DES MOINES, IOWA – Republican Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota says she’s “counting” on former President Trump launching another run for the White House in 2024.
The conservative governor and strong Trump ally told Fox News on Friday that the former president “had America right where we needed her. His policies were right. So I’m counting on him running.”
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Noem spoke minutes before she addressed the 10th annual Family Leadership Summit, which is hosted by the Family Leader, a top, Iowa-based social conservative organization of White evangelicals.
Political pundits view Noem as a possible contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, especially if Trump decides against launching a White House campaign. And her stop in Iowa, the state whose caucuses for half a century have led off the presidential nominating calendar, sparked more speculation about her potential national ambitions.
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“It’s my neighboring state. I’m here all the time. I was just here earlier this week,” she said. And pointing to Iowa’s GOP governor, Noem said “Kim Reynolds asked me to come to this conference and I said absolutely, I’ll do anything for Kim.”
Noem, who’s up for reelection in 2022, has become a hero to conservatives over the past year for her resistance to coronavirus pandemic restrictions. “We were the only state that didn’t close a single business. We didn’t shelter in place,” she said in her speech. “We didn’t mandate anything. We just trusted people.”