Top Political Stories of 2018: #1 – Kristi Noem elected Governor of South Dakota
O
n November 6, 2018 in a historic election, after eight years serving in the US House of Representatives Kristi Noem cemented her place in our state’s history and was elected by South Dakota’s citizens to serve as the 33rd Governor for the State of South Dakota.
Despite shattering a glass ceiling, in her acceptance speech, Noem downplayed the historic aspect of her victory, noting “In my family there were no girl chores or boy chores,” she said. “There were just things that needed to get done.”
As noted by Tony Venhuizen, Chief of Staff for Governor Daugaard, in his South Dakota Governor’s blog, Noem was the first woman to be the Republican nominee for governor of South Dakota, the 4th woman to seek the Republican nomination for governor, and the second to win a major party’s nomination. (More information here).
Noem’s fall campaign was a hard-won contest following one of the state’s more challenging Republican primary races in recent history. The degree to which the race was fought required the GOP Primary candidates to raise and spend over $2.5 million each.
And once it was over, the campaign for now-Republican Gubernatorial nominee Kristi Noem had to start the job of raising money all over again to run against a candidate who had literally been given “a bye” in the political contest bracket in not having to face a primary of any sort, challenging or not, whereas Noem had emerged victorious in one of her most difficult races to date.
One of the challenges Noem faced was a chain around the ankle of GOP candidates nationwide, that many voters want a counter to the party who possesses the White House – the dreaded “midterm election.”
With Noem’s challenger having portrayed himself as a conservative Democrat since entering the race, in addition to raising money, Kristi also had the job of countering the narrative that Sutton had written for himself and been actively promoting for months on end. And she literally had 5 months to accomplish it all in.
Team Kristi scored an early fall fundraising ‘win’ by bringing President Donald Trump to South Dakota where they managed to begin the process of re-filling the campaign’s coffers. But raising money was only part of the equation. Noem also had a candidate who had faced little it any scrutiny up until this point.
As referenced earlier, Noem’s team had been pinging at the cracks in Sutton’s armor, and finally managed to score a tremendous hit in a several year-old video where Sutton slathered praise over Bernie Sanders. The campaign began playing it over, and over, and over, working to prosecute that message into the minds of voters in time for them to make their decision on who they were supporting in the contest for Governor.
In the final weeks of the election, with the State GOP promoting a strong message of unity, and the state’s top officeholders acting together – including her former primary opponent Marty Jackley making a statement of active support – the message got through to voters receptive to voting GOP that in the contest for Governor, Republican Nominee Kristi Noem is the more conservative choice.
When they went into the voting booth, the electorate spoke, and told the country that Republican Kristi Noem – former Congresswoman and now Governor-elect – is who they choose to lead the State of South Dakota into the next era.
And the rest is history.
I agree top story of the political year.
4 days to go till inauguration!