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South Dakota House of Representatives (2007-2011)

U.S. House of Representatives (2011-2019)

Governor of South Dakota (2019-2025)

Secretary of Homeland Security (2025-present)

Rudy's a failed creepy IT guy and thinks Noem is somehow beneath HIM!

LOL

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Kristi Lynn Arnold Noem (NOHM; née Arnold; born November 30,1971) is an American politician serving since 2025 as the 8th United 
States secretary of homeland security. A member of the Republican Party, she served from 2019 to 2025 as the 33rd governor of South 
Dakota and from 2011 to 2019 represented South Dakota's at-large congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Born in Watertown, South Dakota, Noem began her political career in the South Dakota House of Representatives, serving from 2007 to 
2011. Noem was elected as the first female governor of South Dakota in 2018 with the endorsement of President Donald Trump. She 
gained national attention during the COVID-19 pandemic for opposing statewide mask mandates and advocating voluntary measures. Noem 
has conservative positions on most domestic issues, particularly gun rights.

Noem is a farmer, rancher, and member of the Civil Air Patrol. She has published two autobiographies, Not My First Rodeo: Lessons 
from the Heartland (2022) and No Going Back (2024), which sparked controversy for its account of her killing a young family dog and 
inaccurate claims about meeting with foreign leaders. Donald Trump nominated her for Secretary of Homeland Security in his second 
cabinet. She was confirmed in January 2025 by a Senate vote of 59-34.


Early life and education

Noem was born Kristi Lynn Arnold to Ron and Corinne Arnold on November 30,1971, in Watertown, South Dakota, and raised with her 
siblings on the family ranch and farm in Hazel, South Dakota. She has Norwegian ancestry. In 1990, Noem graduated from Hamlin High 
School in Hayti, South Dakota, and was crowned South Dakota Snow Queen.

Noem attended Northern State University from 1990 to 1994, but did not graduate. In March 1994, her father was killed in a grain 
bin accident and Noem left college early to run the family farm. Her daughter, Kassidy, was born weeks later, on April 21,1994. She 
added a hunting lodge and restaurant to the family property. Her siblings also moved back to help expand the businesses.

Noem subsequently took classes at the Watertown campus of Mount Marty College and at South Dakota State University, and online 
classes from the University of South Dakota. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in political science from South 
Dakota State University in 2012 while serving as a U.S. representative. The Washington Post dubbed her Capitol Hill's 'most 
powerful intern" for receiving college intern credits from her position as a member of Congress.
South Dakota House of Representatives (2007-2011)

In 2006, Noem won a seat as a Republican in the South Dakota House of Representatives, representing the 6th district, comprising 
parts of Beadle, Clark, Codington, Hamlin, and Kingsbury counties. In 2006, she won with 39% of the vote. In 2008, she was 
reelected with 41% of the vote.

Noem served for four years, from 2007 to 2010. She was an assistant majority leader during her second term. During her tenure, Noem 
was the prime sponsor of 11 bills that became law, including several property tax reforms and two bills to increase gun rights in 
South Dakota. In 2009, she served as vice chair of the Agriculture Land Assessment Advisory Task Force. Senator Larry Rhoden 
chaired the task force, and later served as her lieutenant governor. During her tenure, she joined the Civil Air Patrol as a "state 
legislative member". She holds the rank of lieutenant colonel.


U.S. House of Representatives (2011-2019)

2010 United States House of Representatives election in South Dakota

In 2010, Noem ran for South Dakota's at-large seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. She won the Republican primary and 
defeated incumbent Democrat Stephanie Herseth Sandlin in the general election. Noem was reelected three times, serving in Congress 
until 2019.


Tenure

Noem during the 112th and 113th Congress

The 2011 House Republican 87-member freshman class elected Noem as liaison to the House Republican leadership, making her the 
second woman member of the House GOP leadership. According to The Hill, her role was to push the leadership to make significant 
cuts to federal government spending and to help Speaker John Boehner manage the expectations of the freshman class. In March 2011, 
Republican Representative Pete Sessions of Texas named Noem one of the 12 regional directors for the National Republican 
Congressional Committee during the 2012 election campaign.

On March 8,2011, she announced the formation of a leadership political action committee, KRISTI PAC. Former South Dakota Lieutenant 
Governor Steve Kirby is its treasurer. Noem was among the top freshman Republicans in PAC fundraising in the first quarter of 2011, 
raising $169,000 from PACs.
Abortion

Noem co-sponsored legislation that would federally ban abortion. In 2015, she co-sponsored a bill to amend the 14th Amendment to 
define human life and personhood as beginning at fertilization, federally banning abortion from the moment of fertilization. She 
also voted for a bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Energy and environment

Noem denies the scientific consensus on climate change. In 2022 she said she believes "the science has been varied on it, and it 
hasn't been proven to me that what we're doing is affecting the climate."

