South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem traveled to Georgia to stump for Sen. Kelly Loeffler, one of two Republicans in Georgia’s key Senate runoff elections set for Jan. 5 that will decide the balance of power on Capitol Hill.
Noem, also a Republican and a possible 2024 presidential contender, has been traveling the country for months to boost the GOP. Prior to the Nov. 3 elections, Noem campaigned for President Trump. This past weekend, she was in Georgia to assist Loeffler, who is facing a stiff challenge from Democrat Raphael Warnock. According to Sioux Falls’s Argus Leader, the governor also traveled to Texas to preside over the opening ceremonies of a rodeo.
Noem is the latest in a string of potential presidential contenders to parachute into Georgia, where the GOP can only afford to lose one seat and still preserve its Senate majority. If Loeffler, who was appointed to the Senate last January by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, loses to Warnock and Sen. David Perdue falls to Democrat Jon Ossoff, Democrats would win the Senate by virtue of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’s tiebreaking vote.
Noem has been a fixture on the campaign trail for several months.
The first-term governor’s decision to resist mask mandates, economic lockdowns, and gathering limits to slow the spread of the coronavirus in South Dakota turned her into a folk hero in conservative circles and prompted speculation that she could seek the White House in four years. Noem, a House member from 2011-19, defended her handling of the pandemic in an annual address to the state legislature on Tuesday.
“My critics praise states that have issued lockdowns, that have mandated masks and shutdown businesses, lauding these states as having taken the right steps to mitigate the spread of the virus,” the governor said. “As we can continue to see spikes move throughout the country, the course of the virus does not seem to be quantifiably different in the states that, according to the media, did everything right.”
