Kristi Noem looks to bounce back onto Trump’s VP shortlist

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem (R) is a big and bold longtime supporter of former President Trump, and that loyalty has made her a darling of the MAGA world.

Noem, a second-term governor who has served since 2018, is not shy about disclosing when she is in contact with the former president and has made her support for him as president clear. Especially notable is when the two spent the Fourth of July holiday together at Mount Rushmore at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Noem, 51, has been a strong ally of Trump since he became the Republican Party’s nominee in 2016, first supporting the candidacy of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) but later turning to Trump. For his candidacy in 2024, she was one of the first to support the former president, supporting his candidacy in August.

And Trump endorsed Noem’s first run for governor, making her the first female governor of South Dakota. She previously served as a member of Congress for eight years.

When Trump confirmed a list of names put forward as potential vice presidential candidates during a February event in South Carolina, he listed Noem and said she “has been fighting incredibly hard” for him.

But her chances of becoming Trump’s running mate appear to have been hurt, as she revealed in her upcoming book that she shot her dog after a hunting trip. The Guardian, which obtained a copy of the book, was the first to report the story. Since then, she has been ridiculed and criticized for killing the dog and for sharing the nearly 20-year-old story.

“I think if I were a better politician I wouldn’t tell the story here,” Noem wrote in the book.

The governor said her willingness to share her story should be seen as a sign of her authenticity and willingness to make difficult choices. But interview after difficult interview indicated that the story was not being received that way.

Trump in May supposedly heavy about the scandal at a private fundraiser, saying he was very curious about the dog.

In the national spotlight

Noem frequently appears on Newsmax and Fox News to criticize the current administration and promote conservative issues.

At the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) earlier this year, she praised her performance and criticized Washington.

“No one turns to DC looking for solutions. Nothing significant is accomplished here. It was the governors who had to lead, and I saw governors make bad decisions and devastate their states, and I saw governors who did the right thing,” Noem said.

In a CPAC poll on Trump’s vice presidential pick, she tied with businessman Vivek Ramaswamy for first choice.

Noem met with Trump in Ohio in March, wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat with the former president, who praised her.

“We have a very special woman who is attractive as a politician. She’s doing an incredible job in South Dakota. She’s the governor, Kristi Noem,” Trump said of her.

When Noem took the stage, she said she was “in defense” as President Biden took office. “All I do now is fight to protect the freedom of my people,” she said.

Trump later added: “You know you’re not allowed to say she’s beautiful, so I’m not going to say that. I won’t say that, because… if you make that statement, it will be the end of your politics – so I won’t say that.”

Conservative standard-bearer

As governor, she championed conservative issues. She has pushed for measures aimed at the LGBTQ community, signing legislation to ban gender-affirming surgical and non-surgical care for minors and to restrict transgender athletes. She supported a law to restrict abortion that does not include exceptions for rape and incest and only to save the life of the mother. She said she personally does not support exceptions for rape or incest and that she does not “believe that one tragedy should perpetuate another tragedy.”

She was among the red state leaders who resisted COVID-19 mandates, alongside governors like Ron DeSantis (R) of Florida. Her resistance propelled her further onto the national stage.

She banned government employees and contractors from accessing TikTok in 2022. Noem said she would send troops from her state’s National Guard to the southern border, which she called a “war zone.” In February, it deployed 60 South Dakota National Guard personnel to Texas on a continuous basis “over a three-month period.”

Lisa Hager, a political science professor at South Dakota State University, noted that Noem “wants to start a conversation about some of the issues that are happening” on a national level, signaling that she has higher aspirations.

“If she stayed out of those things, then it seems like she’s more focused on South Dakota. And I don’t know what her future plans are, politically speaking. But it definitely seems like she has her eye on something in the future,” Hager said.

Provocative statements

She has provoked fights with the Biden administration, including in April when she said she would see the president “in court” over federal Title IX changes regarding transgender students.

His most recent spat with Biden stemmed from his story about killing his dog. She suggested that Biden’s commanding German shepherd, who bit Secret Service officials at least two dozen times between October 2022 and June 2023, should have suffered a similar fate to hers. Cricket.

The White House, in response, said her comments were disturbing and that she should “stop digging herself into a hole.”

But his outspokenness met with resistance within his own state.

Noem was banned from all tribal lands in South Dakota, as the state’s nine Indian tribes voted to exclude her from their territories. The tribes reported her after being offended by her comments suggesting that tribal leaders were profiting from Mexican drug cartels.

Noem’s office did not respond to a request for comment for this profile.

A Noem return?

Hager said that although the dog story has drawn national attention, as well as Noem’s passage in her book falsely describing a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the governor has managed to recover from criticism in the past.

“I will say in the state of South Dakota, a lot of times it’s dealing with some kind of controversy or sometimes just criticism,” she said. “She was always able to bounce back from those things. So I don’t think what happened will necessarily hurt her in the long run.”

The governor was considered a possible candidate for president. But she said in August, before Trump took over as the front-runner in the Republican primaries, that no one could beat the former president for the nomination.

She noted at the time that she won all of her state races, but also praised Trump, saying he did great things for South Dakota as president and “he let me do my job.” She added that she found Trump “inspirational” and that “people always show up to hear something interesting.”

Noem met with Trump in South Dakota in September and called the former president a “leader” and a “fighter,” adding that she will do everything she can to help him win the White House in 2024.

Trump, at the time, said he was honored to receive her support and called her “one of the most successful governors in the entire country.”

Noem also said she would be Trump’s running mate “in a heartbeat.”

“Trump needs a strong partner if he wants to take back the White House,” Noem said during an appearance on Newsmax in September. “And he’s going to need someone who knows what it’s like to run a business, be an employee, earn a salary, but also having a wife, mother and grandmother isn’t bad either.”