Like Trump, Burgum is a billionaire businessman-turned-politician who became governor of North Dakota after a massive victory.
Burgum graduated from Stanford in 1980 and became a business advisor right away.
But he relocated to North Dakota to kickstart his tech career with Great Plains Software in 1983.
That same year, he mortgaged his inherited property to buy parts of the company.
Burgum’s rise to wealth might seem dreamy, but it wasn’t without its curve balls.
While the Trumps were into real estate, the Burgums were farmers who established a grain elevator company.
After he became president of Great Plains, Burgum successfully scaled the company.
In five years, from 1984 to 1989, he grew the company from 30 employees to 250!
Eight years later, it went public before he sold to Microsoft for $1 billion in 2001.
He went on to found at least two other successful companies before turning to politics in 2016.
Doug Burgum has been married twice
Doug Burgum’s first marriage was to Karen Stoker in 1991.
In 2016, weeks after winning the election, he married Kathryn Helgaas.
Since becoming First Lady, she has championed causes to remove the stigma of addiction.
Unfortunately, Burgum’s relationship with Stoker is still sour.
In 2020, when he was up for re-election, his ex-wife endorsed Shelly Lenz, his democratic rival.
The endorsement didn’t have much effect, however, as Burgum still won.
Despite that victory, Burgum has chosen not to run for a third term even though he technically can.
Instead of competing for the gubernatorial seat, he has been pretty busy campaigning for Trump.
