Former Presidential Candidate Ron Paul Endorses Rick Becker For Governor

It was good timing for state Rep. Rick Becker to get some headline-worthy news for his campaign. Yesterday Fargo businessman Doug Burgum made a splash by announcing his own campaign for governor, with Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem clearly in his cross hairs.

And suddenly Becker’s campaign seemed to be almost crowded out of the picture.

So today – in what was no doubt a coincidence as these things don’t come together on a whim – former presidential candidate and long-time congressman Ron Paul announced that he’s endorsing Becker.

“Rick Becker believes in limited, constitutional government. He understands free market economics and has a record of fighting for civil liberties in the North Dakota House,” Paul said in a press release now posted on Becker’s campaign website. “We absolutely must elect strong, liberty-minded Governors who have the courage to stand up to federal overreach and government bureaucrats. Rick understands the business cycle and the impact of commodity fluctuations and will govern the state as a staunch fiscal conservative.”

You can read the rest of the boilerplate at the link.

Becker’s campaign has been hinting at a major endorsement the last several days. I even had a couple of SAB readers speculate that perhaps Burgum’s big announcement this week was an endorsement of Becker, which certainly would have been amusing.

What I’m not sure of is why Becker’s campaign think Paul’s endorsement will be a boon. Certainly it will help fire up a certain base of support within the NDGOP, but I have to think that Becker already had that base sewn up.

If Becker really hopes to win the NDGOP’s nomination he needs to expand his base of support. Touting the backing of someone like Paul, who is extremely polarizing, isn’t going to help accomplish that goal.