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donald trump is traveling to South Dakota Friday evening for a fundraiser that will also be an opportunity for the state’s governor, Kristi Noemto present himself as a potential vice presidential pick.
Trump will join the South Dakota Republican Party for a “monumental leadership gathering” in Rapid City.
Noem will appear alongside the former president and is he is expected to approve itcreating an image of the couple that Noem’s allies hope will make her look vice-presidential.
Noem has yet to go public with her support — but sources told the New York Times that she is eyeing a vice presidential run. Noem, 51, has been touted as a future presidential candidate — with a stint in the White House sure to put her nationally on the map and help boost any future presidential ambitions.
Trump’s decision to headline the event underscores his dominance in the Republican race, even as he faces four separate indictments and 91 counts.
Donald Trump is traveling to South Dakota on Friday for a party fundraiser that will also be an opportunity for the state’s governor, Kristi Noem, to present herself as a potential vice president. The couple is pictured in September 2018
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is expected to support former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally Friday, potentially boosting Trump’s lead. Above, photographed in December 2018
South Dakota holds late primaries and is not competitive in a general election.
With a huge lead in the polls, Trump is skipping much of the traditional primary campaign.
Instead of large-scale rallies, he relies on state party events that provide large, friendly audiences at no cost to his campaign, while his political organization pays millions of dollars in legal fees.
Trump’s visit Friday is something of an audition for Noem.
She planned the event as a way to both offer support and maximize face-to-face time with Trump as he considers potential vice presidential nominees and cabinet members for 2024, according to one of the Republicans who spoke anonymously. A spokesperson for the governor declined to comment.
Noem will be term-limited in 2026 and, after declining to run for president this year, is considering her next move to maintain her prominence within the GOP.
Noem has long been considered a potential candidate for the White House in her own right and told the New York Times in November that she did not think Trump offered “the best chance” for the party in 2024. She is pictured at Eagle Pass, Texas, last month.
“I think Donald Trump has a 50-50 chance of being elected at this point, so why not hitch your wagon to him if you can?” said Michael Card, a longtime observer of South Dakota politics, who suggested Noem could also become a future president of the National Rifle Association or a conservative commentator.
Voting won’t begin for several months, and Trump’s indictments and upcoming criminal trials create an unprecedented situation that many strategists say could influence the race in unexpected ways.
That hasn’t stopped those who want to be seen as Trump’s running mate from openly vying for the job and trying to curry favor with him and his aides.
Aides caution that it is far too early for serious discussions, but Trump has indicated in conversations that he wants to select a woman this time.
A former congresswoman, Noem won a surprisingly close victory in 2018 against a Democratic challenger to become South Dakota’s first female governor.
Among the other names that came up: New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn. Florida Rep. Byron Donalds and Sen. Tim Scott were also mentioned.
Trump will be in Iowa, the first state on the GOP nomination calendar, on Saturday to attend the Iowa-Iowa State college football game.
“What we’re focused on is just locking in this primary and looking ahead to the general election,” campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said.
Noem has long been considered a potential candidate for the White House and has said so The New York Times in November, she didn’t think Trump offered “the best chance” for the party in 2024.
She has since said she sees no point in joining the field of candidates for the nomination, given Trump’s dominant position.
“I would do it in a heartbeat,” she told Newsmax when asked this week if she would consider joining a potential Trump ticket if asked.
“President Trump needs a strong partner if he wants to take back the White House, and he will need someone who knows what it means to run a business, to be an employee, to earn a salary, but also to have a wife , a mother and a grandmother, that’s not bad either.
This will be Trump’s first visit to South Dakota since the summer of 2020, when he headlined a Fourth of July fireworks display at Mount Rushmore on the eve of Independence Day.
The then-president was looking for a place to turn the page after a summer of pandemic lockdowns and protests for racial justice.
Noem’s event at Mount Rushmore was notably free of pandemic restrictions.
Trump’s decision to headline the South Dakota event underscores his dominance in the Republican race, even as he faces four separate indictments and 91 counts.
She also gave him a miniature replica of Mount Rushmore with his likeness sculpted alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt.
“I don’t know exactly,” Trump said Thursday when asked if Noem would support him. “But I’m going. I love her so much. I think she’s great. Kristi did a great job.
He has often praised her handling of the pandemic, saying again Thursday that she had done “a fantastic job.”
A former congresswoman, Noem won a surprisingly close victory in 2018 against a Democratic challenger to become South Dakota’s first female governor.
She gained national prominence through a mostly hands-off approach to the pandemic and closely followed Trump’s exhortations to return to normal life.
She easily won re-election last year, although she performed worse than other Republicans in the vote.
Although she did not run for president, Noem continued to position herself nationally. She has been a vocal advocate for the National Rifle Association, even boasting at a spring convention for the gun rights group that her 1-year-old granddaughter already “owns” guns .
She also championed South Dakota’s abortion ban and will attend a fundraiser in Michigan later this month to support Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers.
During the first GOP presidential debate, she appeared in an ad to encourage businesses and families to move to what she called “the freest state in America.”
Friday’s event is expected to draw protesters targeting both Trump and Noem, said Annie Bachand, CEO of the South Dakota-based group Liberty & Justice for All.
“The reason we are here is to demonstrate to others that we are not alone,” Bachand said.
“Kristi Noem spent more time campaigning for who knows what than she did in South Dakota. She is more interested in her own self-interest than taking care of the people of South Dakota.
South Dakota Republican Party Chairman John Wiik said he expects about 7,000 people to attend the sold-out fundraiser.
The event was first planned as a Lincoln Day-style fundraising dinner, typically hosted by local Republican groups, Wiik said, but it later morphed into a gathering with proceeds going to the state party.
“At first I got a lot of questions,” Wiik said of Trump’s decision to visit his state just as the primary season enters its traditional post-Labor Day overdrive .
“But the more you look at it, the more Trump is a media event wherever he lands,” Wiik said.
“He could have a rally on the moon and he would get his message across and draw that many people, so I’m just glad he chose South Dakota.”