South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem proudly displayed the new flamethrower her staff had gifted her for Christmas, demonstrating its effectiveness by setting fire to a stack of cardboard boxes while enjoying her new holiday toys.
Noem was dressed for the elements in an army fatigue ensemble — slacks with matching jacket — and hat as she said “Perfect” outside on what appeared to be her property on a snowy Christmas day as the pile of boxes burned to chips.
In one of the video clips, she can be seen posing next to her husband, Byron Noem, holding the wearable device.
The 51-year-old married mother of three is South Dakota’s 33rd governor. She is the state’s first female governor since taking the role in January 2019, and is seen as a rising star and potential future presidential candidate.
The Republican official was endorsed by then-President Donald Trump when she ran for office in 2018
Noem was dressed in an army fatigue ensemble – pants with matching jacket – with hat as she stood outside on her property on Christmas Day enjoying her new holiday toys
She demonstrates its effectiveness by setting fire to a stack of cardboard boxes and enthusiastically saying, “Perfect.”
Noem grew up with her siblings in Watertown, South Dakota on the family farm and ranch in Hamlin County, a population of approximately 6,614 as of the 2020 Census.
In 1994, her father was killed in an accident with an agricultural machine. The devastated Noem told The Washington Examiner that she had found it a tape recorder in his truck that gave her the answers she needed and took over the running of the family business at the age of 22.
A few months after her father’s death, she mustered up the courage to clean up his pickup truck.
‘If you have a farmer or farmer in your life, you know that they often live off their pick-ups. Everything important can be found in the taxi,” Noem said in a March 2021 tweet when speaking of the tragedy.
The discovery of the first tape led to almost a dozen.
“My eyes began to fill with tears,” she wrote. “One by one I put them into the tape recorder and listened to Dad talk about crop decisions, soil types, cows, weather, markets, and what to do if we ever got into a tough financial situation.”
Noem, who described her father as “the hardest worker I knew,” said listening to his voice on the tapes “changed everything,” which was why she ran.
“He led by example, through action,” she wrote in part. “I made the decision that day to be like my father: a person of words and deeds, because both matter.”
“I am committed to always serving the people of this great state in both words and deeds. I’ll do what I say, and I’ll always tell you what I do.’
She eventually added one hunting lodge and restaurant to the family property, and her siblings moved back to expand the businesses.
She graduated from Hamlin High School in 1990 and was named the South Dakota Snow Queen. She attended Northern State University from 1990 to 1994, but had left college to help run the family farm after her father’s death.
She attended classes at Mount Marty College’s Watertown campus and at South Dakota State University. She also took online classes from the University of South Dakota.
In 2006, Noem won a seat as a Republican in the South Dakota House of Representatives, representing the 6th district, and was re-elected in 2008.
She served four years, from 2007 to 2010, and was Assistant Majority Leader during her second term.
During her tenure, Noem was the lead sponsor of eleven bills that became law, including several property tax reforms and two bills to increase gun rights in South Dakota.
In 2009, she was vice-chair of the Advisory Task Force on Agricultural Land Assessment. Senator Larry Rhoden chaired the task force and later served as its lieutenant governor.
In 2012, she completed her political science degree from SDSU while serving in Congress.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem delivers her fiscal year 2024 budget speech on Tuesday, December 6, 2022 in the House Chambers at the State Capitol in Pierre, SD
Kristi Noem tweeted on June 29, 2022, “In South Dakota, we never shy away from a challenge and we refuse to let fear steal our freedom. So saddle up, because here freedom is FREE.’ The tweet has been viewed more than 68,000 times
In June, Noem published the book ‘Not My First Rodeo: Lessons Learned From the Heartland’.
In the book, she writes about her childhood growing up on a farm in rural America, her days in Congress and leading through a global pandemic, and the influence her father had on her. She wrote a comment her father often said to her: “We don’t complain about things, Kristi. We fix them.’