The South Dakota governor was seen as a 2024 contender. But now she may never recover in the eyes of conservatives.
I have to go back to Chris Christie to think of a rising star among conservatives who faded as fast as Governor Kristi Noem appears to be fading.
Today, we have an editorial on Noem’s perplexing capitulation to woke corporate interests by using a “style and form” veto to substantially weaken a bill that would have protected female athletes from having to compete against transgender-identified males. Not only are conservatives infuriated about her opposition to the bill itself, but the manner in which she opposed it — using a power typically used to correct minor punctuation errors or typos to make substantive changes to a bill that overwhelmingly passed the legislature.
If you recall, 2009 was a terrible year for Republicans. Barack Obama had swept into power with a massive majority in the House and for a few months, a veto-proof majority in the Senate. They quickly passed and had him sign a stack of liberal bills that had been held up under George W. Bush and the massive economic stimulus. It was also the year that Obamacare passed the House and eked through the Senate.
Yet one of the few bright spots was the election of Republican governors in Virginia and New Jersey, which was the first sign of the backlash against Obama that would turn into a tidal wave in 2010.
Conservatives initially had low hopes for Christie, who had a reputation of being anti-gun and seemed like the sort of liberal Republican one would expect could win in New Jersey. But in 2010, Christie was a pleasant surprise, and his star rose as short YouTube videos went viral showing his brutal takedowns of journalists and selfish unionized teachers. In 2011, some were begging him to run for president.
Then, 2012 happened. He gave a keynote speech at the Republican National Convention that spent much of the time talking about himself rather than making the case for the presidential nominee. Later that year, he welcomed Obama’s help with Hurricane Sandy, and even though the “hug” never technically happened, the timing of his at least political embrace of Obama — just days before the election — effectively made Christie dead to many conservatives. Only after that did the Fort Lee bridge scandal occur.
His presidential candidacy was mainly remembered for helping to torpedo Senator Marco Rubio in the New Hampshire debate. But running interference for Trump merely set him up for one humiliation after another.
It seems like Noem is experiencing a rapid fall herself.
In 2020, a dire year for conservatives for many reasons, Noem became a bit of a cult hero on the right for standing up to the media and resisting COVID-19 restrictions. There was a high death toll in her state, but the deaths per capita were lower than several other states that were more locked down, including New York, where until recently, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s performance was praised by the media.
Over the past year, more and more people were talking about her as a serious contender to be on the 2024 Republican ticket — if not at the top of it.
But she may have blown all of that good will with the stroke of a pen. She took the wrong action, in the wrong manner, at a particularly heated moment in the cultural wars. She may never recover in the eyes of conservatives.