Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) heartily endorsed former President Donald Trump on Friday night, saying the other candidates snubbed her state, in what sounded like an audition to be his running mate.
Noem made an impassioned case for South Dakota as the real model for conservative governance nationwide, “the strongest state in America,” beginning with her refusal to lock down during the pandemic.
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Trump and Noem appeared together at the South Dakota GOP Monumental Leaders Rally in Rapid City.
“He has my full and complete endorsement for President of the United States of America,” Noem said. “I will do everything in my power to help him win to save this great country.”
“Many are threatened by what South Dakota has done the last several years,” Noem said. “Here is why — while big government socialists want more control over you and your family, your money, and your life, we chose personal responsibility. We cut taxes, cut regulations, let families make the best decisions for themselves — and we have thrived.”
Noem rattled off statistics about the results.
“We have gone from flyover country to one of the fastest-growing states in the nation,” she said. “South Dakota’s real GDP just grew a whopping 10.1%. Our personal incomes just went up by another 9.2%. Those are both top-5 in the nation.”
While the overt target of Noem’s remarks was President Joe Biden, the line of argument is also useful to Trump in his battle with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) for the nomination.
“We have broken tourism records every year since the pandemic,” Noem said. “We have grown our economy faster than any other state — and faster than at any time in South Dakota’s history.”
DeSantis has presented Florida as the model for Republicans to follow and positioned himself to the right of Trump on the pandemic response, pointing to the former president’s role in elevating Anthony Fauci and like-minded people.
Noem said she might not have been able to avoid lockdowns if Biden was in office.
“Thank God President Trump was in the White House at the time,” she said. “He let me do my job.”
Noem went back and forth between praising her own record and Trump’s, suggesting that the other candidates didn’t have the same willingness to fight. She described them as “cowering” during COVID.
“To him, every American is worth fighting for. No one is better than anyone else,” she said of Trump. “No one deserves to be treated differently than anyone else.”
“And he will never forget about us, the little people in the little states that are the backbone of this country,” she added. “He shows up for every American and fights for us every day.”
The South Dakota governor said Trump cared about “little people in little states.”
“Other candidates were asked, and all of them told us they had better things to do,” Noem said. “But when President Trump was invited to come be with you tonight, he said, ‘I will be there.’”
Noem invoked Theodore Roosevelt calling Trump “the man in the arena” as people waved Trump 2024, a few Trump-Noem, placards behind her.
“He’s unapologetically himself, he’s real, he’s genuine, he is who he is, and he never pretends to be something he’s not,” she said. “And those who hate America know he will fight every day to stop them from destroying this country.”
Trump’s running mate in the last two elections was former Vice President Mike Pence. In 2016, Pence was governor of Indiana and a former member of the House GOP leadership team. He helped Trump win over social conservatives.
Trump praised South Dakotans as God-fearing patriots as he began his own speech.
The former president lit into Biden as an “economic arsonist” responsible for an “inferno” of inflation, taxes, and debt, predicting “a Great Depression.”
“The only question is whether it’s going to happen in the remaining months of the Biden administration — if it’s going to happen, let it be during Joe and we’ll come in and we’ll straighten this suck out,” Trump said.
Trump criticized Biden for everything from “Bidenomics” and the Afghanistan withdrawal to the president’s golf swing and appearance on the beach.
He repeated his claims that the 2020 election was “rigged and stolen” while ripping the multiple indictments against him as “election interference.”
“We’re not going to allow them to rig the election of 2024,” he said. “We won’t have a country.”
He added, “I’m being indicted for you.”
Trump mused about the possibility of Republican presidents doing the same to Democrats in the future.
“With the internet, I feel I can totally speak my mind, and my mind is the same as your mind,” he told the crowd.
Trump also spoke at length about securing money for farmers “straight out of the tariffs I took in from China,” touting the benefits for South Dakota and the first-in-the-nation caucus state of Iowa. He said DeSantis “strongly opposed my protection for farmers … Any farmers in here got big checks?”
There was a smattering of boos when Trump mentioned DeSantis and former House Speaker Paul Ryan, speaking at a podium adorned with the South Dakota Republican Party seal.
Noem introduced Trump as the 45th and soon-to-be 47th president of the United States.
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“Kristi is a warrior,” Trump said, calling her endorsement a “great honor.”
“Hers means a lot,” he said.
