Fox News – Get ready for another candidate in the burgeoning field of Republican presidential contenders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A presidential campaign launch by two-term North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum<\/a>, <\/strong>a former software company CEO, is imminent, with a major announcement in Fargo, North Dakota planned for June 7, sources familiar with his plans confirmed to Fox News on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Burgum has been moving closer to launching a presidential campaign,<\/a> and last week Fox News was first to report that the governor was shooting TV ads in preparation for a White House run. And in recent weeks Burgum had also begun working with political consultants with presidential campaign experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And Burgum earlier this spring made a trip to Iowa, the state that leads off the GOP presidential nominating calendar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The governor, who is not known well outside of North Dakota, would be considered a dark-horse contender in a field of actual and expected 2024 GOP presidential candidates<\/a> with much higher name identification, including the current clear front-runner former President Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, former ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WHO’S IN AND WHO’S ON THE SIDELINES \u2014 YOUR GUIDE TO THE 2024 GOP PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION RACE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n But Burgum would enter the 2024 presidential race as one of the wealthiest members of the Republican field along with multi-millionaire entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Burgum steered his one-time small business, Great Plains Software, into a $1 billion software company. His business \u2014 and its North Dakota<\/a>-based workers \u2014 were eventually acquired by Microsoft, and Burgum stayed on board as a senior vice president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2016, the then first-time candidate and long shot convincingly topped a favored GOP establishment contender to secure the Republican nomination in North Dakota before going on to a landslide victory in the gubernatorial general election in the solidly red state. Burgum was overwhelmingly re-elected in 2020 to a second term as governor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fargo, where Burgum is expected to make his announcement, is close to his tiny hometown of Arthur and sources with knowledge of the governor’s thinking say “it underscores that a theme of the campaign is that he\u2019s the only candidate from a small town in the heartland and Americans want more small town values. One of his greatest perceived weaknesses is actually his best virtue.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n They also point out that Fargo is also where Burgum built Great Plains Software company, and that as governor he has helped redevelop North Dakota’s largest city into a urban area that has been ranked as one of the best places for young people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n