The wealthy software entrepreneur has led North Dakota like a CEO. He's championed business-oriented items such as income tax cuts and tech upgrades for state government, from cybersecurity to state websites.
He has not been outspoken on social issues, even as the state's Republican-led Legislature sent him a flurry of pro-family bills last year. But after vetoing some of the bills in 2021 and 2023, he later signed most of them — around the same time he was preparing a 2024 presidential bid that fizzled within months.
In 2021, Burgum vetoed a bill banning transgender girls from public schools' girls sports. In early 2023, he vetoed a bill he said would make teachers into “pronoun police.”
But later in the 2023 session, as he prepared to run for president, he signed the slew of bills restricting transgender people, including a ban on gender-manipulation medical treatments for minors and two sports bans similar to the bill he vetoed in 2021.
He also signed a book ban bill but vetoed a further-reaching one. Opponents said the bills went after pro-LGBTQ+ literature.
Burgum also signed a bill that revised North Dakota's abortion laws after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. The state's abortion ban is one of the strictest in the U.S. Burgum has not been outspoken on LGBTQ+ issues or abortion.
Burgum ended his presidential campaign in December 2023, having failed to gain traction. The next month, he said he wouldn't seek a third term as governor.
