SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Stu Whitney, South Dakota News Watch) – Nearly two-thirds of South Dakotans said Gov. Kristi Noem damaged her credibility in her latest book rollout, and nearly half said they have an unfavorable view of the second-term Republican, according to a scientific poll of 500 registered voters co-sponsored by South Dakota News Watch.

As for Noem’s bid to become former President Donald Trump’s vice-presidential nominee in 2024, nearly 60% of South Dakotans said she should not be chosen, including 55% of Republicans. The poll was also sponsored by the Chiesman Center for Democracy at the University of South Dakota.

The governor’s favorability based on personal popularity was 39%, down 13 points from a similar poll conducted in October 2020. Nearly half of respondents (48%) said they had an unfavorable opinion of Noem, which is double the number from 2020.

Mason-Dixon Polling and Strategy conducted the statewide survey May 10-13, several days after the governor cut short her book publicity tour and returned to South Dakota. “No Going Back,” her second book, was published May 7.

Media coverage focused on revelations in the book about Noem killing an unruly family hunting dog and fabricating a meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

The controversy, and Noem’s response, has sent her political prospects into a spiral not just nationally but in the Mount Rushmore State, said Jon Schaff, a political science professor at Northern State University in Aberdeen.

“These numbers are worse than I expected, quite frankly,” said Schaff. “What it tells you is that some of the issues coming out of the book not only damaged her national ambitions, but they put a serious damper on future statewide ambitions she might have had.”

Noem did not respond to News Watch interview requests for this story made through Ian Fury, her chief of communications.

Poll respondents were selected randomly from a telephone-matched South Dakota voter registration list that included landline and cellphone numbers. Quotas were assigned to reflect voter registration by county. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

The poll showed that 52% approve of Noem’s job performance as governor, while 46% disapprove. An April analysis of Morning Consult polling data showed Noem with a job-performance approval rating of 59%, with disapproval at 38%.

Noem’s overall favorability, which includes a politician’s character traits and personality, took a larger hit, especially within her own party. While 81% of Republican respondents approved of Noem’s job performance, that number dipped to 58% when respondents were asked if they had a favorable opinion of her.

By comparison, Trump had a favorable rating among Republicans of 70%.

“I think those numbers speak to voters’ ability to distinguish between the job she’s doing as governor and her likability as a person,” said Julia Hellwege, an associate political science professor at USD and incoming director of the Chiesman Center.

Perhaps most notable is the fact that criticism and mockery of Noem’s book launch have come from all sides of the political and media spectrum, from traditionally liberal “Saturday Night Live” to conservative Fox News.

“Regardless of what party you belong to, it’s not a great look for the state,” said Hellwege. “When we’re getting ‘Saturday Night Live’-type attention in a negative way, there’s some disappointment and embarrassment wrapped up in that.”

Could book fallout impact Senate race?

Noem’s book, promoted as being “packed with surprising stories and practical lessons,” coincided with her rising national profile and status as one of the front-runners to be chosen as Trump’s running mate for his rematch against Biden.

“I will do everything I can to help him win and save this country,” Noem said as she endorsed Trump at a South Dakota GOP fundraiser in Rapid City in September 2023.

The 52-year-old Castlewood native was the betting favorite to get the VP nod as recently as January by OddsChecker.com.

A of May 17, the same betting site lists her as 49th in the VP race behind fringe political figures such as conservative commentator Candace Owens and University of Colorado football coach Deion Sanders.

According to a recent News Watch poll, nearly 60% of South Dakotans say Gov. Noem should not be chosen as Donald Trump’s vice-presidential nominee in 2024, including 55% of Republicans. (Photo: Argus Leader)

If the book fallout prevents her from becoming the VP nominee or getting an administration position if Trump wins, it could also impact Noem’s next move in South Dakota politics.

There has been speculation that she could make a run for U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds’ seat in 2026. Political experts said the recent controversies and negative media attention could change the dynamic of that race.

“You’re only talking two years from now, and it’s not like Mike Rounds is in a weak political spot,” said Schaff. “She would not be the first politician to find herself in a kind of scandal and rehabilitate herself over time. Such things are possible. But these poll numbers show that she’s in a little bigger hole than I would have expected.”