Noem has said that the U.S. needs an "all-of-the-above energy approach" that includes renewables like wind and ethanol while still 
realizing the need for a "balanced energy mix" that ends American dependence on foreign oil.

Noem supported the Keystone XL Pipeline and supports offshore oil drilling. She co-sponsored three bills that she argued would 
reduce American dependence on foreign oil by ending the 2010 United States deepwater drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico and 
reopening sales on oil leases in the Gulf and off the coast of Virginia. In 2011, she sponsored a measure to block Environmental 
Protection Agency funding for tighter air pollution standards for coarse particulates.

Noem opposed a bill introduced by South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson that would designate over 48,000 acres (190 km2) of the Buffalo 
Gap National Grassland as protected wilderness. She supports the designation of the land as a national grassland. She said the land 
is already managed as roadless areas similar to wilderness and argued that changing the land's designation to wilderness would 
further limit leaseholder access to the land and imperil grazing rights.


Foreign affairs

From 2013 to 2015, Noem served on the House Armed Services Committee, where she worked on the 2014 National Defense Authorization 
Act. Her appointment to the committee was seen as a benefit to South Dakota's Ellsworth Air Force Base. In March 2011, Noem was 
critical of President Barack Obama's approach to the NATO-led military intervention in the 2011 Libyan civil war, calling on him to 
provide more information about the U.S.'s role in the conflict, and characterizing his statements as vague and ambiguous. 

Health care

Noem opposes the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and has voted to repeal it. Having unsuccessfully sought to repeal it, she sought 
to defund it while retaining measures such as the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, the provision allowing parents to keep their 
children on their health insurance plan into their 20s, and the high-risk pools. Noem wanted to add such provisions to federal law 
as limits on medical malpractice lawsuits and allowing patients to buy health insurance plans from other states. She supported cuts 
to Medicaid funding proposed by Republican Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan. A study found that this action would reduce 
benefits for South Dakota Medicaid recipients by 55 percent.


Taxes

In 2017, Noem was on the conference committee that negotiated the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which she touted as giving 
the average South Dakota family a $1,200 tax cut.

In 2018, Noem was reported to have "pitched the idea to members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus" to attach her online 
sales tax bill to the government funding package as part of an omnibus. A court case under consideration in the South Dakota 
Supreme Court involved requiring "certain out-of-state retailers to collect its sales taxes." Noem said that South Dakota 
businesses (and by extension businesses nationwide) "could be forced to comply with 1,000 different tax structures nationwide 
without the tools necessary to do so", adding that her legislation "provides a necessary fix."

Noem has called the budget deficit one of the most important issues facing Congress. She cosponsored H. J. Res. 2, which would 
require that total spending for any fiscal year not exceed total receipts. She cited the Environmental Protection Agency, the 
Department of Veterans Affairs, Medicaid, high-speed rail projects, cap-and-trade technical assistance, and subsidies for the 
Washington Metro rapid transit system as examples of federal programs where she would like to see cuts.

In 2011, Noem indicated that she would vote to raise the federal debt ceiling, but only if "tied to budget reforms that change the 
way we spend our dollars and how Washington, D.C., does business. It won't just be a one-time spending cut." She ultimately voted 
for S. 365, The Budget Control Act of 2011, which allowed Obama to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for spending cuts to be 
decided by a bipartisan committee. She also said she wanted to eliminate the estate tax, lower the corporate tax rate, and simplify 
the tax code. She said she would not raise taxes to balance the budget.

Committee assignments

 Committee on Ways and Means
 Subcommittee on Human Resources
 Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures

Caucus memberships

 Republican Study Committee
 Congressional Arts Caucus
 Afterschool Caucuses
 Congressional Western Caucus


Governor of South Dakota (2019-2025)

Elections
2018
Main article: 2018 South Dakota gubernatorial election

In November 2016, Noem announced she would run for governor of South Dakota in 2018 rather than seek reelection to Congress. She 
defeated South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley in the June Republican primary, 56 to 44 percent, and Democratic nominee 
Billie Sutton in the general election, 51 to 48 percent.
2022


Main article: 2022 South Dakota gubernatorial election

In November 2021, Noem announced she was running for reelection as governor. State Representative Steven Haugaard, a Republican, 
announced he was running against Noem. In February 2022, House Democratic Minority Leader Jamie Smith announced he was seeking the 
Democratic nomination.

In the Republican primary in June, Noem defeated Haugaard, 76% to 24%. In the general election, she defeated Smith, 62% to 35%. 
Despite predictions of a competitive race, Noem flipped 17 counties that had previously voted Democratic and set a record for the 
most votes received by a candidate for governor in South Dakota.
Tenure

Noem was sworn in as governor on January 5,2019, the first woman in that office in the state.
Noem's gubernatorial portraits during her first (left) and second (right) term