Doug Burgum wins ND GOP Primary

[Fargobison]

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http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/doug-burgum-wins-gop-primary-north-dakota-governor-39862980

[Fargobison]

This is a surprise, no?

I would call it an upset. Burgum did spend a ton of money but Stenehjem is a popular AG. I'm really shocked how well Burgum did outside of Fargo.

Cass County isn't even half in yet and he is up huge.

[Fargobison]

Wow. So... is this race a Tossup now?

Burgum will roll, he has popularity across party lines in ND. I think Dem's crossing over helped to pump up his margin of victory a bit last night.

[Fargobison]

Wow--I wasn't expecting this.  Especially since Stenehjem got the party's endorsement at the convention earlier in the year.  Is Burgum a Tea Party guy?

He isn't really a tea party guy, some of the more conservative people in the state thought he was too moderate. That said some of those people might have just not liked him because he is from Fargo.

Like I said before a decent chunk of Burgum's margin of victory was probably Dem crossover voters, he was there one shot to stick it the ND GOP establishment and try to bring in some new blood. He would have still won without them but it would have been much closer.

[Fargobison]

So, basically, Burgum was more moderate than Stenehjem?

Burgum did run a rather conservative campaign but for most of his life he has been rather moderate.

A big key in the upset in my opinion was Stenehjem ran a rather low energy campaign, Burgum really out worked him.

[Fargobison]

Hm. An east vs. west divide here, just like in the South Dakota Democratic primary for President. Although Burgum won pretty much every county, but you can tell by the margins of victory in the east compared to the west.

The E/W thing is endemic to SD, and is about the Missouri river.

Not really sure you can see a real E/W divide here, considering Stenehjem won only 3 counties.

ND has a sizable divide, just look at the 2012 Senate election. The east carried Heitkamp to victory.

It isn't as big here but like another poster said you can see it within the margins. It probably would have looked a bit clearer if Stenehjem wasn't getting a boost from his former home district in Grand Forks.