As seen in past polls, Noem’s support among male voters is stronger than with females. While 61% of male respondents approved of her job performance, that number was 44% for women. (Photo: Stu Whitney / South Dakota News Watch)

Voters: Killing of Noem family dog was wrong

One of the book’s most revealing passages involved the killing of a 14-month-old female puppy named Cricket after the dog ruined a pheasant hunt with unruly behavior about 20 years ago.

Returning from the hunt, wrote Noem, she stopped to talk to a local family and Cricket jumped out of the truck and attacked the family’s chickens one at a time, “crunching it to death with one bite, then dropping it to attack another.”

“I hated that dog,” she wrote in the book. “At that moment, I realized I had to put her down.”

Nearly 6 in 10 of statewide poll respondents (58%) said they felt that the shooting of the dog was not justified, compared to 38% who said it was justified. Among female respondents, 65% said the shooting was not justified, compared to 50% of males.

“It’s not surprising, perhaps, that women were more critical of the shooting of the family dog, but half of men thought the same thing,” said Michael Card, an emeritus professor of political science at the University of South Dakota. “There’s a lot of room for the governor to grow, in terms of repairing her image.”

Another passage from the book that drew criticism was a reference to meeting the notoriously reclusive North Korean dictator when she served on the House Armed Services Committee in Congress.

Trump met with Kim Jong Un several times as president, significant encounters that would have been highly unlikely for someone in Noem’s position. Without any congressional records to back it up, the story was widely disputed, and Noem’s staff and publisher, Hachette Book Group, said corrections would be made.

But in an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on May 5, the governor didn’t offer a clear explanation of how the mistake happened or if she even acknowledged the error.

The News Watch poll asked registered voters: “Does Noem’s decision not to answer questions and address some of the issues she raised in her book damage her credibility with you?”

Statewide, 62% said yes, while 34% said no and 4% were undecided. Those saying that Noem’s credibility was damaged included 86% of Democrats, 48% of Republicans and 68% of Independents.

The book rollout and ensuing public relations crisis challenged an administration marked by cabinet and staff turnover, including five chiefs of staff. Noem has not named a sixth chief of staff after the June 2023 departure of Mark Miller, her former general counsel.

“People in leadership need to have at least one person who can tell them no and not be afraid they’re going to lose their job over it,” said Schaff, who was appointed by Noem to the state’s Social Studies Content Standards Commission in 2022.

“That typically falls to a chief of staff. If the governor is in a situation where there is nobody around to say, ‘You’re about to step in it,’ then I would say that she’s been ill-served.”

West River support of Noem is strongest

Noem’s geographic support within the state remains strongest West River, where 59% of respondents said they approve of her job performance, compared to Sioux Falls Metro (54%). East River South and East River North were both at 46%.

The governor’s overall favorability was 43% West River, the highest of the four regions.

Regarding shooting the family dog, 43% of West River respondents said the killing was justified, compared to 31% in the Sioux Falls area, which includes Minnehaha and Lincoln counties in the poll groupings.

Noem carried Pennington County (mostly Rapid City) with 61% of the vote in her 2022 re-election over Democratic challenger Jamie Smith, compared to 53% in Minnehaha County (mostly Sioux Falls).

Women, younger voters more critical of Noem

As seen in past polls, Noem’s support among male voters is stronger than with females. While 61% of male respondents approved of her job performance, that number was 44% for women.

However, both men (30%) and women (29%) surveyed were against the South Dakota governor being named Trump’s running mate. Both men (61%) and women (63%) also said that Noem’s reluctance to address some of the issues raised in her book damaged her credibility with them.

Male respondents said the shooting of the dog was not justified by a margin of 50% to 46%, compared to a margin of 65% to 38% for women.

Younger registered voters had the lowest evaluation of the governor in most categories, including job performance (34%) and overall favorability (26%).

Job performance approval of Noem from the youngest group was dramatically lower than respondents ages 35-49 (54%), 50-64 (61%) and 65-plus (51%).

Younger voters were also more critical of Noem’s puppy anecdote, with 71% of respondents ages 18-34 saying it was not justified, compared to 51% for ages 50-64 and 52% for ages 65-plus.

Mason-Dixon has a rating of 2.6 (3 is maximum) from FiveThirtyEight and ranks 30th out of 277 pollsters analyzed by the statistical site.

Republicans are still heavily in support of Noem’s job performance, with 81.4% saying they approve, compared to 10.9% of Democrats and 32.8% of Independents.

