98 Facts About Kristi Noem

Kristi Lynn Arnold Noem is an American politician serving since 2025 as the 8th United States secretary of homeland security.

Kristi Noem was elected as the first female governor of South Dakota in 2018 with the endorsement of President Donald Trump.

Kristi Noem gained national attention during the COVID-19 pandemic for opposing statewide mask mandates and advocating voluntary measures.

Kristi Noem has conservative positions on most domestic issues, particularly gun rights.

Kristi Noem has published two autobiographies, Not My First Rodeo: Lessons from the Heartland and No Going Back, which sparked controversy for its account of her killing a young family dog and claims to have met with foreign leaders.

In 1990, Kristi Noem graduated from Hamlin High School and was crowned South Dakota Snow Queen.

Kristi Noem's father was killed in a farm machinery accident in 1994.

Kristi Noem attended Northern State University from 1990 to 1994, but did not graduate.

Kristi Noem's daughter, Kassidy, was born on April 21,1994.

Kristi Noem added a hunting lodge and restaurant to the family property.

Kristi Noem's siblings moved back to help expand the businesses.

Kristi 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.

Kristi Noem obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in political science from South Dakota State University in 2012 while serving as a US representative.

In 2006, Kristi 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.

Kristi Noem was an assistant majority leader during her second term.

In 2010, Kristi Noem ran for South Dakota's at-large seat in the US House of Representatives.

Kristi Noem won the Republican primary and defeated incumbent Democrat Stephanie Herseth Sandlin in the general election.

Kristi Noem was reelected three times, serving in Congress until 2019.

Kristi Noem was among the top freshman Republicans in PAC fundraising in the first quarter of 2011, raising $169,000 from PACs.

Kristi Noem voted for a bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Kristi Noem has said that the US 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.

Kristi Noem supported the Keystone XL Pipeline and supports offshore oil drilling.

Kristi Noem 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.

Kristi Noem opposed a bill introduced by South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson that would designate over 48,000 acres of the Buffalo Gap National Grassland as protected wilderness.

Kristi Noem 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.

From 2013 to 2015, Kristi Noem served on the House Armed Services Committee, where she worked on the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act.

In March 2011, Kristi 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 US's role in the conflict, and characterizing his statements as vague and ambiguous.

Kristi Noem opposes the Affordable Care Act and has voted to repeal it.

Kristi 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.

Kristi Noem supported cuts to Medicaid funding proposed by Republican Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan.

Kristi Noem supported President Donald Trump's 2017 Executive Order 13769, that suspended the US refugee program for 120 days and banned all travel to the US by nationals of seven Muslim-majority countries for 90 days.

Kristi Noem said she supported a temporary ban on accepting refugees from "terrorist-held" areas, but "did not address whether she supports other aspects of the order, which led to the detention of legal US residents such as green-card holders, and people with dual citizenship as they reentered the country" in the aftermath of the order's issuance.

In 2019, Kristi Noem consented to South Dakota's participation in the US Refugee Resettlement Program following a Trump executive order that allowed state and local governments to opt out.

In 2017, Kristi 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, Kristi 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.

Kristi Noem has called the budget deficit one of the most important issues facing Congress.

Kristi Noem 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.

Kristi Noem said she wanted to eliminate the estate tax, lower the corporate tax rate, and simplify the tax code.

Kristi Noem said she would not raise taxes to balance the budget.

In November 2016, Kristi Noem announced she would run for governor of South Dakota in 2018 rather than seek reelection to Congress.

In November 2021, Kristi Noem announced she was running for reelection as governor.

Kristi Noem was sworn in as governor on January 5,2019, the first woman in that office in the state.

Kristi Noem defended South Dakota's abortion ban, which only allows exceptions in cases in which the mother's life is in danger.

Kristi Noem proclaimed 2024 the "Freedom for Life Year", promoting anti-abortion laws.

In 2020, after a federal court struck down sections of the legislation as unconstitutional, Kristi Noem brought legislation to repeal sections of the previous bill and clarify the definition of "incitement to riot".

Kristi Noem has called China "an enemy" of the US In 2022, she issued an order banning TikTok from state-owned devices, saying the "Chinese Communist Party uses information it gathers on TikTok to manipulate the American people".

Kristi Noem received a $200,000 settlement as part of a nondisclosure agreement to withdraw her complaint and leave her position.

Kristi Noem's spokesperson characterized the allegations as an example of how Kristi Noem cut through "bureaucratic red tape".

Bren said that Kristi Noem was upset that she was just now hearing about the classes.

The tribes took action after demanding that Kristi Noem apologize for her comments about them.

Around January 2025, Kristi Noem apologized to the tribes for the misunderstanding between them, and the Flandreau Santee Sioux tribe dissolved its order banning Kristi Noem from its land.

In November 2020, Kristi Noem used pandemic relief funds to promote tourism during a surge in cases in the state.

Kristi Noem did not implement face mask mandates, raised doubts about the efficacy of mask-wearing, encouraged large gatherings without social distancing or mask-wearing, and questioned public health experts' advice.

Kristi Noem's response mirrored Trump's rhetoric and handling of COVID-19.

Kristi Noem was rewarded for her COVID-19 response with a speech at the August 2020 Republican National Convention, which elevated her national profile.

Early in the pandemic, Kristi Noem requested that the legislature pass a bill giving the state health secretary and county officials the power to close businesses and other entities.

