DOUG BURGUM

A growing sense of urgency looms over the Republican Party’s second presidential primary debate as seven candidates seek momentum on a stage that will not feature the race’s frontrunner.

The second Republican presidential debate is drawing near with a smaller on-stage lineup than last month's event.

As the debate neared its end, moderator Dana Perino asked the candidates to write down which of their on-stage competitors should be voted off the 2024 GOP island.

The debate starts at 9 p.m. ET and will take place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. It is expected to last roughly two hours.

The field for the second Republican presidential debate will be smaller than the first.

The third Republican presidential debate will be held in Miami on Nov. 8, and candidates will be facing the most stringent requirements yet to take part.

The National Park Service has proposed removing wild horses from Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota, as the park looks to revise its livestock plans.

The first Republican presidential debate provided an opportunity for candidates to make their cases directly to a national audience, and some of that attention is translating into boosts for their campaign coffers.

Fox News reached an estimated 12.8 million viewers on two television channels and its streaming network for the first GOP presidential primary debate of the 2024 season, even though former President Donald Trump skipped it.

Construction began in June on the Theodore Roosevelt presidential library planned for the Badlands of western North Dakota.

With the first 2024 Republican presidential debate in the books, the focus is turning to the early front-runner's pending surrender to authorities at an Atlanta jail.

Injured North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum says he plans to participate in the Republican presidential debate.

Eight presidential candidates will meet on the debate stage for the first time in what may be the biggest moment in the GOP’s 2024 presidential primary so far.

The Republican presidential candidates vying to be the leading alternative to front-runner Donald Trump fought -- sometimes bitterly – over abortion rights, U.S. support for Ukraine and the future of the party during the first primary debate of the 2024 campaign.

It’s almost time for the first Republican presidential debate.

More hearings this month and in September are set for Summit Carbon Solutions' proposed $5.5 billion, 2,000-mile pipeline network.

When Republican candidates for president gather for their first debate Wednesday in Milwaukee, the spotlight will not only be on them but also on Wisconsin’s role as one of a shrinking handful of genuine battleground states.

Eight candidates are expected onstage at the first Republican presidential primary debate, but one of them might not be able to make it.

With six weeks until the first 2024 Republican presidential debate, some hopefuls are finding creative ways to boost their donor numbers and ensure they make it on stage.

Seven weeks before the premiere debate of the 2024 GOP primary, anxiety is building that the event could prove messy and divisive for the party.

The 2024 Republican presidential field is full of long-shot candidates.

In 2001, Burgum sold his North Dakota-based software company to Microsoft for $1.1 billion.

President Joe Biden has welcomed hundreds to the White House for a delayed Pride Month celebration.

The Republican Party’s 2024 presidential field is all but set after a trio of new announcements this week.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum touted his small-town roots and business experience as he announced his candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

When Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina launched his campaign for the White House, the notoriously prickly former President Donald Trump welcomed his new competitor with open arms.

Republican-controlled states across the U.S. are adding restrictions on how schools should handle transgender students.

Under a proposed rule change, foreign citizens and companies would need U.S. government approval to buy property within 100 miles of eight military bases.

With measures to protect abortion access becoming law in two states, a ban in a third state and court action elsewhere, the status of abortion law in the U.S. remains unsettled.

Teachers in North Dakota can still refer to transgender students by the personal pronouns they use, after lawmakers failed to override the governor’s veto of a controversial bill to place restrictions on educators.

North Dakota public schools and state agencies would be prohibited from using any pronouns for students and employees that don't reflect their sex at birth, under a bill approved by the legislature.

The U.S. Air Force is telling North Dakota leaders it believes a Chinese company’s plan to build a wet corn milling plant near the Grand Forks Air Force Base poses a national security threat.

North Dakota Republican Gov. Doug Burgum’s expensive effort to influence the GOP primary and reshape the Legislature with more people who support his spending and policy goals was a mixed bag.

Fifteen Republican governors have sent a letter to the U.S. Commerce Secretary, urging that the U.S. Census bureau release redistricting data as soon as possible.

It's not that people in Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa and elsewhere don't realize their states are leading the nation in new cases per capita. “They don’t think it’s real," she said. Like most people, Jay Stibbe, 52, of Fargo, North Dakota, said he and his family are respectful of COVID-19 protocols and wear masks where required. However, Stibbe said he doesn’t see enough “concrete information” about the virus to stop him from going about his normal life, even though North Dakota leads the nation in the number of virus cases per capita. ___Associated Press writers David Pitt in Des Moines, Iowa, and Dave Kolpack in Fargo, North Dakota, contributed to this story.

