FIRST ON FOX – North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is spotlighting his opposition to President Biden’s energy policy as he runs for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

"We should be selling energy to our allies instead of buying it from our enemies. But Joe Biden shut down our oil and gas production," Burgum charges in a new ad that was shared first with Fox News on Thursday.

And Burgum, a former software company CEO turned two-term governor of his native state, argues that "true energy independence will lower gas prices, unleash the economy, and strengthen national security. In North Dakota, we call that a no brainer."

Burgum’s campaign tells Fox News that it will spend over $1.2 million to run the spot on TV and digital starting Thursday statewide in Iowa and New Hampshire, which hold the first two contests in the GOP presidential nominating calendar.

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Energy, the economy, and national security are the three crucial issues Burgum is spotlighting as he wages a dark horse campaign for the White House.

"We’re running because we want to unleash the American economy and we want to improve every American life and the way we do that, of course, is to get our economy really rolling. To get our economy really rolling we’ve got to make sure we’ve got to make sure we’ve got an energy policy that’s 180 degrees different than the one we have under the Biden administration. When we fix energy policy, then we have an opportunity to really stabilize the world," Burgum argued in a Fox Digital interview as he launched his campaign.

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And he charged that Biden’s energy policy is "empowering dictators like Putin to invade Ukraine."

Since taking office in 2021, Biden and his administration have pursued an aggressive climate agenda to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and boost green energy alternatives.

President Joe Biden speaks at the Lucy Evans Baylands Nature Interpretive Center and Preserve in Palo Alto, Calif., Monday, June 19, 2023. Biden talked about climate change, clean energy jobs and protecting the environment. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (AP )

Burgum, pointing to U.S. relations with China, emphasized in a Fox Business interview last week that "we’ve got to get our energy game on because that’s actually the way to have power. We are a superpower in energy and whoever’s the superpower in energy is going to rule the world."

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And taking to twitter last weekend, the governor argued that "the Biden administration wants to separate energy from national security - but that’s just not how things work. The world will become a much safer place when America regains true energy independence."

While he’s anything but a household name outside of North Dakota, Burgum enters the 2024 presidential race as one of the wealthiest members of the Republican field, along with multi-millionaire entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former President Donald Trump, who’s the commanding front-runner in the latest Republican primary polls as he makes his third straight White House run.

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Asked how much of his own money he’ll invest in his 2024 campaign, Burgum wouldn’t give a dollar figure, but told Fox Digital earlier this month that "in every other venture that I’ve started, I’ve been willing to invest in myself and I wouldn’t ask donors to invest in this race if they didn’t know that I was investing in myself."

Burgum appears to be holding to that promise – as his campaign says the new ad buy brings their spending to run spots to over $4 million.

GOP 2024 contender blasts Biden on oil and gas production; says true energy independence a ‘no brainer’

First on Fox: North Dakota Gov. Burgum targets Biden’s energy policy; argues energy independence to ‘unleash the economy and strengthen national security’