The 2024 presidential race is “just getting started,” North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R), who jumped into the race earlier this month, told Breitbart News Saturday.

Burgum spoke about his decision to jump into the presidential ring, detailing his experience growing up in a small town, losing his father at a young age, and working in the private sector building software companies. He hit many of the themes laid out in his announcement video, where he detailed his past of starting a shoe shine business, working as a chimney sweep, paying his way through college, and using his small piece of farmland to help build a startup into a worldwide billion-dollar company.

“We’re really running on a platform where we can improve the life of every American if we do this [and] do it right. We’re going to focus on the economy. We’re going to focus on energy, and we’re going to focus on national security, including the border because those are the things that affect virtually every American,” Burgum said, explaining that voters in places such as Iowa are concerned about economic issues: inflation, interest rates, spending and taxes.

“Right now the Biden administration is 180 degrees wrong on economy, energy and national security. And what we learned in Iowa [and] New Hampshire is that people are very receptive and excited to hear our message,” the presidential hopeful said, hoping to foster an environment to make the American dream a reality for others.

The Biden administration has been disingenuous about the economy as of late, Burgum asserted, noting that the administration is essentially celebrating data that is less bad than last year and considering it a victory.

“The Biden administration is saying, ‘Hey, we should all feel good because inflation is lower this year than last year,’ but that’s like saying to somebody, ‘Hey, you got an eight percent pay cut last year — you should be happy about your five percent pay cut this year,’ because inflation does just cut in to every family’s buying power,” he said, adding that it is time to “bring power to state and shrink federal government.”

Some of that can be done, he continued, by treating taxpayers more as customers and cutting government red tape, as that increases costs.

“Innovation, not regulation. Innovation. It’s what’s always driven the U.S. economy and we’ve got an administration, the Biden administration” that is obsessed with regulation and thinks they “can regulate their ideologies into place for a better world,” he said.

“And they’re actually again choking off the opportunities for every American,” the governor added.

Burgum also expressed confidence in his position in the presidential race, sharing his view that the race is “just getting started.”

LISTEN:

“I mean, literally just getting started, and all you have to do is look at the data like sports fans would go look at the data,” he said, pointing to past polls and leaders in Iowa.

“I mean, go back to all the races and none of that– whoever the leaders were, in this summer, the June before the … summer ahead of when you’re having the election, none of that is predictive in terms of whoever ends up being the president or even the nominee,” he said, dismissing the speculation of the pundits and analysts.

“It’s not at all over, and there’s lots of twists and turns in the road and we jumped in, exactly, because we believe there is a path. And that path is about talking to Americans about the things that matter to them most,” he added.

Breitbart News Saturday airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern.