Kristi Noem Does D.C.

Plus: MAGA voters test the Haley waters in South Carolina.

By , and
49
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks at the Calvin Coolidge Foundation conference at the Library of Congress on February 17. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Happy Monday! Incumbency has lots of advantages in politics, but there’s the occasional drawback too. For instance, when you’re the president of the United States, sometimes you have to endure a round of bad press over not shooting down a Chinese spy balloon quickly enough—and then another round of bad press when tightening up your anti-balloon defenses leads to firing $400,000 Sidewinder missiles at $12 hobbyist balloons by mistake. 

Up to Speed

  • South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott kicked off his soft-launch listening tour ahead of a possible presidential campaign last week with a Thursday speech at the Charleston County GOP’s Black History Month gala. This week Scott will head to Iowa for a Wednesday afternoon event at Drake University in Des Moines.
  • Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan told NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday that he’ll make a decision about whether to run for president “sometime this spring.”
  • Former President Donald Trump and his allies are ramping up their war against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is trying to stay out of the fight until after the end of his state’s spring legislative session. While Trump continued his erratic barrage of scattershot attacks on DeSantis his social media platform Truth Social, some of his allies started pushing a novel falsehood: that DeSantis had been “endorsed” for president by billionaire donor and bogeyman of the right George Soros. In a speech last week, Soros called Trump a “pitiful figure” and said the “shrewd, ruthless, and ambitious” governor of Florida was “likely to be the Republican candidate.” Trump allies like former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake were quick to highlight and inflate the backhanded compliment: “The kiss of death,” Lake tweeted. 
  • T.J. Shope, Arizona Senate president pro tempore, is considering a U.S. Senate run next year. He announced as much on Twitter Sunday night in response to a Washington Post piece saying Kari Lake had “frozen the field” as she mulls a bid. “Hasn’t frozen me,” he wrote. “We need somebody who can actually win in November and that’s why I’m seriously considering this US Senate seat!” Shope has positioned himself as a pro-Trump conservative during his time in office, but one with a particular small-government streak: In 2021 he sided with state Democrats to kill a bill that would have shut down businesses that refused to serve those who were unvaccinated against COVID-19 on the grounds that “I believe in private property rights.”

Kristi Noem’s D.C. Trial Run

South Dakota isn’t known as a major incubator of presidential talent. The last major-party nominee to hail from the state, Sen. George McGovern, was crushed in a 49-state rout a half-century ago by incumbent President Richard Nixon. But it looks like Gov. Kristi Noem thinks the time is ripe to reset the clock.

Like most of the rest of the likely GOP contenders, Noem has been coy for months about whether she intends to seek the top job: “I’m not convinced I need to run for president,” she told CBS last month, and declined to elaborate to The Dispatch last week: “We’ll keep watching it.” But she’s recently made a series of moves to raise her national profile ahead of next year’s primaries: running nationwide ads designed to trumpet her conservative credentials, making trips to neighboring Iowa, and, last week, giving speeches at three right-leaning institutions in Washington.

Outside of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, no Republican politician saw his or her star rise faster during the COVID-19 pandemic than Noem, who staked out a laissez-faire, pro-freedom approach to pandemic management early: She boasts that South Dakota was the only state in the country to never shut down a business. As other Republicans caught up in the summer of 2020, Noem became something of a folk hero, a reputation she burnished through regular appearances in conservative-friendly media like Fox News. A 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference presidential straw poll—one that excluded former president Donald Trump from the running—found her second only to DeSantis among the conference’s attendees.

Keep reading with a free account
Create a free Dispatch account to keep reading Get Started ALREADY HAVE AN ACCOUNT? SIGN IN
49
By , and
Comments (49)
Join The Dispatch to participate in the comments.
 
  1. Avatar photo
    Gibby

    QOD: I am working

    Collapse
  2. Avatar photo
    Kyler

    Like some other comments have noted, Noem's attempt to come across as a MAGA type is going to fail, and fail badly. A cursory glance at her record shows she is a John Thune Republican. In the before times, she would have gladly accepted that label. And I certainly don't mean it as an insult. If John Thune were to run, he'd be the tallest, best looking, and smartest Republican on the stage by far.

    Noem's candidacy might be a long-short. But if she comes up with a better message, she might actually have some appeal to a contingent of Trump's former base and the traditionally conservative base. She is, after all, the only governor in the nation who really can honestly claim not to have shut down businesses during COVID. And I don't think you'll find very many people in the small towns of South Dakota, where I'm originally from, or other small towns across the country which now form the Republican base, in which very many people are genuinely in favor of forcing students to sign a government form saying they are of a certain gender or the general expansion of torts and litigiousness. Noem won that battle is South Dakota because most South Dakotans agreed with her and not the silly-ass Republicans in the state who made an issue of her reluctance to sign a dumb bill, and who, by the way, did so only to increase their own name recognition in the state. Everyone in the state saw through their pathetic stunt. Everyone in America will if she runs.

