Burgum Leads In Overall Fundraising, But Stenehjem Wins Among North Dakotans
North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, right, talks with Doug Burgum, left, during a campaign kick-off event at the North Dakota State University Alumni Center in Fargo, N.D. on Tuesday, November 24, 2015. Carrie Snyder / The Forum
Fargo businessman Doug Burgum has raised a lot more money for his gubernatorial campaign than his opponent Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, but Stenehjem has raised a lot more from North Dakotans.
Yesterday we learned that Burgum has raised over $931,000 to date including over $647,000 from people living out of state, a number that’s almost 70 percent of his total.
Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem’s campaign has filed their pre-primary report this afternoon, and to date in the 2016 election cycle he’s raised over $728,000 including over $492,000 from North Dakotans and $51,500 from people out of state (this includes what Stenehjem raised in 2015, Burgum didn’t launch his campaign until January).
In addition, Stenehjem collected over $184,000 from organizations like associations and political action committees.
Burgum did not report any contributions from organizations. Of course, Burgum has also spent a lot of his own cash on his campaign. How much we don’t know because he isn’t required to report it.
While Burgum has been touting his volume of financial support, including a $100,000 contribution from Bill Gates of Microsoft fame, I suspect the Stenehjem people are feeling pretty good about raising 73 percent more from people who live in the state can lawfully vote in North Dakota’s primary.
But I expect Burgum, who has styled himself an outsider despite years of deep involvement in state politics, will hit Stenehjem on his support from organizations. That being evidence, in the minds of low information voters, of the “good old boys club,” etc., etc.
In related news, Democratic candidate Marvin Nelson raised less than $17,000. Paul Sorum, the third Republican candidate in the race, raised $100 as did Libertarian Party candidate Marty Riske.
You can read Stenehjem’s full pre-primary report below, and a 48-hour contribution report he filed here.
UPDATE: Originally this post understated Stenehjem’s overall fundraising number as I forgot to put in a few of the organization contributions from his 48-hour report on my spreadsheet. I’ve fixed the error.
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