Free Republic

It was a busy evening at the Sioux Empire Fair. Caught up with lots of South Dakotans, and got in a little grandkid time. Oh, and some great fair food. #sdsummer pic.twitter.com/uPzAI688fr— Senator John Thune (@SenJohnThune) August 9, 2022

EXCLUSIVE: Tampa, Fla.– Former President Donald Trump dominated the 2024 GOP presidential nomination straw poll at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit Sunday, Fox News has learned. TPUSA polled conference attendees—youth activists from around the country—who they would vote for in 2024 if Trump decided to launch another White House run. The straw poll was sponsored by Turning Point Action, the affiliated 501(c)(4) of TPUSA. 78.7% attendees said they would vote for Trump. 19% said they would vote for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, 1% said they’d vote for South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, 0.5% said they’d vote for former...

A week after getting hammered with tough questions on ABC and CBS Sunday shows, Gov. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) faced another round with CNN State of the Union host Dana Bash. She was harassed to support an abortion for a raped 10-year-old girl in Ohio. Right after that, Bash interviewed Rep. Adam Kinzinger and told him her 11-year-old son would appreciate him calling Liz Cheney’s primary opponents “a bunch of armpit farters.” Bash is just that shameless. She began by peppering Noem with a barrage of questions insisting she support paid family leave and taxpayer-subsidized child care in South Dakota now...

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem on Sunday said her state will prosecute doctors who perform abortions and will work to restrict women’s access to abortion pills. South Dakota is among 10 states with “trigger laws” that declared abortion a criminal offense immediately upon the US Supreme Court’s decision Friday to strike down the 1973 Roe v. Wade case that established a women’s right to have the procedure. Noem, a Republican, said South Dakota will prosecute doctors, not women, who violate its law.

As an extreme weather event stampeded across South Dakota Thursday evening, images that emerged on social media called to mind the 1930s Dust Bowl era. A destructive line of storms rips across Nebraska and South Dakota on May 12, leaving damage scattered all over the region.(Please go to the site to view the video)The multi-day severe weather threat across the Plains escalated on Thursday, with thunderstorms delivering powerful winds and massive hailstones across the region a day after a meteorologist was killed in a crash during a preceding storm. The extreme weather event has been declared a Derecho, a long-lived...

As reported in the Gannett-owned Sioux Falls paper the Argus Leader. Gannett is a newspaper chain ultimately owned by Japanese SoftBank Group. Gov. Kristi Noem is taking a more active role in this year’s primary election season, including trading barbs with incumbent lawmakers not in lock-step with her wing of the South Dakota GOP. And that has some of her fellow Republicans accusing her and her allies of trying to rid the Legislature of its most conservative members. And though Noem won’t say specifically which moderate state lawmakers she’s putting her political weight behind, it’s known that Noem is working...

Dr. Sarah Traxler works at the only abortion clinic in the state of South Dakota, but she lives hours away in Minnesota. “I sort of feel at some level if I don’t do it and the other three physicians who do it with me, who else is going to do it? There wouldn’t be anything for these patients,” Traxler said. Nearly two dozen states have severely restricted access to abortions. The new laws come as the Supreme Court decides on a Mississippi abortion law that could overturn Roe v. Wade. The South Dakota clinic says it hasn’t been able to...

The Republican governor of Indiana has vetoed a bill that would have prohibited biological males who identify as female to participate in female sporting competitions, expressing multiple concerns about the proposed legislation.Gov. Eric Holcomb vetoed House Enrolled Act 1041 on Monday, explaining his reasoning in a letter to Indiana House of Representatives Speaker Todd Huston, also a Republican. Holcomb expressed concern with the bill’s “wide-open nature of the grievance provisions,” believing they made it “unclear about how consistency and fairness will be maintained for parents and students across different counties and school districts.”The governor worries about the potential for the...

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) signed a bill into law Monday banning public colleges and universities in the state from using "divisive" Critical Race Theory-inspired trainings or orientations."No student or teacher should have to endorse Critical Race Theory in order to attend, graduate from, or teach at our public universities," Noem said in a statement. "College should remain a place where freedom of thought and expression are encouraged, not stifled by political agendas."House Bill 1012 outlines seven "divisive concepts" that may no longer be a mandatory part of trainings and orientations for college students or faculty members.The Board of...

Gov. Kristi Noem's office ordered state agencies to provide a border-to-border escort and supportive billboard messages for a convoy of truckers opposing COVID-19 restrictions. "SD LOVES TRUCKERS" and "DRIVE SAFE," truckers read as they traveled east on Interstate 90 with an escort from the Highway Patrol. "The Noem Administration wanted to ensure that the trucker convoy felt welcome and respected in South Dakota, and that they could traverse the state safely without disrupting traffic," said Ian Fury, Gov. Noem's spokesman, in an email. Fury said the governor's office asked the Highway Patrol to provide three troopers for the escort, and...

