What Comes After: A 2024 Game (Gameplay-PAUSED)

[Schiff for Senate]

KRISTI NOEM 2024

A VOICE FOR ORDINARY AMERICANS AND AMERICAN VALUES

February: Tour of the West

Gov. Kristi Noem kicks off her 2024 presidential campaign with a tour of the West. Noem will take one state at a time, returning to visit the Mount Rushmore State and tend to gubernatorial duties between each state.

Noem discusses rural and western issues, offering up plenty of red meat to the base, as well as a strong grasp on rural issues affecting voters in the region.

Some highlights:

When we talk about the traditional American values that our parents and grandparents grew up in, that a lot of us grew up in, we're talking about an America very different from today's America. Today's America, the one where our kids and grandkids are growing up in, doesn't teach these kids the same values that our old America did. The America we grew up in? The America we all love and cherish? It's fading away in front of our eyes. In the White House, I will fight for to restore those American values once again.

And there's a reason I'm saying all of this here, in Dodge City. It's because Dodge City embodies those same American values I grew up learning, that we all grew up learning. Dodge City is one of the few places those values have still not been lost. So I guess you could say that I'm fighting for American values, but not just American values, our values, and the values of Dodge City, and hardworking Kansans in all corners of the state.

While we're on the topic of values, though, Kansas' governor - Laura Kelly. [loud boos] She just does not stand for those values. Laura Kelly has been a disaster for all Kansans. Laura Kelly is a governor who stopped the celebration of Easter, back in 2020! I remember. We all remember. First, you know, the woke left went after Christmas. And then, the governor in Kansas, Laura Kelly, she's gone ahead and decided to cancel Easter as well! Literally! It's ridiculous. This woke nonsense has gone too far. It is a direct assault on American values, and we must be vigilant. We must fight back. In the White House, I will fight back, like no other president has. I give you my word on that.

Laura Kelly is an authoritarian, and for a long time, she's ruled over Kansas with an iron hand. She banned Easter, yes. But she also closed schools, forced everybody to wear masks. And when President Trump and his administration created the COVID19 vaccine, in record time? Kelly couldn't even so much as roll the vaccine out effectively! You know, the Democrats, Laura Kelly included, they talk so much about getting vaccinated, and not just once, but four, five, six times! They talk a big game about that! Yet Laura Kelly rolled out the Trump COVID vaccine so ineffectively, that Kansas was near the bottom in COVID vaccinations. Now I don't think Kansas belongs near the bottom. I think Kansas is near the top. But the same way Joe Biden has dragged down America's name internationally, Laura Kelly continues to give the state of Kansas a bad name! She is utterly inept and incompetent.

My campaign is all about serving the Americans that have left behind. The Americans that were left behind by Bush, and Obama. The Americans who finally started to get their voices heard during President Trump's time. The Americans who were deprived of their voices once again when Joe Biden stole the election and became president. It is for those Americans that I'm running this campaign. Because they - the backbone of America - have been left behind, trampled upon, by Joe Biden, by Laura Kelly, by all these liberal elites, all these liberal elites who are getting their money from the coastal, urban liberal elites. These people, they think they're better than us. They don't offer us any respect, and they do not care about our opinions. During the Obama years, and now during the Biden regime, they've been taking our country from us! Depriving us of our voices, stripping America of its values! What are their values? Their values are looting, and stealing, and arson. [boos] They don't have any values. Joe Biden was right about one thing: when he called the 2020 election a "battle for the soul of this nation," he was right. It was a battle for the soul of this nation, and we lost it. We lost it to the BLM and the Antifa forces, the ones who will do nothing to protect our country from illegal immigrants, from domestic terrorists, from Radical Islam. [boos] Well, actually, we won that battle - and then those forces stole it! [boos] They stole it! [boos] The mainstream media and the establishment, they'll suppress all the evidence - but we all know it in our hearts and minds: We WON that battle! We won that battle, but they stole it. And you know what? Maybe we lost that battle. They stole that battle from us, and so we lost that battle from us. But we will win the war! [cheers] We will win the war to restore American values, at home and abroad! [cheers] We already started to Make America Great Again. Now, it's time for us to Give America Values Again. It is a battle THAT WE WILL WIN! [cheers] It is a battle we have to win, and mark my words, we'll win it. And when we win it? No more rioting! No more looting! No more made-up genders, no more CRT, no more of kids being taught that they are evil if they are white, and that they can choose their gender! We, together, WILL return America's values.

As for attacking her opponents, Noem's zingers include:

Joe Biden has been an absolute failure for America, for all Americans. Inflation has gone through the roof. There is a major crisis at the border. There's absolutely nothing that Joe Biden has done right, and our country can feel the effects of that. All of us, myself included, have seen what a disaster Joe Biden has been for this country. And his replacement options on the Democrat side? They're even worse.

Make no bones about it: This is a campaign we have to win. Don't think of it as a campaign, in fact, think of it as a war for America's values, for ordinary Americans. Because that's just what it is. A war that we cannot lose. And to win that war, we need to pick the right person. We need to pick the right candidate for conservative, American values, for the ordinary, hardworking Americans that have been left behind. And what I think is, that for that, we need an ordinary American, someone who's grown up in America's Heartland, who's seen all their life what real American values look like. [cheers]

So let me just take a minute and outline for all of us who are options are. We've got Mike Pence. [boos] Mike Pence. The man who sold out President Trump when Trump most needed him. The man who went from President Trump's loyal supporter to his sworn enemy. The man who calls us ordinary Republicans "lunatics." [boos after every sentence] Mike Pence is a RINO. No, he's worse than a RINO - because at least people like Larry Hogan have been clear all their careers about where they stand. Mike is a traitor. He's got not values or principles. He has the harshest words for President Trump. He stood by Donald Trump for four full years when it benefitted him politically, and now that he thinks it doesn't, he's stabbed Donald Trump, all of Donald Trump's supporters, in the back. And so we need to defeat him, for a number of reasons. We need to show him we do not tolerate people who change their views to get elected, who say one thing and then do another, who call us "lunatics," who lie to President Trump and all of his supporters, to all of us. Mike Pence is a career politician and a serial liar. And this is something that's been true for a long time! I have a lot of respect for President Trump, but frankly, and this is the God-honest truth, if I were him, I never would've picked a flip-flopping career politician like Mike Pence in the first place! Choosing Mike Pence as his running mate was one of President Trump's few mistakes. As governor, Mike Pence supported a good piece of legislation to fight back against wokeism, to support religious freedom. But the day the establishment came out against it, Mike Pence turned his back on the bill. You know, in South Dakota, that's not how I've done things. I've done things according to my faith, and the state's law, and what the people want, and our values. I've never caved in to the establishment or flip-flopped on something because of backlash. I am a proud conservative, and I'm a staunch and consistent supporter of religious freedom. Let me tell you, that's something I wouldn't change, no matter what anyone told me or offered me. Mike Pence, though? When he acts morally superior, acts like he has principles? Don't buy it. Say what you will about the other RINO in this race, Larry Hogan, he at least is not as much a chameleon as Mike Pence is!

But, you know, Larry Hogan, maybe he's not quite as much of a flip-flopper, but he's every bit as much, if not more, a creature of the establishment! He was born in DC, he's spent his whole life near DC - and that's where his heart is, that's where his interests lie. They don't lie with ordinary Americans who work hard to put their food on the table. They lie with the wealthy, coastal donors who don't give a damn about ordinary Americans like you and me. You know, I was born in little Watertown, South Dakota. I've got South Dakota values, values from the American Heartland, and those are the values I will always fight for! Larry Hogan? He's a RINO. As governor in Maryland, he went along with the Democrat agenda on most things. Here in Middle America, we support our Second Amendment, and the right to bear arms. Larry Hogan signed gun control bills time and time again back in Maryland. We ordinary Americans are for traditional marriage, between a man and a woman. Larry Hogan supports gay marriage. Larry Hogan doesn't care about taxpayer money. He's been a COVID tyrant. He's done it all wrong. And now he wants our nomination? He wins the White House, and we're all done for. We may as well vote for Joe Biden in the primary! So here's the question: Do we want an actual Republican to get the nomination? Or do we want a RINO, a Democrat in a Republican's clothing? I think I know the answer.

She also visits Nevada and begins laying down infrastructure in the crucial "early state," and "courts" Gov. Lombardo at a public meeting in Reno, where the two speak productively about "solutions for the water crisis," and other western issues where Noem demonstrates expertise.

March

Noem meets with GOP politicians across the country. Notably, she chooses to meet with governors more than senators, meeting GOP governors such as Jeremy Pillen in Nebraska, Kevin Stitt in Oklahoma, Greg Gianforte in Montana, Sarah Sanders in Arkansas, and the like. She takes care to avoid "RINO" governors (such as Idaho's Brad Little or Utah's Spencer Cox). She also visits Iowa numerous times and emphasises her message of "traditional values" that "put rural Iowans, rural Americans, the Americans that have been forgotten and left behind for decades by politicians from the elite coasts, from the big cities that get all the money and all the infrastructure and all the attention." She promises, "While we will put America first, within America, it's time to stop putting rural America last! And to do that, we don't need senators from the DC Swamp, people who've sold their interests to the lobbyists. We need someone who's lived their whole life in rural America, someone untainted by Washington. And that someone is me. And I'm running to serve you." Noem largely focuses on the Rust Belt; except for Iowa, she also campaigns in states such as Michigan (where she rails against her possible opponent in the general election, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and promises "solutions that would not only help Michigan, that'd help all of America", as well as a "trade policy that putts hardworking Michigans ahead of those overseas, ahead of Communist China"), Wisconsin, Ohio, and Indiana (where she calls Mike Pence "a massive disappointment for the entire state, a flip-flopper who cared about Indiana values, except when his donors didn't want him to"). As far as funds goes, although she does want to maintain 'grassroots appeals,' behind closed-door meetings with representatives of the fossil fuel lobby, Noem highlights how pro-oil/pro-coal her administration in South Dakota has been, promises continued support for the Keystone Pipeline, and pledges to undo Biden's climate restrictions. Noem says much of the same as she campaigns in the Kentucky Coalfields and in West Virginia - she says at a town hall in Beckley, West Virginia, that, "It's about providing energy for America, and ensuring our energy independence, but it's also about the many people who've spent their whole lives working in this industry, whose lives have been spent doing hard work in the coalfields. Democrats, aside from assaulting the values we've had all our lives, they're perfectly happy to dismiss all of that, to throw all these West Virginians, and these Kentuckians, under the bus. It's easy for someone in San Francisco or in Boston to rail against coal and cheer for renewable energy. It's less easy when for generations, your entire family has been dependent on the coal industry, when your father and grandfather and great-grandfather have been coal miners, and Democrats don't want those jobs to exist for you and your kids." Overall, Noem increases her name recognition and funding and, through meeting with politicians, also opens the doors to future endorsements.


April

Noem continues to do what she began the previous month, but on a regional level, she heads towards the South - into South Carolina (where she is well aware of the state's early primary, and as such meets with Governor McMaster, Senator Scott, and other major politicians in the state; and meets with the Republicans whose feathers ex-governor Haley has ruffled), Georgia (pledging to "turn the state red again," and, in a rare move for a Republican, organising meetings with black Republicans in rural Southwest Georgia in an attempt to win over rural black voters in the state - she discusses "solutions for Americans, black and white" and "ways to ease the tensions we have between races," and says that "what the Woke Left wants is reverse racism against white people, not actual solutions for African-Americans. They'll paint us, the Party of Lincoln, as white supremacists. However, there is a lot of common ground between the black community and the Republican Party, and I think we should focus on the things that unite us rather than what divides us").

As for attacking other politicians this month, Noem goes after Kari Lake, saying, "She couldn't win in Arizona. Kari Lake is a sore loser. She lost, and she was too pathetic to admit that she lost. Now she wants to be our president? Kari is, you know, a pretty interesting character. She was for Barack Obama, she was for Hillary Clinton. And she helped elect a Democrat governor of Arizona by running a terrible campaign. This is someone who'd usher in the biggest blue wave since 2006. Mike Pence is a flip-flopper, and so is Kari Lake. She's a big hypocrite. She attacks the mainstream media that she was a part of for decades. She attacks the politicians that she once endorsed. She claims she's been brainwashed - well, I mean, when you hear it straight from the horse's mouth..."

May

Noem attacks Ron DeSantis as a "flip-flopper", criticising his position on vaccines, the environment, and a number of other issues, as she campaigns in New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina, Nevada, and across the country. She labels Nikki Haley "a female Mike Pence," "an establishmentarian who tries to have it both ways on every issue", and dismisses Mike Lindell "as a delusional crackhead who is so hung up on what happened in 2020 he probably doesn't even realise we're in 2023 now" (she says that "while 2020 was stolen, we need to focus on winning the election by so much next year that the Democrats can't steal it no matter how much they try - and I can do that"), and says "he can't even string together a sentence together without having a meltdown. It's sad what drugs do to a person, and he's a poster boy as to why we should take the drug crisis very seriously" - from where she promptly begins discussing restrictions on cannabis and "protecting our southern border from drug dealers who sell their product to Americans and create an international market out of our children!"

[Schiff for Senate]

Noem attacks the other candidates for flip-flopping:

"To actually assess these career politicians, we need to look at their records, not the lies that they tell us all.

Mike Pence dropped support for his owen religious freedom bill after woke corporations turned against it. He was a loyal, steadfast supporter to Donald Trump for 5 years, but then after Trump lost, decided to stab him in the back.

Larry Hogan, well, he's spent his entire career capitulating to the Democrats - he might as well go ahead and join them!

Kari Lake has been in the mainstream media she hates so much all of her life, till just a few years back, and she supported Barack Obama and all the problems he created for this country. Now, she's against Obama, and against the job she had for more than twenty years. Kari Lake, a rising star on the right? If we supported her, we'd be making a terrible mistake. We need to at least give her a few years and see if she finds a new political party and a new ideology first - this could be Kari's latest phase, after all, and it could be no more long lasting than the times she supported John Kerry and Barack Obama. Kari Lake is still full of self-contradictions. She supports free speech, but also locking up those who disagree with her. She's a kook, and she can't win nationally anymore than she could win in Arizona.

And Ron DeSantis? Ron supports banning fracking! He supported vaccine mandates! Now, of course, he's lurched to the right. He claims he's not a career politician, but he's just like the rest of them. Used Donald Trump to win his primary, his general election, and then after a few years he turned against Trump and tried to take his job. He claims he's pro-life? Well, he has no problem making compromises with the left when it comes to the lives of unborn children!


Only I have fought the left at each turn, never compromised on my values or flip-flopped on my principles. We need somebody like that in the White House. My only special interest is the American people. I want to give you a president who will fight for you, not for their political career. I have consistently been for religious freedom, for the lives of the unborn, for the Second Amendment, for vaccine freedom, for lower taxes, and for our energy independence. The others won't attack my record, because they cannot. It's as conservative as it gets, because I do not budge or ever cave into the Radical Left."


About the allegations against DeSantis from the National Enquirer: "If you support family values, you should not support somebody who preaches an anti-grooming agenda on one side but who sleeps with underage girls on the other. We are the party against the groomers, and it appears our presidential front runner may be one of them. I'm not afraid to say that - I have been an advocate for women and will always be one. We need to seriously investigate these allegations. It will be disgraceful to nominate a possible sexual predator, a possible pedophile, for the presidency. It would be absolutely antithetical to our party's family values."

[Schiff for Senate]

DEBATE ANSWERS TO COMMON QUESTIONS

1. An Opening Statement

NOEM: "I'd like to begin by thanking Fox News and the city of Miami for hosting this debate, and also our wonderful audience. We all know we're at a historically important time for our country. It is of the utmost importance we choose a true, principled, unabashed conservative who can win this race without losing their values, someone who won't back down or buckle to anyone when in the White House. We can't nominate flip-floppers, or extremist grifters. Who do we need as the face of this party? Someone who's lived with American values and has the experience to lead this country. We are in desperate need of conservative stewardship, after the disasters of the last two and a half years under Biden. Biden, Harris, the Democratic Establishment, the Woke Mob, BLM, and Antifa - we need to give them all the boot. We need an experienced leader for ordinary Americans, for American values. I've grown up in America's Heartland, with American values, with ordinary, working-class Americans. It's for those Americans, and for the America that I grew up in, that I am running for president. It is time to restore conservative values, to restore an America that we all recognise and cherish."

2. Raise your hand if you believe that Donald J. Trump is the rightful winner of the 2020 Presidential Election (Say if you raised your hand and if you like, write one or two sentences)

NOEM: "I didn't raise my hand, but it's not quite as simple, as black-and-white, as that. There are a lot of unanswered questions about the election, a lot of things we didn't uncover. So it's unclear whether Joe Biden or Donald Trump actually won the 2020 contest. Is there more fraud we didn't manage to uncover? Probably. Would Donald Trump have won had there been no fraud? Maybe. But what I do know is that Joe Biden is the president - that much is very clear from the inflation disaster, the border crisis, and the rise in crime. And what I know is we need to stop focusing on the past, stop rehashing 2020, and look to the future, to 2024. We need to nominate someone who'll give Joe Biden and Kamala Harris the boot, who can win so decisively that they won't be able to steal the race from us no matter what they try!"

3. Who is your favorite Republican President in your lifetime?

NOEM: "Donald Trump. He has been a transformational president, someone who's fought the establishment in Washington and enacted reform, triggered real change. Someone who gave disenchanted Americans a reason to vote. He has been a great president for all except for woke far-left extremists and the creatures of the establishment. I didn't receive any high-up administration position by President Trump, but I saw all that he managed to achieve for ordinary Americans during his four years, and that is why I unequivocally consider him the best president of my lifetime."

4. The United States has an out of control inflation problem. The cost of housing, food, energy, and gasoline is spiraling, what will you do to control inflation and bring down costs for working Americans?

NOEM: "We need to reduce our spending. We need to curb spending and stop taxing Americans, stop squeezing them dry. That's number one. Number two, what this crisis has shown is that our country is far too dependent on foreign oil. The solution is very clear - we need to have energy independence, by increasing oil drilling and coal mining, by going all-in on fracking, and utilising our nation's natural resources, more effectively. I'm especially well-versed on this issue because I'm from South Dakota, a big oil state. If we could build the Keystone Pipeline, utilise all those resources, that would go a long way in helping set up our energy independence for the future."

5. Will you support a national abortion ban? Would it be after 15 weeks of pregnancy? 10 weeks? 6? Or would you prohibit all elective abortions?

NOEM: "I would be very cautious about a national abortion ban, since while I am personally 100% pro-life and I absolutely support abortion bans in the individual states (such as the one I shepherded in South Dakota), I'm worried that a federal abortion ban could be yet another case of the federal government overstepping its boundaries and not letting state governments making their own decisions. However, I'm confident that there will be some happy medium, and we can definitely enact some reasonable restrictions on abortion at the national level, to counter the radically pro-abortion laws in states such as Colorado and California. Unborn lives in those states matter every bit as much as unborn lives in states such as Indiana and Alabama."

[Schiff for Senate]

DEBATE RESPONSES TO OTHER CANDIDATES, PART 1

(may be continued; also, the responses to Pence are made in the context of him still being in the running, with the assumption he's not yet reached the point in his response where he announces he will be dropping out)

2. I don't have a favorite Republican President. Every one of them, except for Trump, did what they felt was right for the country, and I admire that.

My favorite Republican president in my lifetime is Ronald Reagan because he understood the things that America needed when he was in office.  He came into office with sky-high inflation and a looming Soviet threat, and when he left office inflation was minimized for the better part of four decades and the Iron Curtain was on the brink of collapse.  It's that kind of conservative agenda of cutting taxes and standing up to our enemies that I want to replicate as president.

TO PENCE AND HALEY ON THE FAVORITE PRESIDENT QUESTION: "Frankly, I'm hardly surprised that Mike Pence and Nikki Haley, both wishy-washy creatures of consensus, didn't choose Donald Trump. He played a major role in creating their political careers. Without him, they wouldn't be where they are today, they wouldn't even be on this debate stage. Both of them got high-level roles in his administration. Yet now, like so many establishmentarians, they've deemed it politically convenient to turn their backs on him, so that's exactly what they're doing - in front of our very eyes, Mike Pence in particular is betraying Donald Trump. Because believe me, if they thought Trump was still politically viable, they'd both immediately say his name.

Mike was Donald Trump's second-in-command; his right-hand-man; very honestly, his "yes-man", for four full years. He supported the president at every turn. But after Trump lost, and Mike decided it would be good for his career to betray him? He's become more anti-Trump than many Democrats! Mike, if you consider Donald Trump so un-American, so evil, so treasonous - why did you agree to be his running mate? Why did you serve him loyally for four years? Did you just wake up one morning and completely change your opinion of him? You think by lying to our faces, by betraying President Trump, by brazenly pulling a political 180, you can win the presidency, and so that's exactly what you're doing. Well, I don't think the voters are going to buy it."

3. There's a saying about the President. He can't control the economy, but he gets blamed when things go wrong related to it. That's basically the inflation crisis in a nutshell, there isn't much I, or any other President can do, and anything I try likely would make things worse.

TO PENCE ON THE INFLATION QUESTION: "Mike Pence here is preemptively, you know, he's already avoiding taking responsibility as president, he's already trying to avoid any blame, to avoid looking for solutions, to the inflation problem. Not only that - he's apologising for Joe Biden's incompetence on this issue! You really have to wonder what side he's on half the time...

Mike, there's a lot the president can do about inflation. There are a lot of solutions this party has, that we've proposed, and implemented, to curb inflation - if you want, you can ask me, and I'll name you a few! If you're already saying there's nothing you can do to fix inflation, you're setting yourself up for failure, you're already giving yourself an excuse, much like Joe Biden, to do nothing about the inflation problem.

We need a confident, strong, capable leader to fight inflation - not somebody who passes the buck and comes up with excuses instead of finding solutions. Mike Pence, even here, can't think of any of the many obvious solutions to inflation, and so he's letting us know there's nothing he's going to do about it as president.

Well, Mike, thanks, I guess, for letting us know in advance that you won't be solving our country's problems if elected."

4. Not only would I support a national abortion ban with no exceptions being passed today, as President, I would declare martial law in any state with legal abortions for the sole purpose of preventing abortions.

TO PENCE ON ABORTION: "This is certainly alarming. We are the party that's for more rights for the states, and less federal power in our government. Yet here, Mike Pence is already threatening martial law! Don't get me wrong - I am one hundred percent pro-life, and unlike Mike, I never have and never will bow down as far as my principles are concerned. However, this suggestion of martial law is, well, scary. We can't have this man in the White House, somebody who's already threatening martial law if he doesn't get his way. It's especially rich coming from the 'anti-insurrection' Mike Pence, who viewed the riot as a treasonous insurrection."

[Schiff for Senate]

RESPONSE TO PERSONAL QUESTION:

To Governor Noem: Governor, you vetoed a bill to restrict Trans Women from participating in Women's Sports, defying the wishes of many conservatives. Why?

NOEM: "As I've said in the past, I am a principled conservative who never backs down from my beliefs or keels to anyone. I did not veto that bill because I thought it was politically convenient. I knew some staunch conservatives in my own party would be angered. But I did it. Why? Because while I supported the bill's provisions, I believed it would be government overreach to place them upon colleges and universities - and it would place a severe burden on them. It would also create complications as South Dakota's colleges and universities participate in national competitions, and it is important to comply with the national standards. Above all, I am always for law and order. The bill also had broad language that I feared could have unintended and unforeseen consequences.

There are other bills that I have signed into law that I will proudly point to, such as a religious refusal law to protect religious freedom, to allow people to exercise their religious beliefs. It was actually quite similar to what Governor Pence did in Indiana back in 2015, but unlike Pence, when pressured by the liberal establishment, I didn't back down."

[Schiff for Senate]

Campaigning in Manchester, New Hampshire, Noem and her supporters receive the news live that Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin has entered the race. She and her supporters watch a live video of his announcement speech. Noem's reaction:

"Mike Pence just dropped out of the race, but looks like a proto-Pence has entered the field to replace him! Like Mike Pence, Glenn Youngkin will say whatever to get elected. And when he's in power, there's no trusting what he will or won't do. First, let's remind ourselves what he did to get elected. He flip-flopped on the issues more than a pancake! And you know what, kudos to him. He did win. Unlike Kari Lake and Roger Stone and Lin Wood, he at least has notched some electoral victories under his belt.

But what are Glenn's political positions? I mean, sure, we want to elect a Republican to the White House. But we want to elect a real, conservative Republican, not someone who bends to the will of the Democrats half the time. We know that we can and will elect that type of a conservative. So what type of a conservative is Glenn Youngkin? Is he like Larry Hogan, Nikki Haley and Mike Pence? A chameleon who changes their views to get elected, says one thing and does another? Is he like Lin Wood, or Mike Lindell, or Kari Lake, a lunatic, extremist grifter, who would disgrace this party and hand the White House to the radical Democrats? Now I have a sneaking suspicion that he's just another Haley or Hogan, but let's take a look at the facts.

He opposes banning abortion in his state before twenty weeks, and opposed Texas' heartbeat law, to save unborn lives with a heartbeat. In contrast, I'll have you note that in South Dakota, we've got a complete abortion ban, with exceptions only to save the mother's life - and I proudly support it, since unlike Glenn, I am unequivocally pro-life.

He supports allowing criminals, people who have gone to jail for their crimes, to vote.

He's been very pliable and flexible as far as the 2020 contest goes. Half the time you'll hear him hedge on the issue, refusing to give a clear answer.

I think it's safe to say that Glenn will say anything to get elected, and that when it truly counts, he'll stab us conservatives in the back. Maybe this formula worked for him in Virginia, but my question is this: Is this the man we want as our standard-bearer? Someone who will corrupt election integrity by allowing criminals to vote, someone who's willing to compromise on the most important of issues? I don't think so, New Hampshire."

[Schiff for Senate]

Campaigning in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Noem says,

"I was born in rural South Dakota, in Hamlin County. I grew up in a family of hardworking ranchers, who toiled hard to put food on the table. When my father died, my siblings and I worked even harder to help support my mother, to keep our family afloat. I dropped out of college to help support my family in their time of need.

A lot of the people running for this nomination, they're from rich families, they're the children of politicians trying to continue a political dynasty. They haven't lived in rural America, haven't seen the difficulties working-class Americans face. Not only have I seen those difficulties, I've lived in them. I've experienced them.

That was why I first entered public service. Not because my parents were in politics, but because I saw firsthand the difficulties people in my community, my neighbours, my friends, faced. I entered politics to be their advocate in government. To fight against policies that hurt ordinary Americans, that hurt middle- and working-class people, that stifle small businesses. To be a staunch advocate for our Second Amendment. To defend the lives of the voiceless.

Nothing has changed since then, except that the people of South Dakota have given me the honour of a lifetime in electing me to various offices. It has been the greatest honour to serve them, in the state legislature, Congress, as their governor. What is this presidential campaign about? Fundamentally, it's for those same people for whom I first sought public office, and the people like them all over this country, from Cedar Rapids to Seattle, from Detroit to Dallas. I am running for all of you. To restore your voices in government, to be your advocate, and to make government stop focusing on the elitist few, and begin looking at and listening to the many ordinary people from every corner of our great nation."

Excerpts from this mini-speech are used to create an ad that is aired in the Des Moines-Ames, Concord/Manchester, Las Vegas, Charlotte, and Charleston media markets (excerpts of the voiceover of Noem's mini-speech against a backdrop of a series of images of Noem's youth / early years, as well as her interactions with rural voters across the nation).

