Republican presidential hopeful Doug Burgum is limping his way through New Hampshire this week after suffering a leg injury before last week’s first GOP presidential primary debate.
It would seem the North Dakota governor’s campaign for the White House is hobbled, too, after he failed to gain much traction last week in Milwaukee.
Burgum made campaign stops in Derry and Bedford on Tuesday afternoon. He’s expected to be at Los Primos Mexican Restaurant in Merrimack for a 1 p.m. meet and greet on Wednesday, followed by a stop at Novel Iron Works at 3:30 p.m. in Greenland.
The long-shot candidate shouldered on, as he attempts to recover from a ruptured Achilles tendon suffered last Tuesday in a pick-up basketball game in Milwaukee — a day before the first Republican presidential primary debate. He took the debate stage in an ankle boot, a necessary accouterment Burgum continues to wear to his Granite State campaign stops.
The governor said he hasn’t missed a campaign event, and he doesn’t intend to.
“I came from this town of 300 people [his hometown in North Dakota] and everyone was wishing me well, you know, ‘Go to Milwaukee, break a leg. I took it a little too seriously with their encouragement going in,” Burgum joked in an interview on “Closeup” with Steve Bottari on WMUR 9, an ABC affiliate in Manchester.
It’s a recurring joke since debate night. No surprise there. Burgum is one for sticking to his talking points, particularly the oil state governor’s oft-turned phrase that U.S. “energy independence is national security.”
Burgum’s presidential campaign, launched in June, has failed to take off. He remains mostly unknown. A Quinnipiac University poll at the time found that 90 percent of Republican or Republican-leaning Americans said they had not heard enough about the candidate after he announced his run. Many still haven’t.
He did make the debate eight, the candidates who hit Republican National Committee donation and polling requirements to appear on the first debate stage. Burgum definitely got a significant assist in the 40,000 individual donor mandate by offering $20 gift cards, which he billed as “Biden Economic Relief” cards, to contributors who donated at least $1 to his campaign. Still, he was locked in the outer position in the debate hierarchy, and mostly out of the conversation.
Nationally, Burgum is barely breathing in national polls, at 0.5 percent, just ahead of former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson and former Texas U.S. Representative Will Hurd. In New Hampshire, he’s running in the middle of the pack. The RealClearPolitics average of New Hampshire Republican Primary Polls shows Burgum in 6th place, at 4.5 percent. He lags front-runner, former President Donald Trump, by nearly 40 percentage points.
The GOP presidential nomination chase saw its first drop-out Tuesday. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who failed to qualify for last week’s debate, called it quits.
“Running for President of the United States has been one of the greatest honors of my life,” Suarez wrote in a statement on his X (formerly Twitter) account. “While I have decided to suspend my campaign for President, my commitment to making this a better nation for every American remains.”
“I look forward to keeping in touch with the other Republican presidential candidates and doing what I can to make sure our party puts forward a strong nominee who can inspire and unify the country, renew Americans’ trust in our institutions and in each other, and win,” Suarez added.
Running for President of the United States has been one of the greatest honors of my life. This country has given so much to my family and me. The prospect of giving back at the highest levels of public service is a motivator if not a calling. Throughout this process, I have met…
— Mayor Francis Suarez (@FrancisSuarez) August 29, 2023
Who’s next?
Some campaign observers suggest Burgum may be among the next wave to check out of the race.
Tommy Thompson, Wisconsin’s longest-serving governor and Republican presidential candidate in his own right, predicts Burgum, Hutchinson, and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie won’t make it to the next debate, scheduled for September 27 at the Ronald Reagan Library in California. Thompson joined a panel of politicos following the debate at the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership event in Milwaukee, hosted in part by WisPolitics.
Burgum said he will be on the second debate stage.
At a New Hampshire campaign stop in Rye, Burgum acknowledged he faces a tougher time meeting the higher polling threshold for the next debate. Candidates must poll at 3 percent in either two qualifying national surveys or in one national poll and two early-state polls. Increasing name recognition among primary voters in the name of the game, and Burgum told New Hampshire voters his campaign will have to boost campaign ad spending.
“In North Dakota, we have a phrase called ‘Cowboy Up,’” he told a crowded room at Scott Brown’s No B.S. Backyard BBQ in Rye, as reported by NBC News. It seemed to be a comment on his injury and his long-odds campaign. “If you’re injured, you know, put up, shut up, go get the job done.”
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Doug Burgum” by Doug Burgum.
