DC outsider Doug Burgum at the Capitol Hill Club

North Dakota governor Doug Burgum is used to being counted out — and he brought that underdog energy to a meet and greet to Washington, DC, just in time to celebrate his surprising qualification for the Presidential Republican primary debate stage.

At the swanky Capitol Hill Club he made his case. He was surrounded by his state’s congressional delegation along with Senator Susan Collins, former senator Norm Coleman and a room of curious onlookers, many of whom told Cockburn they first learned of his campaign when he launched a clever scheme to mail out $20 gift cards in exchange for a $1 donation—a way to reach the 40,000 donor threshold to make the stage.

“You shouldn’t be allowed to be president of the United States if you haven’t actually worked a business,” said software billionaire Burgum. “I worked as a chimney sweep to pay my way through college.”

Unsurprisingly, much of his pitch revolves around energy independence, given the importance the industry has to his state. “This isn’t rocket science, I want some common sense,” he said. “We can’t even provide low-cost, clean, reliable energy to our own country,” he lamented. He also addressed another issue he focuses on in Bismarck: “indiscriminate” addiction.

Fentanyl and alcohol don’t ask if victims are Republicans or Democrats, he noted. His wife, First Lady Kathryn Burgum, has frequently spoken about her triumph over addiction, and said her husband’s campaign is a great vehicle to take that message nationwide. 

This “local but big” approach is what he’s trying to do in his latest mission. Politics is a team sport, he said, lavishing praise on Senators Kevin Cramer and John Hoeven and Congressman Kelly Armstrong for endorsing him (Burgum noted he is the only Republican with his entire delegation’s endorsements) and his team of “Sodbusters,” for helping him clear the threshold of 40,000 donors to debate.

Armstrong is “all-in on Governor Burgum and the best first lady in the country,” he said. “The buzz is real,” he assured everyone. While most people Cockburn spoke with wouldn’t have bet their farms on Burgum, Armstrong has seen Burgum go from an anonymous businessman to governor. 

That ascent to the governor’s mansion was no sure thing — and his wife drew parallels between that and his current quest for the White House. 

Burgum’s assessment of that race was “there’s only five months until the primary, our opponent has 100 percent name recognition, his family has been in politics practically since statehood, and he’s been the sitting attorney general for fifteen years, and there’s one more thing; he’s ahead by sixty points in the polls.” Five months later, Burgum won the primary by double digits. 

In a previous life, Armstrong was the head of North Dakota’s Republican Party, and he’d watched Burgum “turn an entire room full of people into Doug supporters inside of twenty-five minutes.” Burgum’s tenure as governor shows people that “you don’t have to be crazy to be conservative,” Armstrong said. Now, the governor needs to do that on a nationwide scale.

While Burgum is no stranger to winning in upsets, there’s only one way he comes to DC in elected office, and that’s to move into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. He told the audience he will “never run for Senate because I’m an operating guy.” 

Before Burgum shifted to questions, Cramer praised his remarks — “wouldn’t he be good on the debate stage?” he asked. Giving out $20 Biden Relief Cards is how Burgum made the cut for Milwaukee, and now his primary rivals like Miami mayor Francis Suarez are, in essence, copying his tactics. The governor is OK with that. “The greatest form of flattery is imitation,” he told Cockburn after his photo line. 

When pressed about how he rocks the best hair in the presidential field, Burgum deflected, instead choosing to praise the hairdos of the Ruthless podcast hosts that he spoke with earlier that day (“the group I was with today, on Ruthless, that whole group has got good hair”), and actually handed out oppo on himself — saying that his earlier hairdos are worth further scrutiny.

“I think if you really want to do an exposé on this, you’ve just got to go back about twenty-five years and then you’ll see real flow.” Challenge accepted:

While Burgum made the debate stage in no small part due to his pledge to hand out $1 million, Cockburn couldn’t help but note that this generosity did not extend to the DC donor class — disappointingly, the food was free but the booze was a cash bar.