Doug Burgum, Mike Pence and Vivek Ramaswamy up next in Exeter Town Hall forums

EXETER — New Hampshire voters looking to meet with Republican presidential candidates have three more opportunities Friday and Saturday, with North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former Vice President Mike Pence and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy all appearing at Exeter's historic Town Hall.

They are the final three candidates in a series of town hall forums presented by Seacoastonline and the USA TODAY Network. The events are free and open the public.

Burgum's town hall takes place on Friday at 10 a.m. Pence will meet with voters Friday at 3 p.m. Ramaswamy's forum takes place Saturday at 10 a.m. Doors open one hour before each event.

Voters will have the opportunity to directly ask questions of the candidates, and receive in-depth answers, in the same space where many former presidents, from Abraham Lincoln to Donald Trump, have campaigned.

The final three events follow Wednesday night's appearance by Nikki Haley, a former UN ambassador and South Carolina governor, and Asa Hutchinson, former congressman and governor of Arkansas.

Here's more information on each candidate appearing Friday and Saturday:

Doug Burgum on Friday, Oct. 13 at 10 a.m.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum will meet with voters on the morning of Friday, Oct. 13 at 10 a.m.

Elected governor in 2016 with little political experience, Burgum, 67, won his second term in a 40-point landslide in 2020.

On the campaign trail, Burgum talks about his small-town roots and values and the challenges his family faced when his father died when Burgum was a freshman in high school. Burgum mortgaged the family farm to start a software company he later sold to Microsoft in 2001 for $1.1 billion.

Mike Pence on Friday, Oct. 13 at 3 p.m.

On the campaign trail, former Vice President Mike Pence, 64, has acknowledged he’s “known well but not well known.” He’ll do his best to change that when he meets with voters on Friday, Oct. 13 at 3 p.m.

Before being elected the 48th vice president of the United States in 2016, Pence was a lawyer, a radio talk show host and a six-term conservative member of the U.S. House. In 2013, he became governor of Indiana.

When announcing his run for president, Pence stated: “I know we can bring this country back. We can defend our nation and secure our borders, we can revive our economy and put our nation back on a path to a balanced federal budget. We can defend our liberties and give America a new beginning for life.”

Vivek Ramaswamy on Saturday, Oct. 14 at 10 a.m.

Businessman and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy of Ohio will bring his campaign to Exeter Town Hall on Saturday, Oct. 14 at 10 a.m.

In his first run for political office, Ramaswamy has gained traction with Republican primary voters in Iowa, New Hampshire and across the nation. On the campaign trail Ramaswamy points to “10 Truths”: “God is real; there are two genders; human flourishing requires fossil fuels; reverse racism is racism; an open border is no border; parents determine the education of their children; the nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind; capitalism lifts people up from poverty; there are three branches of the U.S. government, not four; the U.S. Constitution is the strongest guarantor of freedoms in history.”

Ramaswamy graduated from Harvard with a degree in biology, and has a law degree from Yale. At 38 years old, Ramaswamy made his fortune starting the biotech company Roivant Sciences, which developed five therapies that gained FDA approval. After leaving Roivant, he launched the asset management firm Strive in 2022.

How do the Exeter Town Hall forums work?

The forums are free and open to the public on a first-come, first-serve basis. At the start of the forums, candidates make their brief opening remarks before proceeding to answer questions from the audience and engage in a meaningful dialogue about various issues.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Burgum, Pence and Ramaswamy to appear at Exeter NH Town Hall forums