But only 31.2% of GOP respondents said they think Trump should select Noem as VP nominee, which is less than Democrats (33.6%) who think so. Independents were 22.7%.

On the question of credibility following Noem’s book tour and evasive answers, 86% of Democrats surveyed said that she had damaged her credibility, compared to 68% of Independents and 48% of Republicans.

Schaff stressed that nearly half of GOP respondents viewing Noem’s credibility as damaged is a serious setback in her home state, where she has served as a state legislator, congressional representative and governor, and has never lost an election.

“That tells me that even within the state party, her base has eroded,” said Schaff. “I still think she’s a talented politician, and people have come back from similar things before, but it’s clear that she has a lot of work to do.”

 

STANTON, NE – Dozens of residents packed a small county commission room, in Stanton County, Nebraska, Monday, to protest a Bitcoin mine operating in their county.

Residents urged commissioners to order a “sound study” of the area surrounding the plant. A local Bitcoin mine makes noise, almost 90 decibels if you’re standing nearby, and neighbors say it’s really disrupted their quiet farm life.

And, residents say since the county commissioners voted to change zoning, to make the Bitcoin mine happen, commissioners should foot the bill for a sound study.

It was a tense debate inside the Stanton County Courthouse as county commissioners talked about using tax dollars to assess how much noise a nearby Bitcoin mine is making. According to an expert who joined the meeting via Zoom, a seven-day sound study would cost about $14,000.

“But I think one description of it that I’ve heard is it sounds like a jet airplane just continually it idling on the tarmac,” said Martin Schwartz, a resident concerned about the Bitcoin mine.

Schwartz said commissioners should spend the money to pay for the seven-day sound study. But not every commissioner is on board.

“But once you start spending taxpayers’ money to help one source here, you’re going to have to turn around and (use) the taxpayers’ money to help them there too,” said Stanton County Commissioner Duane Rehak.

Rehak also said residents should take their concerns directly to the mine operator, not to the commissioners.

Commissioner Douglas Huttmann said Friday he spoke with the “site operator” of the mine, who agreed to close down one of the eight shipping containers used to house the computers that mine Bitcoin. Huttmann said that should relieve a lot of the noise in the area.

“I spoke to one resident on Friday that lives a mile straight east of this site,” said Huttmann. “And they said they’ve never heard it. All they hear is rumble bars on the highway.”

For Jennifer Horstman, it would be money well spent on the sound study.

“I understand that they’re concerned about the taxpayers paying for this,” she said. “And this is something that’s affecting everybody that lives around there and I think it’s their duty to do something about it.”

Residents say the Bitcoin mine makes noise because the operation is a large number of computers housed inside shipping containers. And that takes a lot of fans to cool those computers, causing a whining, vibrating noise at all hours of the day.

“It’s always there,” said Horstman. “Like, when I’m outside doing chores or in the garden or outside playing with my kids. It’s there all the time.”

For now, the Stanton County commissioners are only considering the sound study.

No official vote was taken Monday, and it’s unclear if the issue will be brought back next month.

The sound study would take place over 24 hours, seven days (recommended by the expert), or over one month. Three sites would be selected to take in sound readings, with one of the sites close to the mine itself.

 

 

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (John Hult, South Dakota Searchlight) – Sioux Falls, Fort Sisseton Historic State Park, Box Elder and the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead will benefit from $3 million in cleanup funds awarded Monday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

 

The money comes from the EPA’s Brownfields program, which offers grants to state and local partners for the assessment and recovery of contaminated sites around the country. President Biden’s Infrastructure Reinvestment and Recovery Act boosted the program’s funding by 400%, according to a news release from the EPA.

The South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources will use its $2 million share of the grant funding for cleanup at:

Falls Park, quarry lake and the Sioux Empire Fairgrounds in Sioux Falls.

Fort Sisseton Historic State Park in the northeast corner of the state.

Villa Ranchaero in Box Elder.

For Falls Park, the needs are tied to contamination from former landfills. The work will involve environmental assessments, dredging and soil sampling, as well as water quality testing and testing for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS, or “forever chemicals”) at Falls Park and quarry lake. At the fairgrounds, the money will pay to test for methane, PFAS and other risks to the Big Sioux River.