[Schiff for Senate]

Noem's general strategy is to focus her efforts on two of the early states in particular, that are more religious and rural than their counterparts: Iowa, and South Carolina. (Noem makes the traditional pledge to visit all 99 Iowa counties before the caucus, but unlike the other candidates, who give the rural counties very quick, cursory efforts, and focus only on the few urban counties, Noem spends time interacting with Americans in each of the state's counties.) Noem will campaign in New Hampshire, Nevada, and other states, as well, but she will especially focus on Iowa and South Carolina, and give special attention to their rural areas, trying to appeal to rural voters (see below).

ESTABLISHING A CONNECTION - THE RURAL TOUCH



Noem stresses her ordinary background and humble (and rural) origins, contrasting them with her opponents' "urban, elitist, wealthy" childhoods. She meets with rural voters and emphasises a kinsmanship and bond with each of them, emphasising that she IS one of them. Creating this personal connection of voters is an integral portion of her campaign strategy.

An exhibit of this part of her campaign is her speech in Cedar Rapids.


ATTACKING HER OPPONENTS


Of course, she also focuses on attacking the other candidates. She avoids attacking Lin Wood (viewing him as an insignificant joke candidate) and Roger Stone (with whom she's struck a truce of sorts, at least at the moment), attacking the two only in passing. Gaetz and Lindell get a few attacks as well (on Gaetz: "we are the party against pedophiles and groomers, and for family values - a literal pedophile is as antithetical to those values as anything, and we must disavow him completely"; Lindell is attacked simply as a "lunatic crackhead who doesn't even know what he's trying to say half the time"), but are largely deemed as insignificant. Ditto for Larry Hogan (an "establishment RINO who gives into the Democrats most of the time"). Mike Pence has, of course, bowed out of the race, leaving him a moot point.

Who DOES Noem attack? Hawley, Haley, Youngkin, Lake, and of course, DeSantis.

Hawley is slammed as a "pathetic coward" (Noem enjoys poking fun at him for the infamous photo of Hawley seeking refuge from the rioters he himself riled up) and "an establishment politician who drifts from one office to the next, doing absolutely nothing for Missourians" as well as a "hypocrite liar" (again: Hawley said he wasn't a career politician, and attacked said people, but then revealed himself to be just that).

Haley's "whole career was made by Donald Trump, and as a favour to Henry McMaster" (referencing the fact that Trump made Haley UN Ambassador because Lt. Gov. McMaster, an early Trump ally, wanted to ascend to the governorship). Haley is also attacked for "doing a complete 180 on the Confederate flag solely because woke liberals told her to" (Noem is careful to state that she does not necessarily support the flag herself - attacking Haley for flip-flopping on the issue, ostensibly to "appease the wokeists"); and is ripped into for "opposing anti-woke, common sense, socially conservative legislation," a reference to the bathroom ban which Haley voted, and which Noem attacks her for opposing.

Youngkin is attacked as an "empty suit" who "will say anything to get elected" and who "as his statements and actions show, is no friend of those who defend the lives of the unborn." He is also attacked for allowing ex-felons to vote ("an assault on election integrity - by a so-called Republican"), and for hedging on the 2020 election ("Either Donald Trump won it, or Joe Biden did. If you're not sure who did, just say so. But don't skirt your way around the question again and again, and repeatedly change your position, Glenn.")

Lake is attacked as a "sycophant loser" who "couldn't win in Arizona, a must-win state," a "pathetic, sore loser, who can't and didn't win but deludes herself that she did" and "a grifter" with "an inferiority complex." She is hammered for "opposing the mainstream media that she was a part of for over two decades," admitting herself that she was "brainwashed," and supporting Barack Obama. "Kari Lake was in the media for over twenty years. So it's in her nature to lie to us, again and again. I do think, however, she was telling us the truth when she said she got brainwashed - it's the only way to explain the completely incoherent nonsense she babbles most of the time...Frankly, I'm concerned about Kari and her mental health."

DeSantis is attacked for his "radical environmentalism" ("he's just another tree-hugger") and for "getting into feuds with Dinsey instead of serving Florida," as somebody who "like so many other career politicians, used Donald Trump to climb up the political ladder and reach where he is today, before trying to stab Donald Trump in the back and shove him down that same ladder...It's disgusting and it's appalling. If Ron is so readily willing to do this with our president, he'll do it with us once he's in power, too. Betray the people who got him to where he is." As far as his environmentalism goes, she also says "like so many environmentalists, he does not understand how much ordinary Americans our touched by the fossil fuel industry, by coal and oil. From his own position, never having worked in those industries, never having even known or met anyone who has, it's easy for him to be a moralist tree-hugger. But he'll never realise just how much the coal industry means to ordinary Americans in the coalfields of West Virginia and Kentucky. He will never know their struggle; and so he will never appreciate all that the coal industry means and does."

[Schiff for Senate]

In an effort to court other politicians, Noem publicly invites Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds as a meeting. Noem says of the meeting: "We're both female conservatives serving as governors of two midwestern, agricultural states. This is just a productive conversation we're going to have, to discuss some solutions to rural issues." On similar grounds, she also invites Senators Deb Fischer of Nebraska and Joni Ernst of Iowa (both members of the Agriculture Committee), as well as Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA02).

Noem also reaches out to Senator Chuck Grassley (yet another member of the Agriculture Committee, and the former Senate Pro Tempore) for a private meeting.

Montana governor Greg Gianforte, Noem's most prominent endorsement so far, helps by urging Montana politicians (Steve Daines, Matt Rosendale, and Ryan Zinke) to enter Noem's camp.

[Schiff for Senate]

THE HAWKEYE STATE

Noem visits a few of Iowa's 99 counties each day, with the intent of visiting well over half before the summer's end, to escape the brutal Iowa winter as much as possible and campaign in South Carolina then. A few snapshots:

In Mills County, Noem rips into Matt Gaetz: "You know, he cannot deny those allegations. And if he does, we can't just let them slide. Matt Gaetz is a disgusting pedophile. He can't just wave this stuff away by saying it's fake news. There are multiple credible allegations against him, with evidence, and those seriously need to be looked into. They can't be ignored. If we nominate Matt Gaetz, it will be a huge blow not only to his multiple accusers, but to all women, myself included, to all who have sisters, or daughters. This disgusting pervert cannot claim to be pro-woman, or pro-family-values, or a true Christian. We need to elect a real social conservative, someone who stands up for family values in their politics while also practicing them at home."

In Greene County, she discusses Josh Hawley. "Josh Hawley claimed he wasn't a career politician when he ran for AG in Missouri in 2016. Just two years later, having achieved nothing for the people of Missouri, he decided to go to Washington. And you know, I get it, that doesn't sound like such a big deal. But Josh is a complete coward. On January 6, he incited those rioters. There's no getting around that fact. He showed solidarity with them, pumped his fist to indicate his support. Just a few hours later? He was running around, trying to escape, heading down the escalator. He helped incite a mob that he was scared of. Josh Hawley is a pathetic coward. He's all about empty gestures, but when it comes down to it, he's not in it for the ordinary people. In America, or for other people across the globe. He was the only senator, from either party, to oppose allowing Finland and Sweden into NATO. He opposed a package to help Ukraine as it was being invaded and attacked by Russia. This man, make no mistake, is a Putin apologist. He's pro-Russia. That's not something this party can accept."

