North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum asks voters for a chance in New Hampshire: 5 things to know.

EXETER, N.H. — Doug Burgum is among the least known of the many long-shot candidates vying to be the Republican nominee in the 2024 presidential race.

The North Dakota governor is stuck in the primary's basement, where he typically polls at 1%.

Worse yet, he has struggled to gain much attention or have a breakthrough moment during the two national GOP debates, where White House hopefuls have largely clawed at each other rather than knocking former President Donald Trump, who is the undisputed front-runner.

But Burgum's campaign maintains that he has a window once actual voters, not TV viewers, plug into the race.

The North Dakota governor is joining a series of town halls in Exeter, New Hampshire, hosted by Seacoastonline and the USA TODAY Network to speak directly with those Americans at 10 a.m. Friday.

Here are five things to know about Doug Burgum ahead of the event.

Doug Burgum has been a major underdog before

Polling shows that most Americans don't know who Burgum is, and those who do hold a slightly more unfavorable view of him.

But when Burgum, 66, first entered politics as a gubernatorial contender in 2016, he was a long shot most people hadn't heard of before. At that time, he trailed by 49% in the GOP primary against a popular attorney general in North Dakota.

During the state's 2016 Republican convention, the party held a series of votes to endorse a candidate. Burgum finished last in each of those ballots.

But when it came time for the voters to decide, he won his election by 20%, largely running as an outsider in the year that Trump first captured the Republican nomination for president.

Doug Burgum is a software entrepreneur, largely self-funded

Born in Arthur, North Dakota, a small town northwest of Fargo, Burgum attended Stanford University, where he earned a master’s degree in business administration.

In the 1980s, he and his relatives ? including his grandparents, who owned an agriculture business ? bought Great Plains Software, a software company that eventually was purchased by Microsoft for $1.1 billion in 1997.

Most of Burgum's fundraising comes from his own pocket. He has loaned his campaign more than $10 million.

Energy, carbon neutrality is his favorite subject

One of the reasons Burgum hasn't broken away from the pack is how little oxygen is given to this favorite subject: energy.

In a sober delivery style that stays away from culture war or social issues, he has tried to shake the public consciousness about energy's role in America's domestic and foreign policy.

During an August event in Iowa, for instance, Burgum touted his state's pledge to be carbon neutral by 2030, and how they're "doing it with zero mandates, zero regulations."

The U.S. should be committed to alternative fuels, he said, such as ethanol and carbon pipelines. He also supports America having a "homegrown" energy agenda that would leverage a combination of renewable, fossil fuel and nuclear power.

Doug Burgum warns of a Cold War with China

Besides energy, foreign policy is a space Burgum has a wider vision, and he's criticized President Joe Biden's approach to countering America's competition around the world, particularly China.

"We're already in a cold war with China, we're in proxy war with Russia," he said in a video posted to X, formerly known as Twitter.

China being America's chief rival in the 21st century is one of his biggest concerns.

The first campaign ad Burgum launched focused on the foreign country's communist leadership, and he has been stark in saying that the U.S. is engaged in a cold war with Beijing that must be won economically and through democratic values ? rather than military might.

Culture war, social issues aren't taking center stage

North Dakota passed one of the nation's strictest abortion bans that blocks the procedure at all stages of pregnancy after six weeks, with the exceptions for rape, incest and medical emergencies.

And, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, many White House hopefuls on the GOP side have had to answer whether they support Congress establishing a federal ban on abortion, which some conservative voters and candidates have been demanding in recent months.

Burgum told USA TODAY he would not support such a move, however.

"It absolutely belongs to the states," he said. "What would fly in New York would never fly in North Dakota. Those are two very different things."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Doug Burgum: 5 things to know about the governor as he meets NH voters