Takeaways: How Trump’s possible VP pick shifted on LGBTQ+ issues as his presidential bid neared

BY JACK DURA
Updated 12:06 AM EDT, June 29, 2024

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota Republican Gov. Doug Burgum is little-known on the national stage but is now a top choice to be former President Donald Trump’ s vice presidential running mate.

The wealthy software entrepreneur has led North Dakota like a CEO. He’s championed business-oriented items such as income tax cuts and tech upgrades for state government, from cybersecurity to state websites. He has not been outspoken on social issues, even as the state’s Republican-led Legislature sent him a flurry of anti-LGBTQ+ bills last year. But after vetoing some of the bills in 2021 and 2023, he later signed most of them — around the same time he was preparing a 2024 presidential bid that fizzled within months.

Here are some takeaways on Burgum and his actions:

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Doug Burgum vetoed anti-LGBTQ measures while governor. Then he started running for president

BY JACK DURA
Updated 12:02 AM EDT, June 29, 2024

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — For most of North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum’s two terms in office, he approached the job like a CEO running a business.

The wealthy former software executive, now on a shortlist to be Donald Trump’s running mate, was laser-focused on priorities like strengthening the state’s economy and cutting taxes. He mostly steered clear of social issues that animated many fellow Republicans, and he sometimes pushed back on them.

In 2020, Burgum criticized an anti-LGBTQ resolution of the state GOP as “hurtful and divisive rhetoric.” He vetoed a 2021 measure to ban transgender girls from playing on girls’ teams in public schools, saying it “would unnecessarily inject the state into a local issue by creating a ban with myriad unforeseen consequences.” In 2023, Burgum vetoed a bill he said would make teachers into “pronoun police.”

But as Burgum prepared a bid for the presidency that spring, he also signed a sheaf of bills that imposed restrictions on transgender people — including two that were nearly identical to the sports ban he vetoed in 2021. Another bill banned gender-affirming medical treatments for kids, and he signed a measure that had provisions nearly identical to parts of the pronoun bill he had vetoed earlier in 2023. Burgum also signed a book ban bill, though he did veto a second, further-reaching one. Opponents decried both bills for targeting LGBTQ themes.

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