In Emmet County, she discusses her own background. "I left college to work at the family farm. I'm from a family of ranchers and farmers. I'm someone who understands the struggles rural Americans face - how tough inflation is, how painful it is to see the country you grew up in fade away and become unrecognisable to you. Because I am one of you. All  of the other candidates in this race, they're businessman, they're lawyers, their career politicians. Ultimately, they aren't for your interests, and they never will be. They're for the special interests that fund their campaigns and line their pockets. They're not for you and me. My only special interest is the people, struggling farmers and ranchers in rural America who've been left behind for too long. If I ever leave you behind, I'll also be leaving my own family behind, I'll be leaving myself behind. Because I am a proud rancher and a farmer, and I will always be an advocate for rural America. No matter what. And no special interest is going to change that."

In Hamilton County. "Kari Lake is a complete lunatic! She will humiliate this party if we make the mistake of nominating her. She claims she's been brainwashed. She's a sore loser who can't win elections - she can only try and challenge them, always unsuccessfully. She's been in the mainstream media for over two decades, so she knows how to lie. And she's lied countless times. Do we want to nominate this brainwashed sore loser to be our president? Because if she's elected, who knows, she might do another political 180. Unlike Kari Lake, I've been a proud conservative my whole life, not somebody who jumped on to the bandwagon just a few years ago."

Noem repeatedly also slams Ron DeSantis for the allegations being made against him, for "caving to the left on abortion," for "picking fights with Disney instead of serving Floridians", and for being "a woke environmentalist." She also attacks him for opposing hurricane relief funding - "When tragedies like that hit any part of this country, we must unite. Whether we're from New Jersey or Nevada, whether we're from Minnesota or Mississippi. Ron DeSantis, after Hurricane Sandy, was one of the few congressmen who voted against relief for Hurricane Sandy's victims. I don't know why he did that. But especially given the hurricanes that have hit Florida during the past few years, he should be especially aware how devastating it is, and how important it is that we as a country unite to support its victims."
Similar to Stone, she also attacks DeSantis "for supporting the military industrial-complex. He didn't put America First until it made sense for him politically. For a long time, he put military contractors, and the military industrial-complex, first. He supported unnecessary wars that cost us trillions of dollars, and the lives of thousands of American soldiers. Now as a congressman, and especially as governor, there's not a lot he can do about the military, which is a good thing. But if he's president? You can guarantee he will increase military spending, drag us into unnecessary conflicts. He won't put America first. He'll put donors from the military industrial complex first, he'll put the defense contracts first, at the cost of American taxpayers, and at the cost of lives both here and abroad." Further, she says, "Ron, like most of the other candidates in this race, is a fraud who says one thing and does another, who, like all career politicians, can do the empty gesturing but who forgets about the people who elected him when it counts. Like career politicians, he can give you platitudes and rhetoric and empty promises, but when it comes to taking actions, he does nothing. He's against Big Pharma? Please! He protected Pfizer from liability - likely because of donations they've made out to him. Up in South Dakota, I took flak from the establishment, from big donors, when I refused to stand by the big companies that have made a whole industry out of giving unwilling Americans one injection after another. Ron may claim to be for personal freedom, but what you'll find is that he alternates between opposing the vaccine altogether, and the other extreme, which is supporting Big Pharma as it doles out one unnecessary booster shot after another."

[Schiff for Senate]

Statement from Kari Lake

Kristi Noem, who is at 2% and dropping in the polls, is one of the biggest phonies in the race so far. You look at what she's done to South Dakota, and it's horrific. They're bleeding jobs left and right. Young people are heading for the hills. She can't lead folks. She can't lead.

The other day, excuse me, the other day, Kristi goes out on stage in front of this tiny crowd and she's squaking about all sorts of things. All sorts of things. She attacks me for voting for John Kerry. "Why would anyone do that? Why wouldn't you vote for George Bush?" He was such a great guy, they all swear. Even though, if you go back and look, George Bush is basically a Democrat now. He endorsed Trump's enemies. He's gone out into the world and praised all sorts of Democrats. But none of these Republicans ever bring that up. They never do. No. They want you to swear fealty to the guy in charge. They don't want you to think for yourself. Kristi, she's been told to vote a certain way all her life, and that's all she does. You could put a crop duster in charge of South Dakota and he would make way better choices than Kristi. Way better.

Why did I vote for John Kerry? Let me tell you, go back to 2004. Where were we? Where was our country? We were in Iraq. We were in the desert, and we were led there by George Bush. He told everyone, he told Americans, "it'll be quick, you'll see! This guy has WMD's! We have to send our boys off to war! Our mission is accomplished!" But it wasn't accomplished folks. It was never accomplished. We wasted trillions and trillions of dollars on that war. We lost thousands of American troops in, really, hell on earth. Hell on earth. And what do we have to show for it? Nothing! Nothing. We got ISIS. You remember them? ISIS? We got them alright. That was our "thank you" from Iraq. By the way, Trump, he gets no credit from people for destroying them. He crushed them in a year. That's a leader. That's a leader. He made his own decisions. He made them.

These people, they have no self respect. I'm the bad guy because I didn't vote for that disaster. I'm the bad guy because I don't think like they do. Kristi, she's told to vote for war, and she does it. She does it. No critical thinking skills, none. You need that as a leader and she doesn't have it. Her donors tell her to jump and she asks them, "how high?" How high?

Everyone has been trying to run away from Trump. Run away from him. Forget he even existed. Because he exposed all of them as frauds. Kristi. Queen Nikki. Mike Pence. They're all losers and failures. They've received marching orders all their lives. They can't make decisions for themselves. They listen to whatever lobbyist they met with that day. They listen to the Pharma guys. They listen to the woke billionaires. And somehow I'm a 'flip-flop'? Because I make my own decisions? Gimme a break.

NOEM VS. LAKE

"Kari Lake is the only loser I see here. Say what you will about Haley and Pence, at least they can win elections. Kari, though? She lost an easily winnable election, and has since spent months and months on one pathetic lawsuit after another. You can guarantee she does the same thing nationally if we nominate her for president. And it'll be with the same level of success. She got Katie Hobbs elected in Arizona, and she'll get Kamala Harris elected next year if we give her the chance.

I have always been against the military industrial complex. However, the Iraq War aside, George W. Bush was a strong social conservative, and his opponent, John Kerry, was the king of flip-floppers - so that's another thing he and Kari have in common. Because I've noticed Kari doesn't talk about how she supported Barack Obama as well.

I suppose it's all okay! Kari was "brainwashed," but she's fine now! She's seen the light! If we elect her, we should just hope that she's not susceptible enough to get "brainwashed" by the woke left again.

