From photo op to out-of-state flights, Gov. Noem jets around nation as South Dakota floods

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - Flood or no, Kristi Noem will fly.

Throughout an ongoing disaster situation in her own backyard, South Dakota's Republican governor has been flying to conservative speaking engagements across the country and gave an interview on national television while the eastern half of her state reels from destructive flooding.

Days-long rains contributed to a historic rise in South Dakota's eastern river levels. So far, the resulting flooding has killed one person, knocked out a railroad bridge vital to interstate commerce and inundated residences across the eastern and southeastern half of the state.

The Big Sioux overflows into a local park on Monday, June 24, 2024, at Chautauqua Park in Canton, South Dakota.

In a video posted 1:27 p.m. Friday to her personal X page, Noem filmed herself in eastern South Dakota (location undisclosed), where she talked about the flood situation, shared rain totals and generally described her administration's response.

Within 24 hours, however, Noem's attention was split between campaigning and managing an emergency flood response.

In Washington, Noem appeared Saturday in front of fellow conservatives and religious voters for a Faith and Freedom Coalition conference, an event former President Donald Trump was slated to keynote. She was a scheduled speaker for the event and tagged to an evening slot.

Noem, who was once on Trump's 2024 short list for a vice presidential nomination and whose chances now appear slim, told NBC's Meet The Press interim host Peter Alexander this past weekend she hadn't received vice presidential vetting papers .

But NBC's Julie Tsirkin spied the governor at the conference as early as 12:30 p.m. Saturday, where she briefly took the stage in a surprise appearance to praise the former president.

Then, the governor joined Alexander at his show's Washington studio for the aforementioned Sunday morning interview, before spiriting away by plane to North Sioux City. She invited reporters and community members to a 2 p.m. press conference on storms and flooding, but her communications team later relayed a "timing update," which pushed the presser to 2:30 p.m.

During a recent book tour for the governor's newest memoir, "No Going Back," which was widely cscrutinized and criticized for including a gruesome account involving her killing a 14-month-old hunting dog as well as multiple historical inaccuracies, Noem abruptly canceled scheduled TV appearances on CNN and FOX in early May.

The justification? Ian Fury, Noem's director of communications, blamed bad weather in a May 8 statement to RealClearPolitics.

Indeed, South Dakota did see a strong spring storm around that time, according to a National Weather Service event summary. Wet, heavy snow fell in western South Dakota between May 6 and 7, though it was largely isolated to the Black Hills region. About 1 to 3 inches of rain was also measured in the same area, most significantly in the northern Black Hills, northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana. Two small tornadoes also touched down in Butte County on May 6.

The last-minute cancelations on CNN's Inside Politics and FOX's Gutfeld! came the night of May 7.

After the Sunday press conference, an Argus Leader reporter asked Fury why Noem's attendance of the recent Washington engagements went on despite the fact that she has canceled on national media opportunities for similar circumstances.

He said that's because the most dangerous part of the flood event — the dangerous bulk of water that had yet to make its way down the Big Sioux River to the Sioux City area by Sunday evening — hadn't arrived yet.

"We're here for the worst of it," Fury told the Argus Leader.

But that's not entirely true.

Noem did stick around Dakota Dunes after the 2:30 p.m. presser to tour the construction of a levee along Interstate 29. In a post on X, photos on Noem's personal account show her shaking hands and talking with levee builders sometime Sunday afternoon.

But by Sunday evening, Noem had again jetted out of the state when, in fact, the worst of the flood was still yet to come. By 9:40 p.m., Noem was taking photos at a Republican fundraising event in Memphis, Tennessee, evidenced by a post shared to X by U.S. Rep. David Kustoff, R-TN.

Meanwhile, a destructive surge of floodwater was beginning to cascade into North Sioux City. Union County Emergency Management ordered residents near the town's McCook Lake to evacuate by 8:35 p.m., with swift water rescue teams being sent in to assist in the effort. And according to Sioux City TV station KTIV, a BNSF railroad bridge partially collapsed "shortly before" 11 p.m. Sunday.

