5 things to know about Republican presidential candidate Doug Burgum

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, September 12, 2023

4. Grew up in a town with less than 400 people

As Burgum announced his candidacy in a June 6 Wall Street Journal op-ed, he explained that he grew up in a small town called Arthur, North Dakota. While he primarily kept the substance of his op-ed focused on the economy, he contrasted the small-town values he grew up with and the “woke” ideology that dominates major cities, college towns and other Democratic strongholds by recalling how he grew up in “a small farming town where woke was something you did at 5 a.m.”

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Arthur has a population of just 328 as of the 2020 U.S. Census. Burgum elaborated on how his small-town values could serve as an asset to the country at the first Republican presidential debate.

“You asked your question about the problems we’re having in big cities. Nobody ever asks the question of what about the crime wave in small towns,” he said. “Because in a small town, neighbors help neighbors. People understand each other. If a farmer gets sick, everybody comes together and helps him get the crop off. There’s accountability, there’s transparency. One thing that I think this country could use is somebody in the White House that understands small-town values because that’s our road back to get this country on track again.”