Governor Noem is strong in her values and mindful of obligation to the people of South Dakota and her life to date is representative of the best in hard work, dedication and getting the job done. As a young college student, she had to forego her education early on due to her father's death in a farm accident. Realizing that the family farm was in jeopardy, she went home and took charge and saved the farm. Not long thereafter she was married and only got back to school later in life on a part-time and online class basis and eventually received her degree from the University of South Dakota in political science. She realized from her studies just how important a role politics plays in our lives and, in her personal life, the impact it has on farming and ranching. Having been brought up on a farm and then as the wife of a rancher where she also worked hard, she was elected to the South Dakota state legislature in 2006 and then, in 2010, she became the state's only representative in the United States House of Representative. Her husband rancher committed to here cause, encouraged her as a great spokesperson for the ranch and farm community, but after six years in Washington, she wanted to come closer to home and left Congress in 2016. When the opportunity arose to run for Governor, she did so in 2018 and took office in early 2019. She knew she could be much more effective in that role and the added impact it had on life in South Dakota. She has quickly established herself as a rock-ribbed Conservative, preferring to trust the citizens of South Dakota to make choices for themselves based on logic and common sense instead of by edict from Washington or even Pierre, the state capital. It has worked well for her.
So, last night with a segment on the Ingraham Angle, host Laura Ingraham asked her about the furor with the Left over the Sturgis Bike Week. In recent years, Sturgis has come to rival Daytona for its Bike Week as thousands trek to the wide open spaces for fun on their bikes on the range. But unlike Daytona, the event is spaced over a huge swath of land so that it is much more open for visitors. And in discussing the matter, Governor Noem made clear that, once again, she was sticking to her guns. While she said the numbers would be less due to the COVID travel concerns of some having to travel through tightly controlled states to get there, but nonetheless it would carry on. At a minimum, she said a quarter million bikers would attend and, as usual, provide a great boost to state commerce while providing local and state government funding to meet their constitutional requirement. She was passionate and firm and explained just how successful her state's open for business has been.
She said, "Here in South Dakota, we have had fifteen deaths per one hundred thousand residents while New York has had one hundred and fifty-seven deaths per one hundred thousand deaths."
Those are pretty impressive by comparison and she said she owes it to passing out clear information and trusting her citizens to act accordingly and they have. She reiterated that if they wash their hands and use good judgement all will be well and it has been and the state has not seriously been adversely impacted like so many in other parts of the country.
Now some might say the comparison to New York is unfair since the Empire State is tightly packed while South Dakota is wide open and it is easy to stay spread out. But that makes her argument even stronger since she is not telling any other state how to operate, but just show why per program works for South Dakota. And therein lies the biggest problem with the one size fits all concept. It just doesn't make sense. Kristy Noem has looks, smarts, the ability to connect with her citizens and it shows by how they love her as Governor. She is a bright new light in the Conservative Republican movement and deservedly so. Keep your eye on her in the future. I think we'll be hearing much more about her as time goes by.