WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump has selected South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to head the Department of Homeland Security, one of the biggest government agencies that will be integral to his vow to secure the border and carry out a massive deportation operation. Here are five things to know about Noem : The 52-year-old was born in Watertown, South Dakota, and raised on a ranch and farm outside the city.
Her father died in a grain-bin collapse at the age of 49. “When Dad passed away it was devastating for our entire family,” she said during a 2022 interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network. "He was my best friend.
He was the person I admired the most, the one that I cared the most what he thought of me and had planned my entire life just to grow up and to work with him and be in business with him." She was involved in a number of family businesses before successfully running for the South Dakota House of Representatives in 2006. In 2010, she won the state’s at-large House seat, and in 2018, she was elected the state's first female governor.
She was reelected in 2022. After becoming governor, Noem started working closely with Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s 2016 campaign manager. Then, during the pandemic, she rose to prominence in conservative circles for resisting most government regulations to slow the spread of infections.
She has since become a regular presence in Trump’s political world and at one point was considered to be his running mate. She enjoys pheasant .