed Trump; former Texas Rep. Will Hurd, who endorsed former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley; and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez.

On Monday, veteran Republican operative Mike Murphy called for the rest of the field to end their campaigns and coalesce around Haley, claiming the approaching holiday season was time for “a moment of hard clarity.”

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“To be clear, I’ve been a grade-A Nikki Haley critic. I’ve found her to be depressingly cynical,” Murphy wrote for the Bulwark. “If left up to me, her Secret Service code name would be ‘Too Clever By Half.’ But in a race against the ghoulish, democracy-loathing madman Donald Trump, it’s an easy call: Go, Nikki, go. I’m all in.”

But as an independently wealthy candidate worth almost $1 billion, Burgum can afford to continue campaigning despite the pleas to drop out.