Burgum Mailer Hits Stenehjem For Not Being Sufficiently Supportive Of "Racist" Trump

Doug Burgum has inundated North Dakota voters with a blizzard of mailers, but here’s one I bet the socially liberal Republican wishes he could pull back.

As even many Republicans condemn presidential candidate Donald Trump for making racist comments about the ethnicity of a judge presiding over a lawsuit against him – comments Burgum’s campaign condemned, though rather tersely – North Dakota voters are getting the mailer below in their mail boxes (complete with a quote the campaign picked up from this blog).

Photos of the mailer were sent in by a SAB reader.

I still think Trump has a lot better chance of winning North Dakota than Hillary Clinton does when November rolls around, but Burgum’s embrace of Trump may be problematic for him in the open primary where his path to victory must be paved by a significant crossover vote from Democrats.

If you think the Burgum people aren’t regretting making Trump a big part of their campaign, consider this exchange with reporter Mike Nowatzki who was seeking comment about Trump’s racist comments:

“I disavow his statement and reject his assessment of the judge’s motivation,” Stenehjem said in an emailed statement. “This incident is entirely inappropriate and unacceptable for anyone to make, and especially so for anyone who seeks to be president.”

Burgum’s campaign was much briefer in its response, saying through communications manager Kate Mund, “Doug does not agree with Donald Trump’s comments or language.” Mund said the campaign would have no further comment.

“No further comment.”

I can’t imagine why they don’t want to comment.

To be fair to Burgum, I’ve never believed that his endorsement of Trump was authentic. I’ve always felt that it was, like most of his campaign positions, a calculated move intended to ingratiate the candidate with a certain faction of Republican voters. That it has now backfired is actually kind of funny.