Kristi Noem is suddenly front and center in the veepstakes

Not long ago, it looked like Kristi Noem’s star was flaming out. Following a turbulent first term, the South Dakota governor elected not to run for president, and the media turned its focus elsewhere.

But if the 2024 primary is in part a tryout to be former President Donald Trump’s next running mate, Noem’s national standing appears to have been rekindled. She’s suddenly front and center in the veepstakes.

Noem is running a $5 million national ad blitz — a taxpayer-funded effort backed by Covid aid designed to lure more workers to South Dakota, but with the benefit of increasing her profile. She is doing regular hits on Fox News. And, perhaps most important, she is avoiding any of the pitfalls of a presidential run of her own — no hardball questions about Jan. 6 or Trump’s indictments and no pressure to perform in a debate.

Instead, at a sold-out GOP fundraiser in Rapid City, S.D., on Friday, the governor will stand beside Trump as she introduces him in her home state. A person familiar with the plans told POLITICO on Thursday night that she would use the occasion to endorse the former president, as CNN first reported.

“She’s played her cards right,” said Dave Carney, a veteran Republican strategist based in New Hampshire. “She’s articulate. She has a lot of energy, and she might make an attractive ticket for the president.”

Noem is all but hanging her running mate shingle on her door. Asked last month about a possible spot on a Trump ticket, she told Fox News “of course, I would consider it.” Her taxpayer-funded ads aren’t just airing in D.C. markets, they’ve landed her on television screens in GOP voters’ homes last month during the first primary debate in Milwaukee.

Noem has a warm relationship with the former president, not to mention a direct line to him. Corey Lewandowksi, Trump’s first campaign manager who has had an on-again, off-again role in advising Noem, will be on the plane to Rapid City with Trump on Friday at the former president’s request, he told POLITICO. Noem fired Lewandowski from a consulting role after accusations he made unwanted sexual advances toward a woman at a charity event in 2021. He cut a deal with Las Vegas prosecutors after he was charged with misdemeanor battery, in which he did not have to admit guilt.

At the time, a Noem spokesperson said Lewandowski would “not be advising the governor in regard to the campaign or official office.” But he was spotted with Noem at a Republican Governors Association confab in Nashville last year. (A Trump spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a POLITICO inquiry on Lewandowski traveling with Trump on Friday; a Noem spokesperson declined to comment on her political advisers.)

Noem, who became a sensation in the GOP by keeping her state open during the pandemic, for months has been overshadowed by another conservative Covid star governor, Ron DeSantis of Florida. But whereas DeSantis made a bet that Trump could be defeated, Noem determined that patience was the prudent path.

“The fact is, none of them can win as long as Trump’s in the race,” Noem said of the current field recently on Fox News. “And that’s just the facts. So why run if you can’t win.”

Months later, DeSantis’ standing in GOP circles has eroded, along with his primary chances. And Noem, Lewandowski argues, finds herself in an enviable position. “I think it shows an enormous level of sophistication,” Lewandowski, who calls himself an “overzealous volunteer” for Noem, told POLITICO.

Noem’s moves haven’t gone unnoticed in her home state, where her allies and detractors alike have long viewed her as a politician with aspirations outside South Dakota.

“It’s clear that she's positioning herself to get to be selected as vice president or, in the alternative, if something happens where President Trump starts to falter, or doesn't receive the nomination, to run for president to pick up the MAGA flag and carry the banner,” said one South Dakota-based Noem donor, granted anonymity to assess her strategy.

“Everybody assumes she’s running,” the donor continued. “It’s very obvious. Not a week goes by where she’s not on Fox News. It’s a national strategy.”

At the heart of that strategy is the likelihood of Trump not just winning the nomination, but looking beyond his current competition for a running mate. Trump, who did not participate in the first GOP debate, has cast his lower polling competitors as potential vice presidential picks. “Let them debate so I can see who I MIGHT consider for Vice President!” Trump posted on Truth Social this summer.

But Noem has also sought to make her own inroads with Trump. In 2020, she gave him a $1,000 replica of Mt. Rushmore with his face chiseled into it, commemorating a July Fourth campaign speech he made there at the time. She also held a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago ahead of her 2022 reelection bid, at which Donald Trump Jr. and girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle appeared.

“If she's asked to [be vice president], she would have to consider it,” Ian Fury, Noem’s official spokesperson, told POLITICO.

Carney cautioned there would be one downside for Trump in selecting Noem: “It’s South Dakota with three electoral votes,” he said. “It doesn’t bring in any Republicans.”

Still, Noem shouldn’t be underestimated, he said.

“You can’t run for vice president,” Carney said, “but Noem has done a good job.”