North Dakota Republican Governor Doug Burgum is running for president. He’s also very wealthy.
So one of the rules established by the folks who are running the first debate is that each candidate must have 40,000 new donors in order to qualify for the stage. These contributions can be as little as one dollar.
Given that very few people know who Burgum is (Doug who?), he’s been struggling to get people to donate to his campaign, so he decided to use his vast bank account to buy donors for $19 each. Yup, all you have to do is send him a buck and then he will send back a $20 gift card to the first 50,000 people who respond.
That debate spot will cost him close to a million dollars, but that’s only .1% of his wealth. He’ll likely make that all back in interest within a day or two.
Burgum insists that this is nothing more than altruism, which is laughable. It just goes to show that if you’re rich and powerful enough, you can have anything you want, including a nice, shiny debate podium and a chance to vilify your opponents on national TV.
Campaign finance lawyers are looking into the legality of his scheme.
