North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, who’s largely self-financing his long-shot presidential campaign, took in $11.7 million in the first 24 days after he entered the race.
The campaign said it ended June with $3.5 million cash on hand. Best of America, the super-PAC supporting Burgum’s campaign, also said it raised more than $11 million from its launch in early June through the end of the month.
Those figures put him somewhere in the middle of the crowded Republican field vying for the party’s nomination. Burgum’s campaign took in far less than the more than $35 million former President Donald Trump’s campaign raised in the second quarter, or the more than $20 million haul from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. He took in more than other opponents with more political experience and better name recognition, including South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, who raised $6.1 million last quarter, and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who brought in $7.3 million.
Burgum, whose personal wealth stems from a software business he sold to Microsoft Corp., has taken a unique approach to soliciting donations. His campaign is offering to send donors a $20 gift card in exchange for making donations as low as $1. This money-losing scheme is largely because the Republican National Committee is requiring candidates to have a minimum of 40,000 unique donors with at least 200 unique donors in at least 20 states to qualify for the first debate in August.
Burgum has the means to self-finance his campaign and thousands of $20 gift cards, but little national prominence. The campaign said it has more than 200 contributions from more than 20 states and is approaching 40,000 total donors. Burgum’s team said it was on pace to distribute 20,000 of the gift cards in the first 48 hours after making the gift card offer.
It’s not yet clear if Burgum’s efforts will be enough for him to appear during the debate. Candidates must have at least 1% support in national polls in the days leading up to the debate. With 0.1% in the Real Clear Politics national polling average, he will have trouble meeting this requirement.
Burgum’s gift card plan is one of several gimmicks that long-shot candidates with little national name recognition have employed to meet the donor threshold. Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy is offering volunteer fundraisers 10% of the money they bring into his campaign. Miami mayor Francis Suarez’s team has also offered raffles of sports tickets and college tuition payments.
All federal campaigns are due to report detailed information on their receipts, expenditures and donors to the Federal Election Commission on Saturday.
