OAN’s James Meyers
10:04 AM – Monday, December 4, 2023
North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum has officially pulled out of the running to become the GOP nominee for president.
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The announcement was made on Monday by Burgum (R-N.D.) after he failed to qualify for the most recent Republican nomination candidate debates.
“The RNC’s clubhouse debate requirements are nationalizing the primary process and taking the power of democracy away from the engaged, thoughtful citizens of Iowa and New Hampshire,” Burgum said.
“The RNC’s mission is to win elections,” he continued. “It is not their mission to reduce competition and restrict fresh ideas by ‘narrowing the field’ months before the Iowa caucuses or the first in the nation New Hampshire primary. These arbitrary criteria ensure advantages for candidates from major media markets on the coasts versus America’s Heartland.”
However, Burgum claimed that the current debate criteria should not be the standard to serve as president, saying that the “effort to nationalize the primary system” was unhealthy for the “future of the party, especially for a party that proclaims to value leadership from outside of Washington.”
The announcement by the North Dakota governor comes after saying during a recent visit in Des Moines, Iowa that he would not suspend his campaign before New Hampshire’s GOP primary on January 23, 2024.
“We’re going through all the effort to get our name on all 50 state ballots,” he said at the time. “Iowa, New Hampshire, absolutely positively. We’re going to be here. We’re going to be campaigning in Iowa camping and New Hampshire. Voters get to decide not pundits.”
In 2020, Burgum had won a second term as North Dakota governor, gaining 66% of the vote and thus is eligible to seek a third term next year.
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