South Dakota’s Noem Comments on Possible 2024 Run

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks during the CPAC in Dallas, Texas on July 11, 2021. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem commented on the possibility of running for president in 2024, saying she’s in no rush to make a decision.

“Do you not feel a rush, governor, to make a decision on 2024?” a reporter asked Noem, a Republican, as she appeared on CBS.

“I don’t at all. No. I think that it’s important that people focus on governing, rather than going out and making big, broad statements and going out and taking action for their own political futures,” Noem, 51, said.

The governor said South Dakota has been taking action to defend “personal responsibility and freedom” and that she'd continue down that path.

“I do believe that the American people are desperate for someone who’s not talking politics, who instead is taking action to protect our way of life,” she said.

Noem, a former congresswoman, has been floated as a possible challenger to former President Donald Trump, the only Republican to formally launch a 2024 bid as of yet.

“President Trump’s policies were very good for South Dakota. I worked with him for over two years on tax reform, which I was passionate about. He cared a lot about keeping America strong, defending us from our enemies—both here and abroad. So his policies helped my people be successful. And if we could go back to a day where we had those policies in place, we would continue to thrive far into the future,” Noem said.

The governor acknowledged being in the conversation but said, at this point, she’s not certain that she must run for the highest office in the country.

“I’m not convinced that I need to run for president. But I also believe that this country needs somebody to lead us that has a vision, that appreciates the freedoms that this country provides to the people that live here, and really does want to protect them and our constitutional rights going forward,” Noem said. “I think that as we go through the coming months, and even the next year, year and a half, that leader will emerge.”

Noem won a second term as governor in the 2022 election with 62 percent of the vote.

Trump, who announced his bid just after the midterms, has said that he would be a strong leader if elected to another term. Among his stated aims are to “defend the family as the center of American life,” protect parental input in public education, and to “dismantle the deep state.”

Trump, 76, won the 2016 election but lost the 2020 race to President Joe Biden, 80.

Trump backed Noem in the midterms and Noem said in mid-2022 on a podcast that if Trump runs, “I'll support him.” But several months later, Noem told the New York Times that Trump does not give Republicans “the best chance” to win the 2024 race.

Nikki Haley, 50, the former South Carolina governor, who served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump presidency, said around the same time that she might launch a 2024 bit despite previously promising she would not do so if Trump ran again.

Other potential Republican candidates include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, 44; former Vice President Mike Pence, 63; former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, 66; former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), 56; and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), 52.

While some Republicans see an opening to beat Trump after he fended off rivals in 2016, former Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said recently that people should not write off Trump’s chances.

Trump “endures persecution and eludes prosecution like no other public figure,” Conway wrote in an op-ed, though she added later that “it would also be foolish to assume that Mr. Trump’s path to another presidency would be smooth and secure.”