South Dakota, 2025 October 2. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem rides a horse while filming an ad at Mount Rushmore National Memorial. (Photo credit: Robert V Schwemmer / Shutterstock)
The latest addition to Pierre’s Trail of Governors stands out. It’s not because it’s the only statue of a woman. It’s not because it’s the only one accompanied by half a horse. It represents a career of political tumult. A career from which it’s unlikely there’s a chance to bounce back.
Kristi Noem made a career out of overcoming adversity. Her book tour for “No Going Back” went horribly wrong from the start. She was forced to defend her decision to shoot an unruly dog and a smelly goat. She saw it as an example of her ability to make tough decisions. Others saw it as cruelty to animals.
She also had to explain how her book included a false story about her facing down North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Putting the blame on her ghost writer didn’t seem like an acceptable excuse. Where have all the proofreaders gone?
The book was written as a way for Noem to show off her conservative bona fides to Donald Trump in hopes that he would select her to be his running mate in 2024. With her book tour fast becoming a favorite topic of late-night comedians, it was easy to write off her chances at higher office.
However, after Trump was elected to a second term, he appointed Noem as his secretary of Homeland Security. That appointment, handled the right way, could have cemented her place among 2028 Republican presidential contenders. That may have been the case if she had approached border security and immigration control with a modicum of empathy and professionalism. Instead, she chose hubris and instilled in ICE a gunslinging mentality that led to the deaths of two American citizens in Minneapolis.
In a presidential administration noted for sloughing off criticism as fake news, Noem’s antics and the level of criticism she faced were too much even for Trump. She joined a long list of Trump Cabinet secretaries who have been sent packing. In Noem’s case, when she was shown the door, a job was created for her as special envoy for the Shield of the Americas.
Maybe she’s working hard to help other countries secure their borders. Maybe the job was created so that both she and the president could save face.
At the unveiling of her statue, Noem told South Dakota Searchlight that she wasn’t ruling out a political comeback. After all, she’s undefeated when it comes to elections. “Oh, I wouldn’t take it off the table,” Noem said about running for office again. “I may someday, but you know, we ran 13 races and won them all, so campaigns don’t scare me, but I’ve got a lot of other things to do, too.”
Listen to this episode of the Searchlight Report podcast to hear Kristi Noem’s speech at her statue unveiling and her interaction with reporters.
There was speculation this year that Noem would challenge U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds for the Republican nomination for his Senate seat. Those looking ahead to 2028 see her as a possible primary opponent for Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
Perhaps it would be best for Noem if she just went back to the farm. Any attempt to get back into South Dakota politics would be met with a crowded field.
There’s a trend in the state’s Republican politics that no office should go unchallenged. Gov. Larry Rhoden just defeated three primary challengers. Rounds faced a primary challenger, too. Marty Jackley’s record as a popular state attorney general didn’t keep him from having to fend off a Republican challenger for the nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives.
Noem ‘not planning to run’ but doesn’t rule out a political future as her statue is unveiled
These days, incumbency and name recognition aren’t enough in Republican politics to keep challengers off the ballot. Potential challengers aren’t all that Noem would be running against. There’s also an internet full of memes chronicling her strained relationships with dogs, goats and her husband.
At this point, no one in politics is going to step aside just because she was once the governor or for a brief time the Homeland Security secretary. Challengers are going to see her as damaged goods. If she runs for office again, the internet will rejoice, handing her opponents a fresh round of memes and a backlog of comic monologues.
Challengers and dog jokes aside, Noem would also be running against her record as governor, a time when she didn’t exactly cover herself in glory. She treated the National Guard like her private army, sending them to the southern border at taxpayer expense whenever it suited her political ambitions. She labeled it fake news when anyone pointed out that her pursuit of freedom during the pandemic caused South Dakota to lead the league in per capita COVID deaths. She failed to lead on property tax reform and wasted millions of dollars on a prison site that was abandoned. Unfortunately for the former governor, the list goes on.
Noem has bounced back from political adversity in the past, but there’s likely no coming back from the ridicule that’s been aimed at her from all directions and her sketchy record as governor. It’s time for her to use that half a horse to ride off into the sunset.
South Dakota Searchlight is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. South Dakota Searchlight maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seth Tupper for questions: info@southdakotasearchlight.com.