Kristi Noem, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to become secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, is set to face her Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday.
The South Dakota governor is a longtime Trump ally whom he has formerly praised for her approach of sending the state’s National Guard to the southern border to address alleged immigration issues. With one of Trump’s major campaign promises centering around mass deportation and heightened border control, his picks for national security and defense have focused largely on immigration matters.
Noem said in a statement after Trump announced her as his pick that she was “honored and humbled” by the appointment. “I look forward to working with Border Czar Tom Homan to make America SAFE again,” she wrote. “With Donald Trump, we will secure the Border, and restore safety to American communities so that families will again have the opportunity to pursue The American Dream.”
The Homeland Security position requires Senate confirmation. On Wednesday, Noem will appear before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee for her hearing.
Here’s what you need to know about the confirmation hearing.
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The hearing is expected to begin Wednesday, Jan. 15 at 9:00 a.m. ET.
Kristi Noem is a 52-year-old rancher, farmer, and small-business owner. She has been a close Trump ally and was even considered for his 2024 presidential campaign. She served as South Dakota’s congresswoman from 2011 to 2019 and was elected the state’s first female governor in 2018. She was reelected to the position in 2022.
Like many of Trump’s picks, Noem has not managed to escape becoming the subject of several controversies during her political career.
Her bid to run as Trump’s VP pick in 2024 crumbled largely due to backlash after Noem wrote in her memoir, “No Going Back,” that she shot and killed her dog Cricket for being “untrainable.” The Democratic National Committee called the excerpts from the book “horrifying” and “disturbing” at the time, while Noem said, “We love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm.”
She also came under fire for falsely claiming in the same memoir that she met North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un while she served as the state’s representative in Congress and that Kim “underestimated me, having no clue about my experience staring down little tyrants (I’d been a children’s pastor, after all).”
After this anecdote was revealed to be fake, Noem’s spokesperson said Kim was incorrectly included on a list of world leaders with whom she had met and that the anecdote would be removed in subsequent printings.
She has also been criticized for her views on abortion, having pushed for the signing of an abortion “trigger law” that banned the procedure when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and supporting abortion bans with no exceptions for rape or incest.
All nine Native American tribes in South Dakota also barred Noem from reservations in 2024 after the governor made comments accusing tribal leaders of profiting off drug cartels.
Contributing: Joey Garrison, Francesca Chambers, Julia Gomez, USA TODAY
