PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem is President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to run the federal Department of Homeland Security in his new administration.
That’s according to Fox News and CNN reports early Tuesday morning. The report was also confirmed by CBS.
The Republican second-term governor has repeatedly sent South Dakota National Guard troops to assist with enforcement at the Texas border and has complained that gangs are using South Dakota Indian reservations as safety zones to distribute illegal drugs brought across the U.S.-Mexico border.
KELOLAND News has requested confirmation from Noem’s communications director, Ian Fury.
Trump announced on Sunday that Tom Homan, his former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, will serve as border czar in his new administration. On Monday, he announced that Stephen Miller would be deputy of staff for policy.
Noem had supported Trump’s re-election in 2020 and vigorously campaigned for him this year. She appeared on stage with Trump at a Pennsylvania rally and attended the election-night results-watch party that Trump hosted in Florida.
The CNN and Fox News reports come after the Wall Street Journal had mentioned Noem as a possible choice for Interior secretary.
Noem, 53, would become the second South Dakota governor during the past half-century to leave office for a federal appointment. Democratic Governor Dick Kneip stepped down in July 1978 during President Jimmy Carter’s administration for an appointment as U.S. ambassador to Singapore.
Should Noem resign, her running mate and lieutenant governor, Larry Rhoden, would succeed her as governor. Rhoden, a 65-year-old rancher and welder, was a long-time legislator who helped mentor Noem when she was a new state lawmaker two decades ago.
Noem went on to serve eight years as South Dakota’s one member of the U.S. House of Representatives before successfully running for governor in 2018.
Early in her administration, Noem constructed a TV studio in the Capitol basement so that she could appear on national news and political commentary programs. She became a frequent guest on Fox News and other networks.
When Noem took office in 2019, she stopped releasing the weekly public-appearances schedule that previous governors had distributed. She later built a tall security fence around the governor’s mansion.
More recently, at the start of the 2024 legislative session, Noem stopped doing the traditional weekly news conferences with statehouse reporters. Neither she nor anyone from her administration explained why.