At Fort Sisseton, the money will enable the construction of a new visitor center, the news release said, which involves environmental testing and asbestos and lead paint studies in historic buildings. The Villa Ranchaero site, 4 acres near Ellsworth Air Force Base, will see environmental assessments for safety, as the area is now home to several retail shops.

The South Dakota Science and Technology Authority manages the research facility in Lead, which is the deepest underground science lab in the U.S.

Its $1 million share of the money will be used to clean up properties contaminated by asbestos and assess environmental concerns related to hydrocarbons, Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), volatile organic compounds, lead-based paint and metals such as lead, mercury and arsenic.

Redevelopment plans include a new main entrance to the facility and returning to “safe use of contaminated spaces” on the grounds, the press release said. The lab is located on the site of the former Homestake Gold Mine.

 

LYONS, NE (Deborah Van Fleet / Nebraska News Connection and Claire Carlson / The Daily Yonder) – A federal grant of $62 million to the nonprofit Center for Rural Affairs in Lyons, Nebraska, will help build residential solar-power installations for Nebraska families who usually can’t afford the cost-saving systems, the center’s director said.

The Center for Rural Affairs is one of 60 grantees across the country that will participate in the Solar for All program, a Biden administration initiative that is part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. The program will provide a one-time injection of $7 billion nationally to help people who would normally have a hard time paying for residential solar production capacity.

“The people that have built solar have tended to be middle income and higher individuals or institutions that have the discretionary resources to do the upfront costs or do the financing,” said Brian Depew, executive director of the Center for Rural Affairs.

The center has advocated for economic justice and environmental stewardship in Nebraska’s rural communities for more than 50 years. The Solar for All project will serve all of Nebraska, not just rural areas.

“People with less fiscal capacity have not yet been able to participate fully in the benefits of solar energy,” Depew said. “That’s what we’re trying to change.”

The Center for Rural Affairs received word of the grant in April (2024). Depew said learning about the large grant was a “surreal” moment for his organization.

“It’s a major award for the Center for Rural Affairs,” Depew said in a Daily Yonder interview. “Just the magnitude of the award and the size of the project that we’ll be able to do.”

The Solar for All program comes out of the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The agency estimates that 900,000 households across the country will benefit from the solar projects funded by the program. Recipients range from state governmental agencies to nonprofit organizations like the Center for Rural Affairs.

Once the awards are allocated to the organizations such as the Center for Rural Affairs that will distribute the funds to recipients, eligible households in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. territories, and tribal nations will be able to apply for grants, technical assistance, and loans to pay for solar panels.

In Nebraska, this opportunity will most likely open to residents in the next two years. “There will be an up to one-year planning period where we will further design…the application period [for grants],” Depew said. “We hope to start piloting some actual solar installations during the planning period, but it could be a full year before we are really up and ready to take applications from a broader array of people.”

Depew credits the Center for Rural Affairs’ success in getting this award to the number of stakeholders they conferred with during the application process. The center met with more than 50 stakeholders from rural, suburban, urban, and tribal communities in Nebraska to get their input for a program proposal that made sense for their communities. What made it into the final application was a three-part strategy for implementing residential solar in Nebraska.

The first strategy is community solar, in which public utilities manage the solar arrays and eligible residences could benefit from the solar through a subscription service or by owning some of the panels. The second is multifamily affordable housing solar, in which the center would work with utilities, developers, or low-income housing financing partners to deploy solar at multifamily residences. And the third strategy would be directly providing grants or loans for rooftop solar to individual residences.

The center’s Solar for All application proposed allocating each of the three strategies one-third of the total project funds. This could change as they work on the details in the planning process that will take place in collaboration with the EPA over the next year.

“All of the projects are required to be residential-serving solar, and they’re required to serve low to moderate income individuals and individuals living in historically disadvantaged census tracts,” Depew said.

The EPA identified these census tracts using the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool, which is part of the Biden administration’s Justice40 Initiative to ensure 40% of federal environmental investments go to communities that are “marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution,” according to a press release. Some of these census tracts will include rural communities, but people can also qualify at the individual household level regardless of the census tract they live in.

The Solar for All money will be disbursed over a five year period. The Center for Rural Affairs plans to put some of the money into a revolving loan fund so they can extend the funding beyond the five years. A complete list of Solar for All awardees may be found here.