PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — There was no mistaking during the past two years that South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has the hunger to get back to Washington, D.C.
So here’s a morning-after question.
Now that Donald Trump is the nation’s president-elect a second time, it appears likely, even inevitable, that she will be offered some post in the new Republican administration.
The 53-year-old Noem not only campaigned on his behalf in states throughout the country this year. She was prominently mentioned as a possible running mate. A scene from the Independence Day fireworks display at Mount Rushmore that Noem hosted for then-President Trump in 2020 was part of his closing pitch to voters this year. She was at the Trump victory party in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday night.
It’s too early to know whether the offer Noem seems destined to receive will be sufficiently enticing for her to walk away from her final two years as governor.
But she knows first-hand what some of the good, as well as some of the not-so-good, can be in the nation’s capital. Noem served eight years as South Dakota’s only representative in the 435-member U.S. House prior to taking the oath as governor in 2019.
If she does step down to accept a federal appointment, there would be some significant effects in South Dakota politics.
Our state’s lieutenant governor, Larry Rhoden, would ascend to governor. It would mean a running start should he choose to run for the Republican nomination in 2026.
A Rhoden governorship could also cause second thoughts about running for governor by two other Republicans, U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson and South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley, who appear to be vigorously eyeing the job.
A Rhoden governorship could also help diffuse another difficult situation. He would be a fresh face as dozens of newly elected state lawmakers take their first oaths as legislators.
Many of the freshmen-elect won seats because they openly opposed SB201, the carbon-pipelines legislation that Noem signed into law last March, and that voters in turn decisively rejected on Tuesday. Rhoden would be a chance for a different set of relationships.
The 65-year-old Rhoden also has the benefit of having served a total of 16 years in the Legislature, including two terms as House Republican leader, and six more years in his current role as Senate president. Noem sometimes tells the story about how as majority leader he helped guide her when she was a new member of the state House nearly two decades ago.
Then there’s the U.S. Senate. John Thune, who will soon know whether he succeeds Mitch McConnell as its next Republican leader. Meanwhile, South Dakota’s second U.S. senator, former governor Mike Rounds, hasn’t publicly indicated whether he’ll seek election to a third term in 2026.
Having Noem in the new Trump administration, rather than looming as a potential opponent in a U.S. Senate primary, could shape what Rounds does. Republicans old enough to remember then-Governor Bill Janklow taking on then-U.S. Sen. Jim Abdnor don’t want another repeat of that 1986 primary.
Rounds just celebrated birthday number 70. An announcement of his next move will have to come at some time in the next 12 months.
And should he declare that he isn’t running again and with Noem already part of a second Trump administration, South Dakota would suddenly face another round of big political decisions.
