Governor Kristi Noem‘s frequent flying paid off in campaign cash. According to the year-end campaign finance report filed Friday, Noem’s campaign raked in $7,932,423.15 in 2021—a record, says her campaign, for a gubernatorial candidate in a pre-election year.
Over 26% of that money, $2,080,000, came from one out-of-state source: the Republican Governors Association Right Direction Political Action Committee. Her next biggest donor was herself: Noem dumped $777,222.52 from her federal Noem Victory Fund into her gubernatorial campaign. She dumped another $202,290.23 of her federal PAC money into Larry Rhoden’s Lieutenant Governor campaign fund and $111,248.57 into her other federal PAC, “Keeping Republican Ideas Strong Timely & Inventive.” And 76% of that Noem Victory Fund cash—$1,114,843.90, enough to cover all of Noem’s disbursements to her affiliated committees—came from out of state.
Noem drew another $79,000 from three out-of-state political parties—the North Carolina, Texas, and Kansas GOPs.
Noem’s largest in-state PAC donation came from the South Dakota Trust Company PAC, which gave her $15,000 even though she blew off a chance to defend South Dakota’s lucrative plutocrat-sheltering industry before Congress last fall.
Noem reported $166,795.00 in donations from “entities,” the South Dakota campaign finance law category for businesses, non-profits, labor unions, and other organizations not recognized as political committees. By my quick count, over 84% of that money, $140,575, came from out of state.
The 491 pages of itemized individual contributions will take much longer to sift through. Those donations are listed in no particular order. But in a semi-random sample of four pages from the list—pages 345, 393, 442, and 463—out of 188 donations totaling $29,284.84, I find 57% came from out-of-state donors. (I invite the Noem campaign to send me the original and complete Excel file so I can quickly determine the percentage of all individual donations received from non-South Dakotans.)
Kristi Noem’s party has tried to ban out-of-state contributions to South Dakota’s ballot question campaigns, saying that outside ideas are bad for South Dakota. But in every major category on her 2021 year-end campaign finance report, Governor Noem reports receiving the majority of her money from out-of-state donors.
Why of course her money comes from out of state. I always give her my two cents worth right here.
Eight million simoleons for a wholly inconsequential bureaucrat?
Yeah, Porter… and she has already burned up a third of what she raised from her Trumpy out-of-state friends. She’s got the Annette Bosworth hustle down pat. Play to the frightened white simpletons, flash a pretty smile, and you can pay all of your bills and indulge in all sorts of extravagances.
You know Cory Allen, you’ve got a great song in that name. Apart from that, North Korea hates all outside ideas too, excepting missiles and nuclear of course. North Dakota probably hates all outside ideas excepting football players. So South Dakota could really clean it’s curriculum up with a much shortened South Dakota education by for and done by South Dakotans. What would South Dakota physics be?
Well…you’d have to be totally absent of an idea of how to productively spend your money to contemplate a donation to Mrs. Noem’s unending campaign. Money down a rat hole.
I would advocate for new campaign finance reform: one MUST govern in the area that contributes most to one’s campaign fund. Let’s jsut make it a full-on auction.
I looked at donations from her neighbors. 2 donors from Hayti, 2 from Henry, 3 from Castlewood, 9 from Lake Norden, 1 from Estelline, 0 from Willow Lake, 5 from Bryant, and 9 from Hazel.
Some support from her neighbors, but not that much support IMO.
Scott, as Cory has reported, Kristi Noem fundraises most of her campaign cash from out-of-state donors while she lives a luxurious lifestyle off the South Dakota taxpayers, including us all while she preaches how we NEED TO BE economically self-sufficient. After reading her history of agriculture subsidies and government paychecks/perks, I highly doubt Kristi could actually live up to her so-called values of “self-sufficiency” that she preaches to all of us. I’ve always said that one needs to: LIVE BY EXAMPLE.