The new congresswoman from South Dakota is Republican Kristi Noem, who prevailed in one of the most closely followed races of 2010. She eked out a narrow win over Democratic Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, even though the Democrat had won her last two elections with more than 70% of the vote. Read More
The new congresswoman from South Dakota is Republican Kristi Noem, who prevailed in one of the most closely followed races of 2010. She eked out a narrow win over Democratic Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, even though the Democrat had won her last two elections with more than 70% of the vote.
Noem (NOME) was born in Hamlin County, S.D., and graduated from high school there. She attended college but came home to help run the family farm after her father died in a fall into a grain bin while trying to unclog a feeder line, an accident that she discussed in her first campaign advertisement. An avid hunter of elk, pheasant, and other game, Noem later owned a hunting lodge and also worked a variety of jobs, including a stint as a restaurant manager. When she was elected to Congress, the 38-year-old Noem raised Angus cattle and quarter horses on a ranch she shared with her husband, Byron. They have three children.
Noem became interested in conservative causes and decided to run for the South Dakota House. She narrowly won a seat in 2006 and established herself as a forceful figure in the legislature, earning her GOP colleagues’ respect when she questioned a Democratic state senator’s sponsorship of a bill to expand casino-style gambling in the state while the senator’s law firm was representing an American Indian tribe. She was quickly promoted to assistant majority leader.
Noem said she decided to challenge Herseth Sandlin in February 2010 after becoming disenchanted with rising federal spending and the ballooning national debt. In the GOP primary, two-term Secretary of State Chris Nelson had more name recognition and experience, and state Rep. Blake Curd raised more money. But Noem, who emphasized that she didn’t plan to make politics a career, struck a chord with voters. One of them told The Washington Post, “She’s the mama grizzly that we hope for.” She was often compared to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee, but Noem regularly resisted such labeling and said she didn’t want the Alaskan’s help on the campaign trail. Noem won the June primary with 42%, compared with 35% for Nelson and 23% for Curd.
After her victory, Noem began collecting substantial campaign contributions from out-of-state Republican interests, enabling her to out-raise Herseth Sandlin in the early part of the campaign. She also drew campaign help from operatives associated with Sen. John Thune, a popular Republican who toppled Democrat Tom Daschle in 2004 when Daschle was the Senate minority leader. Outside conservative groups ended up pouring about $2 million into the race, more than three times what Herseth Sandlin collected from outside Democratic groups. Noem sought to tie her opponent to liberal House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and promised to cut spending and help small businesses create jobs.
The two candidates shared similar backgrounds and lifestyles—both had been raised on farms, had young families and are politically conservative. But Noem had one major advantage: the distinction of not being a Democrat in a Republican-dominated state. Herseth Sandlin, a leader of the Blue Dog Coalition of fiscally conservative House Democrats, touted her credentials as a moderate who opposed Pelosi on several high-profile measures, including the health care overhaul. She played down her party affiliation, leaving it out of her campaign literature entirely.
The incumbent did receive help from the state’s Democratic Party, which sought to make an issue of Noem’s 20 speeding tickets and other traffic violations over two decades—a sore point in a state where GOP Rep. Bill Janklow resigned in 2004 after he ran a stop sign and killed a motorcyclist. Herseth Sandlin succeeded Janklow. Noem was ticketed three times for stop-sign violations and once for driving 94 mph in a 75 mph zone; she also received six notices for failing to appear in court. She responded to the criticism by saying that she is not proud of her driving record and is working to be a better example to young drivers. The issue seemed to matter little to voters: Noem won 48%-46%, with independent B. Thomas Marking drawing 6%. Herseth Sandlin was competitive in many rural counties and took Sioux Falls-based Minnehaha County, which cast the largest number of votes, 50%-45%. But Noem won neighboring Lincoln County 52%-43% and Pennington County, which includes Rapid City, 58%-37%.
In Washington, Noem was named one of two freshman class representatives to the GOP leadership. She was given seats on the Natural Resources and Education and the Workforce committees and joined fellow GOP freshman Stephen Fincher of Tennessee in leading a GOP effort against the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to regulate dust as part of air quality standards, arguing it would hurt farmers and ranchers. She joined her party in backing a budget that eliminated an Agriculture Department flood control program, but later requested federal disaster aid to cope with South Dakota’s spring flooding—a move that led state Democrats to accuse her of hypocrisy. She continued to win attention from activists on the right, drawing a cheer at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February when she declared, “A lot of us freshmen don’t have a whole lot of knowledge, necessarily, about the way that Washington, D.C., is operated. And, frankly, we don’t really care.”
If Noem is re-elected in 2012—a good possibility in such a heavily Republican state—she is favored to run against Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson, who is up for re-election in 2014.
