516: 'They all had love for him at a certain point'

Plain Talk

Gov. Doug Burgum has gone through a "transformation."

That's what reporter Stephen Rodrick said on this episode of Plain Talk. He spent a lot of time in North Dakota for a profile of Burgum published recently by Politico. He wrote that the governor has been "rebranding" on his way to a potential place on former President Donald Trump's national ticket.

That means that Burgum has, along the arc of his political career, but a lot of different things to different people. What Rodrick found, talking to people who knew Burgum during times in his life, is that many of them feel that many who liked him in the past perhaps feel differently now.

"They all had love for him at a certain point," he said, even those who today might be fairly described as Burgum's enemies.

"His transformation over the past 3 or 4 months if baffling," Rodrick told my co-host Chad Oban and I.

And how will Burgum be received on the national stage if he is Trumps VP pick? Rodrick thinks observers will be surprised. "They're going to be like, 'wow he really didn't want anyone who has his own level of national charisma.'"

Also on this episode, Oban and I discuss April Baumgarten's story about North Dakota First Lady Katyrn Burgum's primary ballot getting rejected because of a handwriting mismatch. Burgum World isn't offering anything in the way of an explanation for why that happened, which leaves an information vacuum that could be filled with some not-so-great conclusions.

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