Winning the 1990 Snow Queen Festival also helped shape her path in higher education. The scholarship she received allowed her to begin college at Northern State University.
Over the four years following high school, she spent two years at Northern, married her husband, Byron Noem, and returned to the family farm after her father died in a farming accident in March 1994.
She worked on the farm full-time until she turned her focus to politics in the last decade. She eventually earned a degree in political science from South Dakota State University in 2011.
The Unexpected Rise of a Straight-Talking Politician
Kristi Noem, the subject of this story, recently served as United States Secretary of Homeland Security before President Donald Trump announced that she would be replaced. No one in her family ever imagined she would follow a political path.
Kristi Noem arrives at the Hart Senate Office Building to meet with Senators on December 12, 2024 in Washington, DC
“My entire family cannot believe I ended up in politics because I never have had a filter. From the time I was a little girl, I said whatever I thought without even thinking. I am the only person in my family that is involved in politics. They find that humorous today because the person without the filter ended up here,” she divulged.
She launched her political career by serving in the South Dakota House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011. Noem explained that she ran because she identified with the people of her state and wanted to give a voice to everyday South Dakotans.
She explained, “I ran because I felt like we needed somebody in Washington, D.C., to represent us who knows what happens when you pass legislation – how it impacts families and small businesses back here in South Dakota.”
Noem continued to advance her political career by representing South Dakota’s At-Large Congressional District from 2011 to 2019, setting the stage for higher office. She then served as the 33rd governor of South Dakota from 2019 to 2025, earning Trump’s endorsement.
Kristi Noem being interviewed at the Mayflower Hotel on December 10, 2007
