Republican presidential candidates are putting in time before voters at the Iowa State Fair. North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum told fairgoers Thursday that as president he would cut federal regulations to speed up growth in the U.S economy.
Before he got into politics, Burgum was in business and helped build an accounting software company that was eventually sold to Microsoft for $1.1 billion.
Current policies on the economy, Burgum said, are “choking it to death.” In his two terms as governor, Burgum said removing government rules and regulations has been a top priority.
“In North Dakota, we say one thing over and over, it’s 'Innovation not regulation,'” Burgum said. “Innovation built this country and that built our economy and we need to get our economy going because we’re in a cold war with China.”
Burgum spoke at the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox, a traditional stage for political candidates at the fair. Each candidate is given 20 minutes to speak and to take questions, if they choose.
Burgum talked about growing up in the farm town of Arthur, N.D., and mortgaging land that he inherited to raise money to invest in a software startup. His experience in both the public and private sectors, Burgum said, sets him apart in the crowded field of GOP candidates.
He called himself an “operating guy” who wants to become president to “serve everybody,” not to “throw bombs at the other side.”
“When there's a blizzard in North Dakota, we don't ask if you're Republican, independent or Democrat before we decide to plow your road,” Burgum said. “We plow the road for everybody. We do our job first.”
As the chief executive of one of the top oil producing states in the U.S., Burgum also criticized the Biden administration’s approach to energy policy and said it was the first thing he would change if he wins the White House.
Burgum criticized President Joe Biden for incentivizing the purchase of electric vehicles and the buildout of EV charging stations, a key part of the administration’s strategy to combat climate change.
The U.S. should expand the production of oil and ethanol in states like North Dakota and Iowa, he said, instead of trying to catch up with China, which has outpaced the U.S. in securing the materials and building the facilities to make EV batteries.
“What do we have in Iowa? What do we have in America? We feed the world. We fuel the world,” Burgum said. “This is the powerhouse economy we have. We do not have to be in second place to China on anything."
Burgum has called for his state to be carbon-neutral by 2030, a goal he has claimed can be reached without any additional regulations, and is a supporter of proposed pipelines that would capture and store carbon dioxide from ethanol production.
He is one of eight candidates so far who have qualified to appear at the first Republican debate in Milwaukee later this month.
