Noem Flouts New Hampshire Travel Restrictions to Boost 2024 Brand

Last updated on 2020-10-28

South Dakota’s maskless freedom comes at a price. Because we’ve decided Sales Tax and 2024 are more important than Life, superspreading South Dakotans are now required to quarantine before visiting at least fourteen states, plus two great cities:

1. Alaska
2. Connecticut
3. Washington, D.C.
4. Hawaii
5. Chicago, Illinois
6. Kentucky
7. Maine
8. Massachusetts
9. New Hampshire
10. New Jersey
11. New Mexico
12. New York
13. Ohio
14. Pennsylvania
15. Rhode Island
16. Vermont

Wait—New Hampshire? Didn’t Governor Kristi Noem just go campaign there masklessly last week?

New Hampshire’s coronavirus travel restrictions apparently don’t apply to politicos like Noem. The state’s travel guidance says folks visiting from anywhere other than neighboring New England states only have to quarantine for fourteen days before tromping around the state if they are coming “for an extended period of time.” A Kristi Noem speech only feels like an extended period of time.

Noem’s fellow Republican Governor Chris Sununu has also ordered that people wear face coverings at any gathering of 100 people or more. I can’t find headcounts for Noem’s events—though one observer refers to an Ocotber 15 crowd as “massive“—she most definitely did not wear a mask at any of them.

Of course, if Governor Chris Sununu went out campaigning nationwide like Noem, his own rules would force him to stay home from work for fourteen days. New Hampshire includes non-essential travel outside of New England as a standalone criterion for requiring an employee to quarantine for two weeks. New Hampshire’s coronavirus guidelines define “essential travel” as “travel for personal safety, medical care, care of others, parental shared custody, for food, beverage or medication or for work. Employees who travel outside of the New England states for personal or leisure reasons cannot rely on this exemption.” Campaigning for Donald Trump isn’t even work (unless Donald Trump is slipping Kristi some Stormy dollars for services rendered), and lying for Donald promotes the opposite of personal safety and care for others.

Governor Noem showed her contempt for personal safety and care for others in Ohio last month when she violated that swing state‘s travel coronavirus travel restrictions. Ohio requires visitors to quarantine if they come from a state where the seven-day rolling test positivity rate is 15% or worse. When Kristi toured the Buckeye State after Labor Day, South Dakota’s coronavirus positivity was coming in at 22.2%, prompting Ohio’s Democratic chief to holler:

The Ohio Republican Party bringing the governor of a coronavirus super-spreader state here for several indoor events with unmasked attendees isn’t just irresponsible, it sends the wrong message to Ohioans still reeling economically from Donald Trump’s reckless handling of the pandemic,” said Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper. “The Ohio Department of Health advises visitors from states with high positivity rates — states like South Dakota — to self-quarantine for 14 days when they arrive in Ohio. So did Gov. Kristi Noem follow the guidance of Mike DeWine’s health department?” [Ohio Democratic Party, press release, 2020.09.08].

Flaunting coronavirus rules is just one more reason Kristi Noem is the perfect mini-Don… and one more reason we need to remove her from office as soon as constitutionally possible.