This Wealthy Republican Governor Is Bribing People With Gift Cards in Absurd Attempt to Qualify for Presidential Debate

What’s a wealthy Republican politician to do if he really, really wants to run for president, but not enough people like him or perhaps even know who he is? Well, he’s a rich dude in America, so he can always just buy himself some of that power and influence. Bringing new meaning to the phrase “darkhorse candidate,” North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum is doing just that, offering $20 gift cards to 50,000 people who donate just $1 to his campaign.

If that lopsided exchange makes you question how this guy became so wealthy in the first place, don’t worry. With an estimated net worth of $1 billion, he could probably self-fund his entire campaign with enough left over to buy a Supreme Court justice if (when) he loses. What he needs is not the cash, but 40,000 unique donors to qualify for the Republican presidential primary debates, the first of which is scheduled for Aug. 23.

The donor threshold is supposed to be a way of demonstrating that a candidate has enough support to be a viable candidate. So much for that! If anything, the fact that Burgum, whose name I just looked up again because I keep forgetting it, has to pay people to send him money is proof of just the opposite. There are apparently not enough supporters—even in his home state, which elected him to be governor!—to get him on the debate stage.

While Burgum has attempted to cast this shady scheme as some kind of altruistic “economic relief plan,” others have proposed using the gift cards to offset some of the actual harm of Burgum’s own policies. Burgum has signed eight anti-transgender laws this year, more than almost any other state, as well as one of the strictest abortion bans in the country.

But wait, is this pay-for-donations deal even legal? Political campaigns often offer a free gift in exchange for a donation, but usually more along the lines of a bumper sticker, not what’s basically a direct cash handout. One political expert talking to Politico thought it smacked of a straw-donor scheme, in which someone illegally makes a political donation in the name of another person. Another one compared it to more innocent campaign expenditures like yard signs. (Really?)

To those of us without legal training, it definitely smells kind of fraud-y or bribe-y or otherwise unethical. Then again, that sounds like a guy who will fit right in on the Republican debate stage!

(featured image: Fox)