On March 13,2020, Kristi Noem ordered K-12 schools to close, and on April 6, she extended that order for the remainder of the school year.

Early on, Kristi Noem emphasized South Dakota's role in evaluating hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug that Trump had touted as a cure for COVID-19.

Kristi Noem had said that the plant was in full operation as an essential food manufacturing facility.

Kristi Noem did not mandate social distancing or the wearing of face masks at a July 3,2020, event at Mount Rushmore with Trump present.

Kristi Noem publicly doubted scientific recommendations on the usefulness of masks.

Sixteen weeks after Trump's 2020 executive order that provided enhanced weekly unemployment benefits of $300 as part of the US federal government response to the pandemic, Kristi Noem opted out of the program, citing a low state unemployment rate.

Later that month, after meeting with prison employees, despite lingering COVID-19 cases, Kristi Noem ended the prison's mask mandate.

In June 2021, Kristi Noem announced that she was sending members of the South Dakota National Guard to Texas's border with Mexico.

In 2021, Kristi Noem sued US Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, seeking to have fireworks at Mount Rushmore for Independence Day.

Kristi Noem hired the private Washington DC law firm Consovoy McCarthy to bring the case, with South Dakota state taxpayer money paying for the suit.

In May 2019, Kristi Noem proposed to build a fence around the governor's mansion, estimated to cost approximately $400,000, but retracted the proposal.

In 2020, the 2019 project was revived; a senior Kristi Noem advisor told the media that the decision was based on the recommendations of Kristi Noem's security team.

In late November 2021, it was reported that Kristi Noem spent $68,000 of taxpayer dollars on imported rugs from India, chandeliers and a sauna for the mansion.

In 2019, Kristi Noem signed a bill into law abolishing South Dakota's permit requirement to carry a concealed handgun.

At a 2023 NRA forum in Indiana, Kristi Noem said that her two-year-old granddaughter had a shotgun, a rifle, and a "little pony named Sparkles".

In 2021, Kristi Noem signed a religious refusal bill into law.

The campaign was widely mocked and Kristi Noem was criticized for spending $449,000 of public funds while hiring an out-of-state advertising agency from Minnesota to lead the project.

Kristi Noem defended the campaign as successful in raising awareness.

Kristi Noem has opposed the cultivation of industrial hemp, vetoing a bill that passed the South Dakota House and Senate in 2019 to legalize hemp cultivation.

In 2022, Kristi Noem sought to locate a government-paid RV park in Custer State Park.

In 2022, Kristi Noem sought to have prayer put back in school after mentioning it in a speech in Iowa.

An aide to Kristi Noem admitted to the committee that no schools were consulted about the proposal.

On November 19,2021, Kristi Noem named her fifth chief of staff, Mark Miller, to replace outgoing chief of staff Aaron Scheibe.

On November 12,2024, President-elect Trump selected Kristi Noem to serve as Secretary of Homeland Security in his second term.

Kristi Noem's department posted a video of the raid on X that showed an apparent arrest.

Kristi Noem told Bash that she was comfortable with the Department of Government Efficiency having access to sensitive data, saying that it was identifying waste, fraud, and abuse.

Kristi Noem was initially designated to be one of Trump's three presidential electors for South Dakota, but later withdrew.

Kristi Noem has claimed that the 2020 presidential election, in which Biden defeated Trump, was marred by widespread voter fraud; no evidence supports this claim.

On December 8,2020, Kristi Noem tacitly acknowledged the outcome of the election when she referred to a "Biden administration" during her annual state budget address, but even after Biden was inaugurated in January, she still refused to accept that the election was "free and fair".

Kristi Noem endorsed Trump in the 2024 Republican Party presidential primaries in September 2023, at a rally hosted for him in Rapid City, South Dakota.

In September 2023, when asked on Newsmax if she would agree to serve as Trump's running mate, Kristi Noem responded that she would "in a heartbeat".

Also that month, Trump acknowledged that Kristi Noem was one of the names on his shortlist to be his running mate.

In March 2024, CNN reported that Kristi Noem was one of four people Trump had shown increased interest in selecting as his running mate.

Kristi Noem married Bryon Noem in 1992, in Watertown, South Dakota.

In 2011, when Kristi Noem moved to Washington to take her congressional office, her family continued to live on a ranch near Castlewood, South Dakota.

In September 2021, conservative media outlet American Greatness reported that Kristi Noem was having an extramarital affair with political operative Corey Lewandowski.

Kristi Noem brought Cricket, her family's 14-month-old female wirehaired pointer, along for this pheasant hunt, expecting Cricket to emulate the older, trained, dogs on the hunt.

Kristi Noem concluded that Cricket was "dangerous" and "untrainable" and shot the dog dead in a gravel pit.

Later in the memoir, Kristi Noem wrote of imagining herself becoming president in 2025, taking over from Biden, and that the first thing she would do would be to "make sure Joe Biden's dog was nowhere on the grounds ", in an apparent suggestion that Commander be killed.

Kristi Noem wrote that she met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

Kristi Noem's spokesperson said the claim was an error and would be expunged from the book's future editions.

Separately, Kristi Noem claimed in the book that she was once "slated to meet with French president Emmanuel Macron", but called off the meeting because he made a "very pro-Hamas and anti-Israel comment to the press"; the French government responded that it had neither invited Kristi Noem nor had any record of a scheduled meeting with her.