Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) started to secure support in the Senate on Tuesday in her bid to become the next secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, with many speculating she will easily move through the confirmation process.
Noem was escorted around the Senate office buildings by Hogan Gidley, who served as White House Deputy press secretary from 2019 to 2020 in President-elect Donald Trump’s first administration. She met with Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Roger Marshall (R-KS).
The South Dakota governor, who was once the sole representative in Congress for the state, walked with Cramer to her meeting with Hawley, reminiscing on their time serving together in the House.
.@SenKevinCramer is escorting @KristiNoem to her next meeting on Capitol Hill to gain support as the next Sec of DHS — the two served together in the House: “We’ve always stayed in touch and kept talking all the time.
We’re neighbors — he’s protecting us from Canada,” Noem said. pic.twitter.com/beVagQ2vUg— Samantha-Jo Roth (@SamanthaJoRoth) December 10, 2024
“We’ve always stayed in touch and kept talking all the time. We’re neighbors — he’s protecting us from Canada,” Noem said with a laugh before ducking into an elevator.
Trump announced his plans to nominate Noem as DHS secretary on Nov. 12, exactly one week after the election.
“Kristi has been very strong on Border Security. She was the first Governor to send National Guard Soldiers to help Texas fight the Biden Border Crisis, and they were sent a total of eight times,” Trump said in a statement at the time. “She will work closely with ‘Border Czar’ Tom Homan to secure the Border, and will guarantee that our American Homeland is secure from our adversaries.”
Trump previously announced immigration hawks Stephen Miller and Tom Homan for key roles in the White House to carry out the deportation of illegal immigrants and lead border policy. Miller will be Trump’s deputy chief of policy, and Homan will serve in a new position as border czar. Unlike Noem, Miller and Homan will not need to be confirmed by the Senate.
There’s an understanding that Noem, who has limited experience with immigration policy, would defer that portion of her workload to the White House, according to several Senate sources familiar.
“I think most of us believe the that immigration part of DHS will be tackled by Miller and Homan, and Noem will oversee TSA, FEMA, Secret Service, and cybersecurity,” said a Senate aide speaking on the condition of anonymity. “She’s well liked by Republican senators, many of them have served with her, so I expect her to sail through the process.”
If confirmed by the Senate, Noem would oversee the DHS, a 245,000-employee federal department whose mission is protecting the people of the United States. For context, the largest city in South Dakota is Sioux Falls, with 213,000 residents. South Dakota has a population of more than 800,000 residents.
As governor of South Dakota, Noem has put an emphasis on cybersecurity in an effort to bolster the industry there. She was one of the first governors to ban TikTok from state devices in 2022.
“The Chinese Communist Party uses information that it gathers on TikTok to manipulate the American people, and they gather data off the devices that access the platform,” she said at the time when she issued the ban.
Some Senate Republicans have questions about whether Noem is prepared to oversee a department with so many agencies, such as FEMA and the Secret Service, which has been in the headlines after two assassination attempts targeting the president-elect.
The South Dakota governor may also face questions after revealing in her memoir that she shot and killed her 14-month-old puppy named Cricket, later saying it was a danger to her family and called it a regrettable but necessary part of country life.
“I think the senators will certainly have some questions for her. Leading DHS is really a big job,” the same aide said. “Although I think senators know she has a significant amount of government experience and is a hard worker, so she’ll find her footing.”
Noem, 53, is not from a border state, and her background is that of a state and U.S. lawmaker. However, she has visited the Texas border several times during the Biden administration, and she has been an ardent supporter of Trump for years.
Under Noem’s leadership, South Dakota also directed its own National Guard troops to deploy to Texas to assist Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) in Operation Lone Star to secure the border amid record-high illegal immigration.
In 2021, Noem sent roughly four dozen South Dakota National Guard troops to the Texas border thanks to a contribution from Republican megadonors Willis Johnson and Reba Johnson, who made billions of dollars through Copart, an automotive salvage and auction company.
That same year, as more unaccompanied immigrant children began crossing the southern border, Noem joined other Republican governors who refused to resettle the children in their state.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“South Dakota won’t be taking any illegal immigrants that the Biden Administration wants to relocate,” Noem said in a social media post.
Noem supported Trump’s 2017 executive order that suspended the refugee program from seven countries in the Middle East, otherwise known as the “Muslim ban.” At the time, Noem said she supported a temporary ban on admitting refugees coming from “terrorist-held” areas.