Let's just discuss the difference between the both of us. I'm a rancher and a farmer. My political career has been about being an advocate for South Dakotans, fighting the establishment and representing rural interests. I'm proud to say I've made my career fighting the establishment and taking flak for it, that I've made my career working for South Dakotans left behind for too long. And I got elected Governor of South Dakota twice, while never forgetting about the ordinary people who elected me, not once.

Now let's look at Kari. She worked in the left-wing, biased lame stream media for over two decades. If what she says is true - fifty-fifty chance - then she made her career lying to people. Her political experience consists of running in one winnable election, losing, and then spending the next several months being a pathetic, bitter loser, and complaining about fraud.

Here's the thing, Kari. YOU might have been brainwashed, but you can't brainwash the people of Arizona into electing a fraud, and a grifter, and a complete flip-flopper as governor. And the same goes for America.

We aren't stupid enough to get roped in to the ramblings of a pathetic loser who's done nothing but lie to the American people all her career, not once doing anything to serve them.

I promise you, Kari, this party will not be nominating a loser and a liar as their nominee, so you might as well start call your lawyers and filing lawsuits to complain about it."

[Schiff for Senate]

Statement from Kari Lake

She keeps lying folks. She keeps lying. It's almost unbelievable how she can stand up in front of a crowd and flap her mouth like that. Let me clue you folks in on what's going on: Kristi got bad news from her pollster. The numbers guys. They come up to her and tell her, "Kristi, you're dying out there, they don't believe you! Your special interests are mad! The oversea billionaires funding your campaign are mad! You have to attack! You have to attack!" And so, of course, she goes after me. Like all of the other, frankly, frauds in the race, she comes after me. Because she knows, if her numbers don't go up, it's over for her. Totally over. She's up a creek without a paddle, and with big big loans to pay off.

So here's what happens. Kristi, looking like Margaret Hamilton out of the Wizard of Oz, she comes after me. "I'm not a loser, I'm not a loser, you're the loser!" You're the loser. Folks, Arizona, it's a close state. Very very close state. We have hundreds of thousands of people coming into this state to flee California. They're running away so so fast and we're giving these people a place to call home. As a result, every election is close. Every election. Arizona gets these people, gives them a home, and then we have a debate. It's democracy. Or it would be, if not for the fraud and the machines crapping out on election day. There was a lot of shady stuff going on there believe me.

Meanwhile, look at South Dakota. It's a great state. It's a beautiful state. It's a Republican state. Very very Republican. You look at the numbers, and Trump won the state by something like 20, 30, 40 points. Huge landslide. Huge! Nothing like it. The numbers out of there were tremendous. He won that state by almost 2:1. So many great people in South Dakota.

Let's look at Kristi now. Let's look at her. When she ran, in 2018, for the first time, she won by 3 points. 3. It was so close, the media was like, "what the hell is happening here? This is Republican turf!" And she almost lost! She almost lost. They had to drag her body across the finish line, physically drag her, it was so so close. And now she's attacking me for not winning in Arizona. How stupid do you have to be to buy this act? How stupid do you have to be? They robbed Trump of Arizona in 2020. He lost here due to fraud, it was terrible. Meanwhile, South Dakota, it's all red. Trump won bigly, bigger than anyone else in history. All red. Bright bright red. And she almost lost like a dog to some no name Democrat from the middle of nowhere. How can anybody call her a winner? With a record like that? It's like the Boston Red Sox losing to a t-ball team. Tom Brady getting beaten by a 5-year old. It's shameful.

I guess that's why she's still defending the Iraq War. Still defending it big time. It's like someone is telling her to defend that horrible war. Paying her to stand up there and say, "Bush was a good guy, everything was great. We love war!" We love war. No no, we don't. We don't love war Kristi, you love war! Your friends love war. Your special interests love war. Americans, we don't love war. We don't love it.

Let's talk about the elephant in the room now. B.O. Barack Obama. He made a lot of terrible decisions folks. He really did. But you have to go back to 2008. We had a war that was going on forever. We had the worst Republican President ever, who everybody hated and wanted thrown out of office. Everyone despised him. And who did the elites nominate? Who did they nominate? They nominated John McCain. Liberal John McCain, who by the way, wanted thousands more troops in Iraq. Thousands more dying in the desert. He wanted that. Who the hell would vote for this guy? He sunk Trump's healthcare bill, he went out there and told Republicans to vote for Democrats. Frankly, Obama was more honest than McCain. More honest. And we got out of Iraq quick. Which is what we wanted. We wanted that. If McCain had won, we'd still be there today. We'd still be there. Dying in the desert.

And, of course, because Kristi hasn't gone on the attack enough, she has to throw one more pitch. One more attack. Her big donors call her, and they go, "we like the lies, Kristi. We like the lies and the attacks about Iraq. It's great. But you have to use her playbook. You have to go after her for the media thing. She worked in the local news. You have to attack her for that." And lo and behold, she calls me part of the media! Part of the biased media! After she talked to her donors, she has the right talking points.

Folks, let's have a show of hands. Is MSNBC biased media? Mhm. Yep. There we go. 90% of hands are up right now. Is CNN biased media? Again, everyone's hand should be up. What about the local news? What about your local news anchor? Are they biased media? Do they lie to your face about Kamala Harris or crime or inflation? No. Hell no! Those men and women bust their asses every day to give you the truth. It's all in the name. Local news. Local. News. News. Local. It's right there. These folks care that their communities get the facts. They're not Don Lemon. They're not Al Sharpton. They're local. They're local. They investigate criminals in your town and keep you informed. Folks, was I on CNN or MSNBC? No. No. I was a local news anchor. Local. I cared about the people of Phoenix very deeply. No one bought me. No one told me what to say. I did my own research. I reported just the facts to the people. But Kristi, she doesn't watch local news. She only listens to the news the donors give her. So out of touch. It's like she's forgotten what America is actually like!

"The differences between the both of us are very simple, folks. I've spent my life ranching and farming. Kari has spent her life in the mainstream media, which she herself claims lies to people, which she herself claims brainwashed her. In my political career, my only special interest has been the people, and I have been a tireless and fearless advocate for social conservatism, and fighter for rural Americans, during my entire career. I've never lost a race. Kari's political career? She's never won a race. Or any of the lawsuits she filed after she lost the one race she competed in.

Kari can say whatever she wants about John McCain. But there are three things I have to point out here: John McCain was a more honourable person that she can ever be, and he served our country's military with honour and distinction. And unlike Kari, he actually knew how to win elections in Arizona - he knew how to win in the state very comfortably. So maybe she could learn a thing or two from him instead of attacking him.

All the claims of super-rich donors are complete and utter lies, just like most other things out of Kari's mouth. In fact, it's projection. Take a look and you'll find I get the donations from ordinary, working-class Americans concerned about the direction this country is taking. As I've said in the past, my only special interests are the American people, rural Americans, working-class Americans. And those are the special interests donating to my grassroots campaign. Who's donating to Kari? Not ordinary Americans. Her rich pals in the media, that's who's donating to her.