Flood water on the Big Sioux River flows over a collapsed BNSF rail bridge between between North Sioux City South Dakota and Sioux City, Monday, June 24, 2024.

Data from the U.S. Geological Survey reported river measurements of the Big Sioux River near North Sioux City reached an estimated 44.4 feet at 8:30 p.m. Sunday. This falls within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's "major flood" stage.

Estimated gage measurements in the North Sioux City area peaked 10:30 p.m. Sunday at 44.98 feet and have only dropped by 2.41 feet by 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.

The Argus Leader asked Fury if Noem was in the state at the time of the McCook Lake evacuations or the railroad bridge collapse, and the media outlet also asked why the governor did not opt to use the $130,000 studio installed in the state capitol to conduct the Sunday NBC interview remotely.

Those questions went unanswered, with Fury pointing back to his previous comments.

Noem's mid-flood campaigning represents break from traditional disaster response

However effective the governor might be at balancing her priorities, the idea Noem hasn't been in the state for the entirety of the flood response doesn't sit well with Rep. Linda Duba, D-Sioux Falls.

"I understand that she personally isn't the one who plans and executes all of these strategies, but she's the leader," Duba told the Argus Leader on Monday. "She needs to be here when an emergency is taking place."

Previous governors have put on more of an obvious presence relative to Noem's latest disaster response, according to University of South Dakota political science professor Mike Card.

Former South Dakota Gov. Bill Janklow, for example, was known for appearing to take charge of on-scene emergencies. After a deadly tornado struck the town of Spencer in 1998, Janklow raced to area and used a bullhorn to direct cleanup crews.

Similarly, former South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard, Noem's predecessor, played the part of someone actively involved in disaster preparations during the 2011 Missouri River Flood — one comparable to the ongoing emergency in eastern South Dakota. He wrote of his experiences in 2016 column, where he described walking on the levees in Fort Pierre and watching military helicopters drop off sandbags in North Sioux City and other parts of the state.

But with Noem's priorities divided at a critical time, Card said therein lies a perception issue.

"Something important was going on in the state, and she wasn't here," Card said Monday. "The haters would say it's a terrible thing that she's not here and that she's not taking care of the symbolic portions of it."

But to Card, it also makes sense for Noem to continue campaigning from a political perspective. While "almost no one believes that she still has a shot at the vice presidential position," the political science professor opined, Noem's chances of securing a cabinet secretary or another similar position under a potential Trump administration are probable.

"If I were of the position where I could and was inclined to raise money for the party, I would want at least my expenses covered and then maybe a little bit for my own electoral possibilities," Card said. "If nothing happens with the potential Trump administration, she may be running for [a South Dakota] Senate seat."

Noem's mid-crisis travels have been scrutinized in the past. In 2020, the governor received some criticism, largely from Democrats and national pundits, for stumping for Trump across the country while coronavirus surged back home.

More: Noem has been out of state campaigning eight times this month. Voters don't seem to mind.

Voters didn't seem to mind, then. And now, neither does Joe Twidwell, a resident of Dakota Dunes.

The Argus Leader spoke with Twidwell at Noem's Sunday press conference, where he said Noem "seemed to have a handle on things."

"I appreciate that she's here," Twidwell said. "It shows that she and her team cares."

But Twidwell's house was spared as of Tuesday. The same can't be said of Morgan Spiechinger, a North Sioux City resident whose family home was ruined by floodwaters after a levee diverted floodwaters into McCook Lake, where her home closely resides.

The view from Morgan Speichinger's Ring camera at her North Sioux City home moments after her family evacuated on Sunday night, June 23, 2024.

"I think she is like clapping herself on the back because she saved the Dunes," Spiechinger told the Argus Leader Monday. "But I don't think that they're taking enough credit for how much damage was caused in a community that doesn't have the protections that the Dunes have."

Duba would disagree that Noem was here for the worst of it.

"You need to prioritize the state and the people of the state and the emergencies we're experiencing over the campaign," Duba said. "She can still campaign. I'm not saying she can't. But you've got to make choices, and she's not making the right choices right now."

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: From photo op to out-of-state flights, Gov. Noem jets around nation as South Dakota floods