Health officials had asked workers in central Auckland to stay home on Friday while they investigated the case but say they can now return to work. — Surge of coronavirus cases appears to be slowing in Germany and France, but still straining hospitals. Alaska has had over 20,000 cases, including 477 new cases reported Thursday. She is scheduled Friday to address the situation and is expected to announce new public health restrictions aimed to curbing spread. That’s the impassioned message that dozens of parents and school administrators are sending to public health officials in Pennsylvania’s third-most populous county.

(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)NEW DELHI — Authorities in India are reporting 36,470 newly confirmed coronavirus infections — that’s the lowest one-day tally in more than three months in a continuing downward trend. The case number reported Tuesday is the lowest since India had 35,065 newly confirmed infections on July 17. The seven-day average for daily COVID-19 deaths has also been climbing from 12 to 22 over the past 10 days. ___ROME — Italy registered slightly more than 17,000 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Monday. Italy’s total of known coronavirus infections during the pandemic now stands at 542,789.

(AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Authorities in Sri Lanka have closed the country’s main fish market and widened the curfew in many parts of the island nation following a surge of coronavirus infections related to a new cluster centered on a garment factory. — Boston schools will switch to all-remote learning in response to rising coronavirus cases in the city. Kelly said Wednesday that two-thirds of the state’s confirmed cases now are outside the Wichita and Kansas City region. On Wednesday, the state reported its first patient to the field hospital on the state fairgrounds in West Allis outside of Milwaukee. ___ROME — The Italian region of Lazio, which includes Rome, is imposing an overnight curfew to combat surging coronavirus infections.

– Rural Jerauld County in South Dakota didn't see a single case of the coronavirus for more than two months stretching from June to August. As the brunt of the virus has blown into the Upper Midwest and northern Plains, the severity of outbreaks in rural communities has come into focus. In recent weeks, he's watched as one in roughly every 37 people in his county has tested positive for the virus. As cases surge, hospitals in rural communities are having trouble finding beds. “It's very, very challenging when your resources are poor — living in a small, rural county,” she said.

When it comes to the virus, Burgum has used his weekly press briefings to give emotional, sometimes teary pleas supporting face coverings, while emphasizing a “light touch” by government. A mask mandate “is not a magic bullet to make this virus go away,” he said. North Dakota is one of 16 states without a mask mandate. North Dakota hasn't elected a Democratic governor since 1988. More than five dozen North Dakota pediatricians recently signed a letter urging Burgum to mandate masks.

But that's not the message coming from a number of Republican governors in the region, who are working to find silver linings in the ominous health data as outbreaks surge in their states. North Dakota's governor has called his state's test positivity rate an achievement, even though its rate of new cases tops the nation. Kim Reynolds, however, has defended the state's decision to reopen bars and send students back into classrooms without masks required. Some governors are even pushing back against Trump's own advisers for giving blunter assessments of their states' situations. Hutchinson has continued resisting calls to roll back some of the state's reopening, saying he's relying more on personal responsibility.

The directive comes amid concerns about an uptick in coronavirus cases in certain Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods with large Orthodox Jewish populations. State health officials have said reopening schools and colleges have contributed to an increase in cases. An additional 445 people are in the process of being tested, and the hospital expects the number of positive cases to grow. Data from state health and education departments released Friday indicate the virus is circulating in schools and nursing homes. ___TORONTO — Canada’s most populous province is making bars and restaurants shut down earlier in a bid to curb rising coronavirus cases in Ontario.

The argument over masks raged this week in Brookings, South Dakota, as the city council considered requiring face coverings in businesses. I worry about that.”Over 1,000 students at the states' four largest universities (the University of North Dakota, North Dakota State University, South Dakota State University and University of South Dakota) left campus to quarantine after being exposed to the virus, according to data released by the schools. North Dakota Gov. North Dakota's average rate of test positivity has been nearly 22% over the last seven days, according to the the COVID Tracking Project; South Dakota's has been 17%. "They are worried about being overwhelmed.”___Kolpack reported from Fargo, North Dakota.

FARGO, N.D. - North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum signed an executive order declaring a statewide flood emergency as he and other officials held meetings in communities affected by high water. Burgum said North Dakota was experiencing conditions "we haven't seen before across the whole state." And Goehring had these words for farmers worried about what the future might bring:"Take a deep breath, and hold on," Goehring said. "There's an economic hardship that we're facing here relative to this fall's harvest that is likely unprecedented," Burgum said. As of Monday morning, eight counties and four cities in North Dakota had issued flood emergency declarations, with more expected.