Memorandum: Doug Burgum’s Assault On Americans' Outdoor Heritage Is A Midterm Liability For Republicans
To: Interested Parties
From: Save Our Parks
Date: Wednesday, October 28, 2026
Re: Doug Burgum is an anchor on Republicans in the West
Contact: Jayson O’Neill, Save Our Parks Spokesperson
Toxic Cabinet Secretary Doug Burgum
Western Republicans are fighting for their political lives this cycle. So it is a strange sight to see Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the face of the administration's most unpopular parks, public lands, and wildlife decisions, traveling the region to campaign for them. On Monday, he was in Montana, at Yellowstone International Airport, when Vice President JD Vance landed to stump for Montana Republicans in a tighter-than-expected race for Montana's toss-up Western Congressional District.
Burgum has also traveled to Arizona, Kansas, and Alaska to stump on behalf of embattled GOP candidates running against his unpopular decisions. His department runs Americans’ beloved National Parks, millions of acres of public lands, and oversees wildlife, yet one of Trump’s most unpopular cabinet secretaries, Burgum, and his actions hardly show up in local press coverage. It is easy to see why Republicans kept him in the background, but voters should know about Burgum’s disastrous record and that every one of these Republican candidates continue to stand by him as he undermines our outdoor heritage.
Earlier this month in Alaska, Burgum tagged along with President Trump in Wasilla. He then pitched AI data centers to a Fairbanks chamber crowd in a borough that had already asked the state legislature for a data center moratorium. His pitch also contradicted his own agency's findings that Alaska is a poor fit for data centers. In Arizona, Burgum told viewers that data centers used no water while at the same time criticizing Arizona’s governor for defending the state’s water resources. Similarly, he pushed the administration’s fast-tracked mining efforts in Montana, where a proposed mine, Sheep Creek, is deeply unpopular. His untruthful pitches not only highlighted this administration’s desperation, they were not credible to voters.
That is the Burgum problem in one picture: he is all hat and no cattle, with no credibility. Burgum only serves as a reminder to voters of his and the Trump administration's corruption and unfulfilled promises. His fail-by-design record regarding America's parks, public lands, and wildlife is an electoral liability for the administration and candidates. It weighs heaviest in the West, where these key issues are known as the fourth rail of politics.
Burgum Owns The Trump Administration's Most Unpopular Decisions That Western Voters Hate:
DOGE-ing the parks. The Park Service lost 24% of its permanent staff and filled just 56% of seasonal jobs, telling park visitors to be ‘self-reliant’ as more and more Americans venture into our parks and face higher extreme weather risks.
Censorship. Burgum's secretarial order launched a sweeping censorship campaign, including the removal of park signs and exhibits this administration didn’t like on slavery, civil rights, Indigenous history and climate science, until a federal court ordered the material restored.
Raiding park funds for Trump's D.C. vanity projects. An Atlantic investigation found $854 million pulled from parks outside D.C., defunding 900+ projects like roofs and guardrails. Burgum’s Interior also blocked 130+ already-funded park projects worth $25 million after installing a right-wing operative as grants chief.
Mismanagement. At $14.7 million spent, the Reflecting Pool’s no-bid contract repaint turned green with algae within days (details), and his Freedom 250 celebration became a case study in waste and pay-for-access sponsorships (details).
Corruption and conflicts. Burgum owns a $22 million condo and a stake in Montana's billionaires conclave, the Yellowstone Club, a member-only resort notorious for locking up public land through controversial land swaps. His Interior spent a year quietly negotiating to hand a strip of Yosemite to a private developer.
Energy dominance flop. As chair of Trump's National Energy Dominance Council, Burgum promised cheaper energy. Instead, gas averages $4.29, up from $3.06 a year ago, and diesel has hit $6.35.
Data Center Doug. BLM is weighing at least 35 data center-related applications on 24,000+ acres across six Western states, after Burgum held a dozen private meetings with data center investors. Westerns are outraged that our public lands would be sacrificed to feed the AI machine.
Monument rollbacks. Trump and Burgum moved again to illegally gut Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante.
Parks, Public Lands, and Wildlife Are Popular, Burgum's Priorities Are Not:
The Park Service is America's favorite agency. Pew's newest survey, fielded just weeks ago, puts the National Park Service at 73% favorable and 9% unfavorable, the best of 12 agencies tested. It holds a net +68 among Republicans and +64 among Democrats, yet Burgum has completely undermined the National Park Service, which is negatively impacting rural communities.
Public lands move Western voters. 86% of Mountain West voters say public lands, waters and wildlife issues motivate their support for an elected official, and up to 85% of Montanans want public lands to stay public.
Burgum's priorities are losers. Western voters favor protecting public lands over maximizing drilling and mining by more than 3-to-1, and over 70% oppose giveaways to oil, gas and mining companies.
Data centers are toxic. More than 90% of likely Wyoming voters say data centers are not an acceptable use of public lands, and Pew found the share of Americans calling data centers mostly bad for the environment jumped from 39% to 54% this year.
Sell-offs and transfers are nonstarters. 71% of Americans oppose selling public lands yet Burgum claims defenders of public lands are ‘financially illiterate.’ Meanwhile, a whopping 84% of Montanans now support banning the sale or transfer of public lands.
Burgum’s Actions Cause Republican Headwinds:
The tell is on the Republican side. Republican candidates are attempting to run counter to Burgum and the Trump administration’s assault on our parks, public lands, and wildlife, claiming they’ll keep public lands in public hands. A slogan that means little in the face of the destruction, rollbacks, and attacks on Americans outdoor heritage and birthright. That empty slogan, so often repeated by the very politicians attacking our public lands, is running headlong into a reality that Republicans can no longer run from: They back Burgum’s actions, and support transferring and privatizing parks, wildlife, and public lands.
Sure, they are carefully avoiding Burgum’s toxicity and are not defending an administration and embattled Interior Secretary who is selling them, staffing them down, and leasing them to data centers, but behind closed doors, they are no doubt high-fiving and backslapping Burgum for doing their special interest donors’ bidding. Former Montana Sen. Jon Tester put the contrast plainly: you are not a public lands champion if you refuse to fund the people who manage them.
Burgum Touched The Fourth Rail:
In the West, public lands, parks and wildlife are what many call the fourth rail of politics: touch them and you get burned. On Nov. 3, the outcome of the closest Western races will be a verdict on Burgum's fail-by-design agenda, because his record of failure is part of the thing every competitive candidate in the region is either running against or running away from.
Whatever the results, Burgum's job is on the line. If Democrats win the House, he faces subpoenas over a whole host of corruption and failures, including Freedom 250, the park fee raids, censorship, transparency, no-bid contracts, and his data center giveaways. If Republicans lose Western seats he campaigned for, he becomes the obvious scapegoat for a president who already has reason to wonder whether his Interior Secretary is up to the job. Either way, the man Republicans keep off the speaker list is objectively failing on an issue the voters care about and will remember when they cast their ballots.
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