    Her real problem is that when she is trying to appeal to the right-wing of her party, she comes across as a dotard and an air-head. Like, for example, when she glued together a model adding Trump's face to Mt. Rushmore. Or most of the campaign ads she has ever aired. All that will make her seem like an inauthentic candidate. And the reason for that is because she is inauthentic. The gal is an establishment Republican. No matter how she spins it, she is going to have a hard time hiding it.

    Collapse
  3. DTruitt

    Fantastic opening para:

    "Happy Monday! Incumbency has lots of advantages in politics, but there’s the occasional drawback too. For instance, when you’re the president of the United States, sometimes you have to endure a round of bad press over not shooting down a Chinese spy balloon quickly enough—and then another round of bad press when tightening up your anti-balloon defenses leads to firing $400,000 Sidewinder missiles at $12 hobbyist balloons by mistake. "

    And of course the Dem trolls here will be entering orbit in their denunciation of your acknowledgment of actual facts as perceived by the American people.

    Collapse
    1. Hikingguy

      I'm a Democrat and I thought it was funny and a fair enough shot. You see, people who are not fanatics do not mind if somebody on their team gets little red ass once in awhile. It's part of the game. People who are fanatics refer to "Dem trolls" and believe they know more about Dems than Dems do about Dems. Continue. I find you amusing. Even when you hack me off, you're so true to type it cracks me up. So I end up laughing at you.

      Collapse
      1. DTruitt

        No - normal people refer to Dem trolls, because Dem trolls occupy much of the comment threads here at The Dispatch.

        Collapse
    2. Avatar photo
      Magpie

      You might be in for a disappointing day, DTruitt. You're the only troll here so far.

      Collapse
      1. DTruitt

        Not a troll - just a normal person who has no qualms calling out Dem trolls who dominate the comment threads here at The Dispatch. My day is fine ...

        Collapse
  4. Russell J

    Once Noem enters the race she can clear up her relationship with Corey Lewandowski and what happened at the Benihana. Who the candidate chooses to associate with is more important than Covid policy or woke culture battles.

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Joe Delanis

      As far as the unsubstantiated rumor that Noem is having an affair with Lewandowski, I read the American "Greatness" article publishing as much. And it made me a hell of a lot more sympathetic to DeSantis' effort to have anonymous sources treated as false-until-proven-otherwise under libel law.

      Collapse
      1. Russell J

        Fair game for the press to ask questions. I would say any friend of Corey Lewandowski should be suspect, especially anyone who likely observed him groping a Republican donor. I don’t think the victim is anonymous.

        Collapse
        1. Avatar photo
          Joe Delanis

          I'm referring to the American "Greatness" article in which one or multiple anonymous sources allege Noem was having an affair with Lewandowski.

          Unless and until somebody(ies) is (are) willing to go *on the record* about that, I must conclude those "sources" who anonymously peddled that gossip like corner boys dishing out bindles of heroin on the dealer's behalf are [redacted] lying.

          Collapse
  5. Avatar photo
    Aylene Wright

    Ummmm...

    Maybe I am showing my age here, but .... "Noem does DC"? Really?

    Sorry, I find that a headline about a female politician that references a porn flick, to be gross and borderline misogynistic, and certainly NOT what I consider acceptable for a serious political newsletter.

    Yes, there are age-old jokes comparing politicians to ladies of the night. But they're old and lame.

    Whoever wrote it, you're not being cute or funny. Please repent.

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

      Thanks for reminding me of that. I glanced at the headline and didn't see the porn reference at first, but now I do.

      TheDispatch needs to edit the headline, now.

      Collapse
      1. Avatar photo
        Aylene Wright

        Considering the relative youth of many TD writers, it's certainly possible whoever wrote the headline wasn't aware of the porn reference, but that headline, especially with the picture of Noem that makes her look quite young, still comes across as subtly insinuating that a large part of her political brand is built on just superficial sex appeal. That may be on-brand for Toilet Paper USA or whatever, but not for a political newsletter marketed as built on solid reporting, not catty gossip mongering.


        PS:
        Maybe I am being uncharitable by assuming bad intent. But for the record, I just find this kind of approach gross no matter who the target is. I hated the slut shaming of Hope Hicks, as well. Plenty to criticize her on without going there. It gives the impression that any arguably attractive female in politics, has to put up with this kind of juvenile treatment from the Boys Club as the price of admission. I mean, there was no "Daniels does DC" headline when Mitch Daniels visited DC while contemplating a Senate bid.

