I’m assuming that the Doug Burgum campaign’s incessant polling shows them losing in western North Dakota, because all of a sudden their candidate is a cowboy. Complete with chaps and a hat.

Which has to be about the most patronizing thing I’ve ever seen in a North Dakota political campaign. A certain level of pandering to our state’s agrarian roots has become rote in statewide political campaigns.

We’ve all seen the commercials with the candidate wearing denim and standing in a wheat field, right? It’s just something the politicians do.

But this is worse. This looks like Halloween, for crying out loud. I mean, what’s next? Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem trying to drum up votes in the Red River Valley by growing a hipster beard and wearing skinny jeans to a vegetarian knitting collective in downtown Fargo?

Take a tip from former two-time Democrat candidate Ryan Taylor, Doug. The cowboy costume doesn’t work. I don’t think western North Dakotans want to watch you rope a calf so much as they’d just like to be assured that you’ll generally keep their tax low, and protect their livelihoods from government overreach.

By the way, this slickly produced video isn’t even a television ad or anything. In an illustration of the buckets of money Burgum is pouring into this race, the video is just something they put together so Doug could post on Facebook about what he did over the holiday weekend.

I’m not kidding you.

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