OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s campaign got some more good news just a few weeks out from the November election. According to a new poll published Wednesday by Emerson College Polling and The Hill, the GOP governor’s lead over her Democratic rival has widened to 19 points.
She has support from 56 percent of likely general election voters, compared with 37 percent for her challenger, Jamie Smith. Another 3 percent said they would vote for Libertarian Tracey Quint.
Also, according to the survey, 74 percent of South Dakota voters expect that Noem will win reelection. That includes roughly 45 percent of registered Democrats, 91 percent of registered Republicans, and 68 percent of Independents and members of other parties, Newsmax reported.
“Smith leads Noem among independent voters 46% to 39%, and among Democratic voters 80% to 17%; however, Smith’s support is not strong enough to surpass Noem’s majority of Republican voters’ support in South Dakota who represent the majority of registered voters, and she leads among Republicans 83% to 12%,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling noted in a statement accompanying the survey results.
In September, Noem announced in a video she had to leave the campaign trail temporarily after she had back surgery.
“Several weeks ago, about two months ago, I sustained an injury to my back. I’ve been working with excellent doctors here in South Dakota over those weeks to try to alleviate the situation. Unfortunately, this week, I ended up having surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester,” Noem said in a video posted to Twitter this week.
“I won’t be able to stand for more than 10, 15 minutes at a time, I won’t be able to get out and about South Dakota like I love to do so much,” the governor said in the video. “And you know that about me; that I’m very hands-on and will miss being able to do my normal activities.”
Noem said there was good news and bad news to share.
“The person who performed that surgery was a neurosurgeon who specializes in spine injuries, and it was a complete success,” she said. “I’m very grateful for all of their expertise and help and just arrived back home here in Pierre.”
“But I did want to let you all know that I’m going to be very limited in what I will be able to do for the next several months,” she added.
“I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate all your support and your prayers. That I’m still working hard here in Pierre every day, and that I’m still campaigning. I’ll do a lot of video updates and a lot of chats with you this was as well, but my ability to get around the state is going to be pretty challenged for the next several months,” she added.
An important update from Governor Noem: pic.twitter.com/6gmrPgcqTP
— Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) September 12, 2022
Noem added, “I have to abide by certain limitations on my activity in order to allow my back to heal properly. In the short term, this will include amount of standing I can do and the amount of travel that I can partake in around our great state.”
“I am grateful for the doctors’ and nurses’ steady hands — and God’s grace — as I am now back home in Pierre and on the mend,” she said in the statement.
Noem, who is well-known as a close ally of former President Donald Trump, defeated Steve Haugaard, the former Republican speaker of the state House, in a June GOP primary.
Earlier that month, Noem made headlines when she pushed back on a Biden administration threat to withhold education funding from states that refuse to adhere to a new Title IX interpretation.
“President Biden is holding lunch money for poor Americans hostage in pursuit of his radical agenda,” Noem said in a statement Thursday morning. “He is insisting that we allow biological males to compete in girls’ sports or else lose funding for SNAP and school lunch programs.”
“South Dakota will continue to defend basic fairness so that our girls can compete and achieve. I would remind President Biden that we have defeated him in litigation before and are ready to do so again,” the GOP governor added, making reference to her state’s lawsuit against the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) vaccine mandate, which the Supreme Court struck down in January.
“Mr. President, we’ll see you in court,” she added.