        Collapse
        1. Avatar photo
          Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

          I didn't mind the head shot, I didn't see in it sex appeal. I don't think of Noem or Haley in terms of sex appeal, but they are in general not ugly. Psychologically, more attractive people tend to outperform others, all else equal. So a picture that accentuates a person's attractiveness (w/o getting into sex appeal) is fine with me, male or female.

          As for looking young, lol, she looks middle aged to me (ditto for Nikki). It's only in comparison to Biden-Trump that either looks "young". And I don't mean middle aged as an insult, but rather I think of young as a 20 something or early 30s something. Tom Brady is messing me up, but in general, if you retire from a sport you're no longer young!

          Collapse
    2. DTruitt

      Bill Burr would love to have words with you :-)

      Collapse
  6. Deleted Comment

    This comment has been deleted

  7. Kennedypiano

    The Notable And Quotable' quote of Niki Haley is fabulous, I wish more would do that. The more I hear from Haley, the more I like her - though I'm not yet ready to support anyone for the GOP nomination.

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

      I like Nikki, and she's my favorite...for now. But Ohio primaries are late, so IDK still be standing then when it is time for me to vote.

      I am listening to all the names, to get a sense of them. Several seem good, and if any of them win the nomination they'll get my support.

      Collapse
      1. Kennedypiano

        Maybe the Ohio primary being later will make it a difference maker. I'm curious - does your 'any of them' include Trump? These days everyone seems to be a 'never Trumper', or 'only Trumper'.

        Collapse
        1. Avatar photo
          Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

          I won't vote for Trump in the primary. I also do not think he'll win the nomination. In the general, it depends on who is the Dem nominee.

          My nightmare is a Biden-Trump rematch, or "two geezers to be Caesers"

          Collapse
          1. Kennedypiano

            Thanks. I agree with you.

            Collapse
  8. Avatar photo
    Bill Dyer (aka Beldar)

    My father and his father ran a retail appliance store in a small west Texas town for many decades. Each year about this time, my grandfather, and in his turn my father, held a special sale on our Maytag and Frigidaire products, especially washer & dryer combinations, which was advertised in the local paper and on the local radio station as "George Birthington's Washday Sale." I cannot tell a lie: it was a pretty good promotion.

    Collapse
  9. Andrew M

    I may have missed it, but can someone please clarify there been any information from DeSantis that he intends to run for president?

    The impression I get is that the media talks about him like he's a candidate because the media talks about him. The first polls that even mentioned DeSantis came after he started fighting with Disney and the Florida school boards, but even at that time the polling question was basically, "do you know who this person is?" Other polls basically ask, "In a hypothetical head-to-head competition, who would have a chance to beat Trump in a Republican presidential primary?"

    Unless there's corroborating information - he's hiring staff, buying a domain name, going on "listening tours" around the country, etc., I have trouble believing what's being said now is anything more than analysis of a potential future course of action. If that's the case then it needs to be stated as such.

    Collapse
    1. DTruitt

      Gov. DeSantis stated today that he has plenty on his plate with his new book rollout and the upcoming 2-month legislative session which is likely to produce a number of policy victories for him. And then after that? He doesn't say.

      Most Republicans do not expect any announcements from DeSantis until after the legislative session and the flurry of bill reviews and signings or vetoes that always follows. Not likely to announce anything before June 1.

      For comparison purposes, Donald Trump announced his first primary candidacy on June 16, 2015.

      Far better to be proving how effective one is as a leader than spending gazillions of dollars and hours trying to talk people into believing it.

      Collapse
    2. VV

      My impression is that many of the fights he picks and the actions he takes that grab a lot of headlines are exactly the sorts of things a governor would do if he had his eye on a presidential run, so people are inferring from that that he’s positioning himself for exactly that and interpreting his recent behavior as campaigning in all but name.

      Collapse
    3. Avatar photo
      Aylene Wright

      Interestingly, RDS is attending some pro law enforcement events in Chicago and NYC this week.

      https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/desantis-to-attend-pro-law-enforcement-events-in-chicago-nyc/amp/

      Collapse
      1. Jaybrown

        His speech in NYC today (Staten Island, the only conservative/Trumpist bastion in the city) was to repeat old stuff about "Florida is where woke goes to die," and new stuff like "Is this Florida north or is Florida Staten Island south?" all just nonsense but red meat to the base.

        Collapse
  10. SR

    I’ll take her over Trump, but like Fredo she broke my heart.

    Collapse
Load More