Email: Here's an astonishing read. Important and verifiable information: About 6 months ago, there was a news program on oil and one of The Forbes Bros. was the guest. The host said to Forbes, "I am going to ask you a direct question and I would like a direct answer; how much oil does the U.S. Have in the ground?" Forbes did not miss a beat, he said, "More than all the Middle East put Together." The U.S. Geological Service issued a report in April 2008 that only Scientists and oil men knew was coming, but man was it big....

Trump Wins CPAC 2024 Straw Poll By 49 Points, DeSantis Second At 21%, Mike Pence Gets 0%Mike Pence and Greg Abbott got 0% of the vote.45th President Donald Trump easily won the CPAC straw poll asking attendees who they would prefer to win the 2024 Republican nomination for President with 70% of the vote. The only other potential candidate coming close to being competitive is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, with 21% of the vote. The overwhelming number of potential 2024 opponents received 0% of the vote.Voters were asked “Thinking ahead, if the 2024 Republican Primary for President in your state...

Sunday on New York WABC 770 AM radio’s “The Cats Roundtable,” Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) argued that President Joe Biden and his administration intended to “push people out of” fuel-based vehicles with their energy policy. Thune told host John Catsimatidis that Democrats want to be more “eco-friendly,” so they have decided to push people toward electric vehicles. “I think honestly, that’s part of the strategy,” Thune outlined. “I think it’s to push people out of, you know, fuel-based vehicles. But you are absolutely going to crush the economy and a lot of middle-income families, many of whom are...

Two Canadian provincial leaders and 16 American state governors signed a letter on Wednesday calling on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and American President Joe Biden to end Wuhan coronavirus vaccine mandates for cross-border truckers. The letter – signed by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, Idaho Governor Brad Little, Alaska Governor Kay Ivey and others – calls on the Canadian federal government and the U.S. federal government to end the vaccine mandates. “We are writing to request that you immediately reinstate the vaccine and quarantine exemptions available to cross-border truck drivers. We...

Republican senators are unmoved by Tucker Carlson’s relentless warpath against support for Ukraine — even as it widens an existing rift in their party. The Fox News prime time host and others on the far-right have excused and even rationalized Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine and downplayed its relevance to U.S. national security. And while GOP senators are shrugging off his name-and-shame campaign, Carlson’s views are permeating the GOP base in a way that could undermine Republicans’ efforts to emphasize cross-party unity as they seek to deter a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — The South Dakota House on Tuesday passed two bills aimed at transgender students, seeking to restrict which bathrooms K-12 trans children can use and which sports teams trans girls and college-age women can join.A ( proposal from Republican Gov. Kristi Noem) to ban transgender women and girls from playing in school sports leagues, including college athletes, that match their gender identity cleared its final hurdle in the Legislature with its passage in the House. Meanwhile, a proposal to ban transgender children from using school restrooms that match their gender identity was headed to the Senate.Advocates for...

Governor Kristi Noem (R-SD) was in her element at the 44th annual Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show (SHOT Show) in Las Vegas, Nevada. “For us, it's an opportunity to talk about our state—recruit businesses to our state—but also, you know, see what we can do to get some investment into some of the businesses that are already there,” remarked the first-time attendee. Noem also addressed the inaugural Governors Forum that featured six Republican governors representing gun-friendly states.She proudly stated, “We [South Dakota] are the No. 1 economy in the country right now, and we’re also the No. 1 state...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is waging a quiet campaign to keep his caucus from getting a whole lot Trumpier after the midterms. "He wants people who he knows are team players, people who are interested in solutions," said a GOP senator who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid angering fellow Republicans. "There are a lot of people who are running for office these days who have different agendas." In Alaska's Senate race, McConnell is backing incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowski, who voted to convict former President Donald Trump on impeachment charges last year. She faces a Trump-backed...

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem on Jan. 21 announced two bills that would ban almost all abortions in the state, with one seeking to ban abortions in which a fetal heartbeat is detectable, and the other seeking to ban telemedicine abortions.“Every human life is unique and beautiful from the moment it is conceived. Every life is worthy of our protection, worthy of the right to live,” Noem, a Republican, said in a statement. “These bills will ensure that both unborn children and their mothers are protected in South Dakota.”The governor for weeks previewed the heartbeat bill, which received an enthusiastic...

Senate Minority Whip John Thune said this week that Republicans "welcome" former President Donald Trump's help in taking back the Senate majority, but repeating his false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen "takes our eyes off the ultimate prize." "President Trump still has a tremendous following among our supporters across the country and, you know, exercises that influence, or at least attempts to, on a daily basis," Thune, R-S.D., told Fox News. "But I think ultimately for us as Republican senators our job right now is to try to get the majority back in 2022 and provide that...