MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich. — Kristi Noem is no stranger to the attacks that come with being a conservative woman in politics.
“They come after us 10 times harder than they go after anyone else,” she said in an interview Saturday during the Republican Leadership Conference here. “In our last election cycle, they targeted women Republicans 10 times more than they did the men.
“They recognized how dangerous it would be. They always felt they had the corner on the market in speaking for women, but we’re proving that’s not true.”
Noem is the first woman governor of South Dakota and a lifelong rancher who is as comfortable on a horse as she is meeting with business executives. The day before she arrived to speak on the island, she rode in her state’s annual buffalo roundup.
The left did everything it could to dismiss Noem in her foray into national politics a decade ago, when she ran for Congress — and won. The coastal elites attempted to paint her in the same vein as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who ran on the 2008 Republican presidential ticket with John McCain. Palin garnered a wealth of criticism for her folksy ways and freedom-loving views.
She also was from a state most Americans don’t know much about. Kind of like South Dakota.
“When I ran for Congress that’s what the national Democrats called me, the South Dakota Sarah Palin,” Noem says. “I was one of the top five House races in the nation and that was their main attack against me.”
Noem says governing through a pandemic has toughened her. She drew criticism from all sides for her COVID response, refusing to order any of the mandates and restrictions that governors in other states put in place.
“One thing that COVID taught me, there’s a lot of bullies out there,” she says. “They’ll literally throw anything at you. Every night on the national news, they were kicking me in the head for the decisions I was making.
“If anything, it taught me to keep perspective, turn off the news sometimes, don’t read Twitter and what they’re saying about me, so I can make the best decisions for my people.”
And now, South Dakota’s economy is in a much better position than states like Michigan that are suffering from a sluggish COVID recovery after months of shutdowns and other restrictions.
“Michigan is living with terrible consequences because of what their leadership has done,” Noem says. “That’s the one lesson I think that Americans need to learn is that who they put in positions of power matters dramatically for their day to day lives.”
Because of Noem’s hard stance against restricting liberty — even in the face of a pandemic — she has become a Republican hero, frequenting Fox News. But Noem, who has been a loyal supporter of former President Donald Trump, says she’s not planning on a presidential run in 2024.
“Oh gosh, I’m running for reelection for governor,” she says. “If Donald Trump runs, I’ll support him. He created more opportunities for women and for minorities and for this country than any other president, so his results speak for themselves.”