South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem (Republican) has been a staunch supporter of former President Trump for many years, and her loyalty has made her popular in MAGA circles.
Noem, who has served as governor for a second term since 2018, has not shyly promoted the former president when in contact with him and made her support for him as president, most notably when the two spent the Fourth of July together at Mount Rushmore during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Noem, 51, has been a staunch supporter of Trump since he became the Republican nominee in 2016, first backing Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) before switching to Trump. She was an early supporter of the former president in the 2024 presidential race, endorsing his candidacy in August.
And President Trump endorsed Noem’s first gubernatorial bid, making her the first female governor of South Dakota, after previously serving eight years in the House of Representatives.
Trump singled out Noem by name when announcing his slate of potential running mates at a February event in South Carolina, saying she had “fought a great fight for me.”
But her chances of becoming Trump’s running mate appear to have dwindled after she revealed in a forthcoming book that she shot her dog after a hunting trip. The Guardian, which obtained the book, first reported the allegations. Since then, she has been mocked and criticized for killing the dog and for going public about an incident that happened nearly two decades ago.
“If I were a better politician, I wouldn’t be here telling this story,” Noem writes in the book.
The governor said her willingness to share the story should be seen as a sign of her honesty and willingness to make difficult choices, but as the tough interviews continued, it became clear that the story wasn’t being received that way.
Trump in May Reportedly He spoke out about the scandal at a private fundraiser and said he was very curious about the dog.
Gaining national attention
Noem has made frequent appearances on Newsmax and Fox News to criticize the current administration and speak out on conservative issues.
At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) earlier this year, she touted her record and railed against Washington.D.C..
“No one looks to Washington for solutions. Nothing meaningful gets accomplished here. It’s the governors who have had to show leadership. I’ve seen governors make bad decisions that have devastated their states, and I’ve seen governors who have done the right thing,” Noem said.
In a CPAC poll of potential vice presidential candidates for Trump, she tied with entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy for the top spot.
Noem attended a rally with Trump in Ohio in March, wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat as the former president praised her.
“We have a fascinating and extraordinary woman in politics, and she’s doing a great job in the state of South Dakota, Governor Kristi Noem,” Trump said of her.
Noem took the stage and said she was “on the defensive” when President Biden was sworn in. “All I can do now is fight to protect the freedoms of my people,” she said.
Trump then added: “You know I’m not allowed to say she’s beautiful, so I’m not going to say that. I’m not going to say that. Because if I said that, your political career is over. So I’m not going to say that.”
Conservative flag bearer
As governor, she has championed conservative issues. She pushed measures targeting the LGBTQ community, banned surgical and non-surgical gender reassignment treatments for minors, and signed bills restricting transgender athletes. She supported legislation that would restrict abortion to only save the life of the mother, with no exceptions for rape or incest. She personally does not support making exceptions for rape or incest, stating that “one tragedy should not perpetuate another tragedy.”
She was among the Republican state leaders, along with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who resisted COVID-19 orders, and her resistance catapulted her further onto the national stage.
She banned state employees and contractors from accessing TikTok in 2022. Noem said she would send National Guard troops from the state to the southern border, which she called a “battle zone.” In February, she deployed 60 South Dakota National Guard troops to Texas over a “three-month rolling” period.
Lisa Hager, a political science professor at South Dakota State University, said Noem “want to have a dialogue about some of the issues that are happening at the national level,” signaling she has lofty aspirations.
“If she’s not involved in those things, it seems like she’s going to be more focused on South Dakota. I don’t know what her future plans are, politically speaking, but it certainly seems like she has her eye on something in the future,” Hager said.
Provocative statements
She has been at odds with the Biden administration, saying in April she would take the president “to court” over federal Title IX changes regarding transgender students.
Her latest spat with Biden stems from her alleged dog-killing. She argued that Biden’s German shepherd, Commander, who bit Secret Service agents at least 24 times between October 2022 and June 2023, should suffer a similar fate. she cricket.
The White House responded by saying her comments were offensive and she “should stop painting herself into a corner.”
But her outspoken views have sparked backlash in the state.
Noem has been banned from all tribal territories in South Dakota after the state’s nine Native American tribes voted to ban her from their territories, outraged by comments she made suggesting tribal leaders benefited from Mexican drug cartels and denounced her.
Noem’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the profile.
The return of Norm?
Hager said while the dog’s story and a passage in Noem’s book describing her meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have garnered national attention, the governor has been able to bounce back from criticism in the past.
“In South Dakota, she often faces some controversy or criticism,” she said, “and she’s always bounced back from those things, so I don’t think this will necessarily have a negative long-term impact on her.”
The governor himself had been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate, but in August, before Trump took a commanding lead in the Republican primary, he said no one could beat the former president in a nomination race.
While she said at the time that she won every statewide election, she praised Trump, saying he’d done great things for South Dakota as president and “got me to work.” She added that Trump is an “inspirational” person and “people always come in to hear something interesting.”
Noem rallied with Trump in South Dakota in September and called him a “leader” and a “warrior,” adding that she would do everything in her power to help Trump win the White House in 2024.
Trump said at the time he was honored to have her endorsement and called her “one of the most successful governors in the nation.”
Noem also said she would be Trump’s running mate “quickly.”
“If Trump wants to take back the White House, he’s going to need a strong partner,” Noem said during a Newsmax appearance in September. “And he’s going to need someone who knows what it’s like to run a business and to work as an employee and to earn a paycheck. But it’s also not bad to have a wife, a mother, a grandmother.”
