North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who secured his spot on the first GOP primary debate stage after offering $20 gift cards in exchange for $1 donations, said his controversial play is allowing him to bring his message on the economy, energy, and national security to the public.
"If you are starting an online retail company, if you are a young person, the first thing you do when you are going online is you offer a promotional thing," Burgum said on "Fox News Sunday." "These consulting firms wanted $100 per customer acquisition. This is one-fifth the cost to solve the problem."
The governor's play allowed him to meet a Republican National Committee debate requirement stating that candidates must have 40,000 unique donors to take the stage.
On Sunday, Burgum said that while he voted for former President Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020, he's running now because he believes there must be a focus on what matters to most Americans, and that's the economy.
"This is running, about running against Joe Biden," Burgum said. "We need course corrections. We need a 180 degrees turn because on the economy, whether it is inflation, taxes, or spending or deficit trade, [we are] all in the wrong direction."
Energy policy is also vital, said Burgum, because "we should be selling our energy to our friends and allies instead of buying from our national security."
He added that the United States is in a "Cold War" with China, but this one is different than the one with Russia, as that time around, the United States could perform on top because of its economy and military.
"We need to do the same thing" with China, Burgum said. "We have got to get our economy sprinting, and it is crawling right now."
Energy and the economy are intertwined, he added, noting that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely would not have invaded Ukraine if all of Western Europe wasn't dependent on Russian energy.
"China is the world's largest importer of oil and gas in the world … nobody is talking about how we can use energy as a lever in our relationship in the Cold War," he said.
Meanwhile, Burgum, as governor of Nebraska, signed one of the toughest abortion laws in the nation but has said he will not sign a federal ban as he believes that abortion is a matter best left up to states.
"I am the 10th Amendment guy," he said. "There is a specific set of things that the federal government is supposed to do. The rest is reserved to the state … what's going to fly in New York is not going to fly in North Dakota."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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