This blog is SoDakGovs, not NoDakGovs, but it is nevertheless notable that Doug Burgum, the two-term governor of North Dakota, is announcing this week his candidacy for President of the United States. Burgum, 66, is an Arthur, North Dakota native who founded Great Plains Software in Fargo, which he sold to Microsoft for $1.1 billion in 2001. He was a first-time candidate when he challenged the favorite, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, for the Republican nomination for governor in 2016, and after winning that primary was elected in November 2016 and reelected in 2020. His 2024 presidential campaign likely means that he will not seek reelection as governor in 2024. Admittedly the longest of long shots, Burgum’s ability to self-fund his campaign is a major asset to his candidacy.
Until recently, Burgum was not even the most likely governor from the Dakotas to run for president in 2024; his name was unmentioned as South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem was widely seen as a potential candidate. In recent weeks, though, rumors of a Burgum candidacy have emerged, while Noem has remained quiet as several other candidates have entered the race.
Burgum is the first North Dakotan to make a serious bid for the presidency. (North Dakotans often claim Theodore Roosevelt as one of their own but, despite the time he spent on his Dakota Territory cattle ranch in the 1880s, Roosevelt was a New Yorker, not a Dakotan.) According to Dr. Eric Ostermeier’s “Smart Politics” blog, the only North Dakotan prior to Burgum to enter a presidential primary is Democrat John Burke, who served as the state’s 10th governor from 1907-13. Burke was a “favorite son” in North Dakota’s 1912 Democratic primary, running so that he could control the state’s delegation at the Democratic National Convention. In addition, Congressman William Lemke sought the presidency as the nominee of the “Union Party” in 1936, winning 1.9 percent of the vote nationally.
Several South Dakotans have run for the White House, or have explored presidential bids:
Warren E. Green and Harlan J. Bushfield
The first two South Dakotans to be nominated for president were not serious candidates. In 1936, former Governor Warren E. Green, who had served one term as governor from 1931-33, entered the South Dakota presidential primary as the “favorite son” candidate of a slate of uncommitted delegates. With Green leading the delegation, South Dakota cast its vote at the Republican National Convention for the eventual nominee, Governor Alfred M. Landon of Kansas.
Four years later, Governor Harlan J. Bushfield was promoted by midwestern delegates a candidate for vice president, potentially on a ticket with conservative U.S. Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio. Bushfield received nine votes for the presidential nomination, likely to advance his vice presidential prospects. The convention ultimately nominated Wendell Willkie, a New York utility executive, for president, and U.S. Senator Charles McNary of Oregon for vice president.
Hubert H. Humphrey and George McGovern
The two South Dakotans who came closest to the presidency were friends and contemporaries who became political rivals. Surprisingly, given South Dakota’s historical Republican lean, both were Democrats.
Hubert H. Humphrey was born in Wallace (in Codington County) in 1911, and spent much of his early years in Doland, where his father, a pharmacist, ran a drug store. The family later moved to the larger town of Huron, where the Humphrey Drug sign can still be found on one of the storefronts in the central business district.
Humphrey left South Dakota for the University of Minnesota in 1937 and spent the rest of his life there, first gaining prominence as mayor of Minneapolis before winning election to the U.S. Senate in 1960.
Humphrey sought the presidency several times, beginning as Minnesota’s “favorite son” candidate in 1952 (similar to the Green candidacy, above). He made his first serious bid in 1960, winning South Dakota’s Democratic primary but losing pivotal contests in Wisconsin and West Virginia to U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts. Kennedy considered Humphrey as his running mate but ultimately selected Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas, another contender for the presidency.
Johnson became president after Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, and the following year he picked Humphrey as his running mate. The Johnson/Humphrey ticket won a landslide victory, and is the most recent Democratic ticket to win South Dakota’s electoral votes.
George McGovern, the son of a Methodist minister, was born in Avon and grew up in Mitchell. A heroic U.S. Army fighter pilot in World War II, he returned to the state after the war and graduated from Dakota Wesleyan University in 1946. Earning a Ph.D. in history from Northwestern University, McGovern joined the DWU faculty, but soon entered politics, winning election to the U.S. House in 1956, narrowly losing a U.S. Senate bid to incumbent Karl E. Mundt in 1960 and then, after a stint as the director of President Kennedy’s “Food for Peace” program, winning election to the U.S. Senate in 1962.
Humphrey and McGovern both sought the presidency under unusual circumstances in 1968. President Johnson had ended his reelection bid, facing a strong challenge by Minnesota’s other U.S. Senator, Eugene McCarthy. Following LBJ’s withdrawal, U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy announced his candidacy, only to be felled by an assassin. Humphrey didn’t enter a single primary but came to the tumultuous Democratic National Convention in 1968 as the candidate of the party establishment; McGovern announced his candidacy as a stand-in for Kennedy. Humphrey won the nomination, with McCarthy in second place and McGovern in third. He narrowly lost the November election to former Vice President Richard Nixon.
