Do we like Kristi Noem?
Our score: 2 out of 10. Her own acts on trans rights and the Minneapolis shootings fail the harm test, and the real good on the record is thin.
Noem is a Republican who climbed from South Dakota's state politics to Congress, the governor's office and then Donald Trump's Homeland Security department. In the House she voted no on reauthorising the Violence Against Women Act in 2013, voted to bar the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases in 2011, and backed an amendment to prevent same-sex marriage in 2010, per OnTheIssues. As governor she first vetoed a trans sports bill, then signed one.
The big stoush was Minneapolis. In January 2026 federal agents fatally shot two US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and Noem called the incidents “domestic terrorism” before any investigation. At a Senate hearing she refused to withdraw the label, and Senator Dick Durbin said top immigration officials had admitted they never gave her that intelligence. She said her statements rested on immediate accounts from agents at the scene.
Then came the $220 million ad campaign starring her. She told senators Trump approved it, but a senior administration official told ABC the president did not sign off: “Absolutely not.” Separately, PolitiFact checked her February 2026 claim that election authorities “lie within my department” and found states run elections and DHS plays a very limited role. Trump fired her on 5 March, after 13 months.
The courts were not kind to her department either. In May 2026 a federal judge in New York found DHS likely broke the law by skipping the process Congress requires before ending temporary protected status for Yemen, and blocked the termination for 16 plaintiffs while their case continues. That is a preliminary ruling, not a final one, and it was one of several against her department on protected-status terminations.
On the harm check, the sports ban is the clearest one. She signed it in 2022, saying it protects a “level playing field” for girls, while the Human Rights Campaign said it would harm trans kids. Her chief of staff Mark Miller was quoted likening trans inclusion in sport to terrorism, and the article noted lawmakers couldn't cite local examples. In 2024 she said some tribal leaders were personally benefiting from cartels on reservations, and several South Dakota tribes banned her from their lands.
The recent run is a soft landing. After the firing she was made special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, a six-month appointment according to her own X account, and in October that ended with her staying on as a State Department adviser. In August she said she isn't planning a Senate run in 2028 but didn't rule out running for something in South Dakota someday.