So I urge all of you. Take a look at the record and you'll find this woman is filled with self-contradictions, with flip-flops. She's got a dark past. She doesn't like to talk about all the people she supported, all the things she said and did, just a few years back. Because that's the real Kari Lake. As for me? My life is an open book. I grew up in rural South Dakota. I didn't land a cushy job in the mainstream media. I dropped out of community college to work at my family's ranch after my father died. I have no flip-flops, no self-contradiction, no secret past, that I wish to hide from the voters. Kari does. She has a lot of skeletons in her closet."

[Schiff for Senate]

Noem, seeing Roger Stone's latest move, realises that winning over the religious right will be absolutely essential to winning the primary, and begins making the appropriate plans. She heads down to Lynchburg, Virginia, to Liberty University, to meet the President of the University, Jerry Prevo. Also present is Pat Robertson.

Noem outlines why she believes she is the best candidate for the religious right. She obviously points out Matt Gaetz's pedophilia, ruling him out as a candidate, and much more importantly, she highlights the multiple allegations of assault against front-runner Ron DeSantis, stating that while they would have no choice but to rally around him should he become the nominee, they should attempt to hand the nomination to an equally electable, but more moral and family-values-oriented candidate. To also attack his public policy views, she points out his relative compromise in his abortion ban in Florida, sharply contrasting it with the complete ban she passed in South Dakota. Discussing their governor, Glenn Youngkin, she reminds them that he is a social moderate who has passed no restrictions on abortions in Virginia. And regarding Roger Stone, who has made overtures to Franklin Graham and Mike Huckabee, she points out his many personal un-scruples.

Noem discusses growing up her humble background in rural South Dakota (where, she claims, religion played an important role) and how her personal life is completely scandal-free and how she, both personally and politically "is the candidate for family values and social conservatism."

Noem also publicly meets with James Dobson in South Carolina, where she discusses her religious beliefs and joins him in a public prayer. Later, in a closed-door meeting, she stresses many of the same points she made to Robertson and Prevo, particularly making sure to rule out Ron DeSantis as a credible choice, and once again framing herself as THE candidate for social conservatism.

Publicly and on the campaign trail, she makes the same cases against Youngkin, DeSantis, Gaetz. Of Stone, she is more careful, but firm in her judgement (just as she was with Dobson, Robertson and Prevo): "While it's important for good Christians to forgive and forget, it's impossible to deny that Roger Stone's lived a life filled with sin and scandal, and completely devoid of religion. While it's good he has found Jesus, I think a better choice for the religious right is somebody who has spent their entire life, not just the past couple years, as a part of it, someone who has always had faith and lived a life without personal sin, rather than a life filled with it."

[Schiff for Senate]

At a town hall in Grundy County, IA, a voter asks:
"Governor Noem, I'm concerned about how electable you are. As Glenn Youngkin and Kari Lake pointed out, you only won by 3 points in a solid red state. With that kind of underwhelming performance, how do you think you'd win a national race?"

Noem's response:

"That's certainly a very valid question, and I appreciate your asking it, since I suspect a good number of GOP primary voters are wondering the same thing. Now let's look at the facts of the case. 2018 was a big blue wave, across the country, and South Dakota was no exception. The Democrats did much better than usual. My performance was underwhelming to say the least. But look at 2022. It was a much closer, more balanced, national environment, and I won South Dakota in a landslide. They continue talking about 2018, and not 2022, because they know very well I won in a big landslide last year, a margin of 27 points - as a matter of fact, that's an even bigger landslide than President Trump's in my state in 2020. Not that they'd ever tell you that. So electability is not an issue here. You only need to see my most recent election to believe it. Forget 2018. Look at 2022. I think the results from eight months back, and an even national environment, are far more relevant than the results from five years ago, and a big blue wave.

And of course, and this is especially at Governor Youngkin, while electability, and winning elections, are important, what's also very important is what you do once elected. As governor in South Dakota, I've fought against mandates, in order to give people the right to choose whether to get vaccinate and wear a mask. I've sent National Guard troops to protect our country's southern border against illegal immigrants. I've signed laws to remove permit requirements to open carry guns. I've led effective programs against drug use - something that I know would benefit a certain presidential candidate. I've signed religious freedom laws. I've taken flak from the woke liberal establishment at every turn, and I've pushed back each time.

My point is this: Yes, my victory in 2018 was, due to the blue wave across the country, very underwhelming. But as governor, I pushed a staunchly conservative agenda, and I was rewarded with a big landslide in 2022. So not only am I electable, I am - unlike Kari Lake, unlike Glenn Youngkin - the one who's gotten a conservative agenda enacted in my state. Simple as that."

[Schiff for Senate]

Noem is asked about Josh Hawley's attacks against her at a town hall in Dallas County, Iowa. She replies: "So Josh has been trying to paint himself as a populist, somebody who's for the working class. But let's look at the facts. When it came to raising Missouri's minimum wage to above $7.85, he was adamantly opposed. Why? Because his rich donors didn't want to pay workers a decent salary. When it comes to right-to-work laws, which are really right-to-work-for-even-less, Josh tries to have it both ways. So he's fooling nobody. He's not for the working class and never has been.

But I also want to talk about what he said about me, look at the 'attack' he used against me. Let's look at his allegation closely, now that we've seen what Josh actually does. Because remember: at the end of the day, with these Washington politicians, it's all bark and no bite - and you need to closely examine what they actually do, not all the empty promises they make on the campaign trail. Yes, I opposed President Trump's tariff war with China, simply because it did end up hurting South Dakotans. President Trump isn't perfect, Josh. Nobody is. And I'm willing to call him out the times that he is wrong. I'm not going to blindly support President Trump, or anybody else. I am always going to be an advocate for the people I am elected to serve. I was serving South Dakotans, and the simple fact of the matter is, President Trump's tariff war, overall, did not help South Dakotans. So I called him out on it. Being adamant, being extreme, even, in serving your constituents, is no vice, and if it is, well, it's my biggest vice. Because no matter who or what it is, if I see any policy that hurts my consistent, I will fight them on it."

Other than that attack against Hawley, of late, Noem has been keeping her campaign positive, focusing on her own accomplishments and backgrounds and only rarely attacking the other candidates (mainly, she attacks Ron DeSantis, the front runner).

[Schiff for Senate]

ENDORSEMENT

Recently dropped out presidential candidate Kristi Noem is asked at an interview with Fox and Friends about who she now supports for the presidential nomination.

"Well, I'd have to say Roger Stone. You know, I've been quiet for some time on the matter, but I absolutely believe that of the candidates still in the field, Roger is the best candidate. He best balances electability - I mean, he's led the charge on numerous successful, often long-shot campaigns, over the years - but he's also a staunch MAGA conservative who won't let us down. So many of my friends and neighbours back home in South Dakota were disappointed when I dropped out. They felt they'd lost their advocate. They didn't know who to support. When they asked me, though, I had to, in good conscience, tell them that in my opinion, Roger was their loudest and most sincere advocate."