Following the 1968 convention, McGovern led a commission that rewrote the Democrat’s presidential selection process, expanding the role of primaries, while Humphrey returned to the U.S. Senate in 1971, succeeding McCarthy. The new presidential selection rules worked to McGovern’s advantage, as both he and Humphrey sought the nomination in 1972. This time, McGovern came out on top, making him the only South Dakota resident to appear on a major party’s presidential ticket. Remarkably, this also meant that three consecutive Democratic tickets included a native-born South Dakota – Humphrey in 1964 and 1968, and McGovern in 1972. Unfortunately for McGovern, he lost to Nixon in a 49-state landslide, carrying only Massachusetts as Nixon carried South Dakota. McGovern would late joke that he had “wanted to run for president in the worst possible way – and had!”
Neither Humphrey nor McGovern gave up on their White House ambitions. Humphrey sought the nomination again in 1976, losing to Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia. He died in 1979. McGovern made a brief bid for the Democratic nomination again in 1984, and considered another campaign in 1992; he died in 2012.
Larry Pressler and Tom Daschle
Larry Pressler and Tom Daschle both began their political careers in the 1970s and enjoyed decades-long careers serving South Dakota in Washington. Both also harbored presidential ambitions, albeit at different points in their careers.
Pressler, a Humboldt native and youthful veteran of the Vietnam War, was only 32 when he was elected to the U.S. House from South Dakota’s 1st Distict in 1974. Four years later, he was easily elected to the U.S. Senate, winning the seat that was vacating by retiring U.S. Senator James Abourezk. As a brand new U.S. Senator, he briefly sought the Republican nomination for President in 1980, making him the first Vietnam veteran to run for president. Pressler withdrew well before the first primary; he would say that he ran primarily to highlight the issues faced by returning veterans. He served three terms in the U.S. Senate before losing reeelction to Congressman Tim Johnson in 1996, and would later make unsuccessful bids for U.S. House in 2002 and U.S. Senate, as an independent, in 2014.
Daschle, an Aberdeen native and veteran of the U.S. Air Force, succeeded Pressler in the U.S. House in 1978, and won a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1986. He and Pressler served together as South Dakota’s two U.S. Senators from 1987-1997. In late 1994, Daschle was elected by Senate Democrats to be the Senate Minority Leader, making his the first (and to date, the only) South Dakotan to lead a party caucus or conference in Congress. He held that position, serving alternately as majority and minority leader, for ten years.
In 2004, Daschle, who as Senate Democratic Leader was a principal political opponent of President George W. Bush, gave serious thought to running for president. In fact, veteran Argus Leader political reporter David Kranz, who deep contacts within Daschle’s circle and had known Daschle since they both attended SDSU, reported that Daschle had decided to run. At the last moment, Daschle decided against a White House bid, instead seeking a fourth term in the U.S. Senate. He lost that bid to former Congressman John Thune, ending Daschle’s political career. Much of Daschle’s staff moved from his office to that of newly-elected U.S. Senator Barack Obama, and when Obama was elected president in 2008, he initially nominated Daschle to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. It would have made Daschle the first cabinet secretary from South Dakota, but he withdrew in the face of questions surrounding his income taxes.
John Thune and Kristi Noem
Two current South Dakota elected officials have been considered to be presidential contenders.
Senator Thune was considered a rising star following his defeat of Daschle in 2004. He was touted as a potential running mate to U.S. Senator John McCain, the Republican nominee for president in 2008. In 2012, Thune was widely seen as a strong presidential candidate, and reportedly gave serious consideration to running. In the end, he passed on a bid and, although he was considered once again to be a running mate, he was passed over for that as well by 2012 nominee Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts. Senator Thune still serves in the U.S. Senate, only the second South Dakotan to be elected to that body four times. Now the Senate’s number-two Republican, he seems more likely to follow in Daschle’s footsteps as leader of his party in the Senate than to reach the White House.
As mentioned at the beginning of this post, Governor Kristi Noem has also received presidential buzz. She is a two-term governor who previously served four terms in the U.S. House. Noem gained national prominence due to her leadership of South Dakota during the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to her branding as “American’s Govenror.” Given that high national profile, Noem was touted as a potential 2024 presidential contender, but that has tapered off as others have entered the race and she has stayed on the sidelines. She is still South Dakota’s best chance to gain a place on the 2024 Republican ticket, though, either as a late entrant to the presidential field, or as the nominee for vice president.
SoDak Governors 