North Dakota
Port: Doug Burgum now campaigning to be Trump's secretary of state
MINOT — “He doesn’t want to be pigeonholed as just an agriculture and energy guy, I’m told, though that’s a natural reflection of where he’s been doing his governing,” I wrote in a column over the weekend, referring to Gov. Doug Burgum’s ongoing campaign to be a part of the Donald Trump administration.
Now that his presidential and vice presidential campaigns are over, having ended unsuccessfully, it’s been widely expected that Burgum will get a cabinet posting. And the most talked about positions, given that he’s the governor of North Dakota, where agriculture and energy are the dominant economic drivers, are Secretary of Agriculture or Secretary of Energy.
But that’s not where Burgum is pointing himself. “Burgum has his eyes set higher, perhaps on one of the top-tier seats,” I wrote. “Secretary of state? Secretary of the Treasury?”
According to a report from Axios today,
“Former President Trump’s two veep runners-up, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, are in the running for secretary of state.”
The other names mentioned in the article for that post are Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee and Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, though the latter is said to prefer Secretary of Defense.
The State Department does make some sense for Burgum. It does jibe with the themes of his own presidential campaign, which were all about using America’s prodigious economic might — of which energy and agriculture are a not insubstantial part — as a lever in world diplomacy. After all, that’s the game China and Russia are playing.
Of course, for Burgum or any other Republican to get an appointment, Trump has to actually win the election, and that’s looking like a far less certain thing than it did a couple of weeks ago. The polls have shown that Vice President Kamala Harris has closed the deficit incumbent President Joe Biden had against Trump in the polls and some of the latest polling has her
opening a small lead.
This talk of which Republican will get which post in a second Trump administration smacks of some premature drape-measuring.
Still, it wouldn’t be surprising that Trump would be deeply concerned about who staffs his cabinet. Moreso, even, than the typical presidential candidate, given that dozens of people who served in his previous administration, including those who filled top-level positions like secretary of defense and secretary of state, now oppose his reelection.
“Trump constantly tells friends he felt burned by disloyal Cabinet officials and staff last time around,”
Axios reports.
“This time, he wants people he can trust both to implement his policies and never block his will.”
Trump doesn’t want a “team of rivals,” in other words. He wants sycophants and yes-men.
And Burgum,
with all the bowing and scraping he’s done since ending his own presidential campaign,
has positioned himself perfectly for the gig.
Filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court
North Dakota
Kaitlyn Grace Lucier, Fargo, Chapter 7
Samuel Todd Hicks, formerly known as Thomas Samuel Hicks, Fargo, Chapter 7
Teresa and Dominik Renwick, Fargo, Chapter 13
Susan Renee Fuller, formerly known as Susan R. Schaffer, doing business as Susie’s Sparkling Cleaning Service, Fargo, Chapter 7
Shannon Lynn Taylor, Fargo, Chapter 7
Jesse Patrick and Jaime Elizabeth Brown, Williston, Chapter 7
Kerri Lee Weishaar, Minot, Chapter 7
Terry Marie Moritz, Valley City, Chapter 7
Joshua Allen Sewill, Hatton, Chapter 7
Bryan Eugene Flecker, Minot, Chapter 7
Anna Marie Rahm, formerly known as Anna Marie Tanner, and Joshua Edward Rahm, Bismarck, Chapter 13
Sherri Rae Fisher, Baldwin, Chapter 13
Heather Lynn McElroy, formerly known as Heather Anderson, Grand Forks, Chapter 7
Kaitlyn Autrey, Grand Forks, Chapter 7
Michelle Lynn Miller, Fargo, Chapter 13
Kimberly Georgeann Callahan, Fargo, Chapter 13
Erin Elaine and Jose Luiz Murphy, Bismarck, Chapter 7
Shelly and Kieth Quimby, St. Thomas, Chapter 7
Minnesota
Bankruptcy filings from the following counties: Becker, Clay, Douglas, Grant, Hubbard, Mahnomen, Norman, Otter Tail, Polk, Traverse, Wadena and Wilkin.
David Howard Gilpin, Osakis, Chapter 7
Timothy Virgil Hoag, Moorhead, Chapter 7
Jason Darryl Dykhoff, Ottertail, Chapter 7
Zachary Nicholas Hodgson and Jolynn Beth Warnes, formerly known as Jolynn Beth Hodgson, Kensington, Chapter 7
Riley Matthew Hinman, Alexandria, Chapter 7
Layne Christopher Condiff, Park Rapids, Chapter 13
Thomas Beecher Hoyer, Menahga, Chapter 13
Christine Karen Jakubek, also known as Cristine Anderson, Chapter 7
Chapter 7 is a petition to liquidate assets and discharge debts.
Chapter 11 is a petition for protection from creditors and to reorganize.
Chapter 12 is a petition for family farmers to reorganize.
Chapter 13 is a petition for wage earners to readjust debts.
Our newsroom occasionally reports stories under a byline of “staff.” Often, the “staff” byline is used when rewriting basic news briefs that originate from official sources, such as a city press release about a road closure, and which require little or no reporting. At times, this byline is used when a news story includes numerous authors or when the story is formed by aggregating previously reported news from various sources. If outside sources are used, it is noted within the story.
North Dakota
Hoeven, Armstrong, Traynor speak on OBBB Rural Health Transformation Fund updates in ND
BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – On Friday, North Dakota U.S. Senator John Hoeven, Governor Kelly Armstrong and Health and Human Services Commissioner Pat Traynor explained how the state plans to use millions of dollars from the Big Beautiful Bill’s Rural Health Transformation Fund to transform healthcare across the state.
They spoke extensively about the special session to allocate the funds, and confirmed that it is still tentatively set for Jan. 21.
The Big Beautiful Bill allocated $25 billion for rural healthcare nationwide. North Dakota received $500 million for five years and $200 million for the first year. There is still another $25 billion left to be spent, and North Dakota is hoping to receive an extra $500 million.
“I truly believe that with the plan we’re putting in place and the things we built that line up with that, we’ll get a billion dollars over five years,” said Hoeven.
Federal rules require the state to lock in contracts for the money by October first— a deadline officials say is driving the need for a special session.
In the first year, North Dakota will focus on retention grants to keep existing staff, technical assistance and consultants for rural hospitals, as well as telehealth equipment and home patient monitoring.
Governor Armstrong says the special session will include policy bills tied to how much federal rural health funding the state can earn.
“We’re going to have a physical fitness test for physical education courses, nutrition education, continuing education requirement for physicians, physician assistant licensure compact—which North Dakota has been doing, dealing with that since the heart of the oil boom and moving forward—and then an expanded scope of practice for pharmacists,” said Armstrong.
Hundreds of millions of dollars could reshape healthcare in rural North Dakota, and state leaders say the next few weeks are key to receiving and spending that money wisely.
The governor says he only wants to focus on bills related to the Rural Health Transformation Program during the special session and doesn’t intend to deal with other state issues during that time.
Copyright 2026 KFYR. All rights reserved.
North Dakota
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