This interview originally aired on "In the Moment" on SDPB Radio.
Former President Donald Trump is considered by some to be a nontraditional candidate, so it’s no surprise that his shortlist of vice presidents has a few nontraditional picks.
But our Dakota Political Junkies say Gov. Kristi Noem’s name being on that list isn’t a surprise. We hear their insights and analysis.
Plus, we check in on how the governor's call to defend Texas is becoming a mission for South Dakota National Guard members.
David Wiltse, Ph.D., and Lisa Hager, Ph.D., are associate professors of political science at South Dakota State University.
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Lori Walsh:
This is In The Moment Statehouse on SDPB. I'm Lori Walsh. While former president Donald Trump confirmed that South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem is on his shortlist for vice presidential candidates as he campaigns for another term in the White House. During a town hall event in South Carolina, he included Tim Scott, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Governor Noem as three of the five front runners. Well, we'll start there for today's political analysis. My guests are Lisa Hager and Dave Wiltse, both associate professors of political science at South Dakota State University and they're joining us on Zoom. Dr. Hager, welcome. Thank you so much for being here.
Lisa Hager:
Great to be here.
Lori Walsh:
Dr. Wiltse, welcome back as well.
David Wiltse:
Thanks for having me.
Lori Walsh:
Let's start with you, Dave. The announcement is not really a surprise to most people who were sort of placing her on a shortlist and the former president did not give, as far as I know at this time, any indication of when he would be making a selection. So has anything really changed today after this announcement in your estimation?
David Wiltse:
Not especially. I was kind of surprised with Ron DeSantis being on that list. He didn't have much nice things to say about him in the last few weeks of the campaign, but that's not uncommon for some of the people who did well in the primaries to be on that vice presidential shortlist. Little surprised about Ramaswamy being on that list. He's not exactly a typical VP pick, somebody who has no political experience whatsoever, but the other names are who've you been talking about most of this time. And it's no surprise that Governor Noem is right there.
Lori Walsh:
This is not a typical candidate running for office either. So from what we know about him in the past, he won't necessarily take the traditional path going... This shortlist might not be who he selects from even. So help us understand what it means for Governor Kristi Noem. What does it do to her work with the state legislature right now? What does it do to how she has to plan her communications and her ambitions? What has changed for her, if anything today, Dave?
David Wiltse:
I don't think anything's really changed. We'll see her on basically the same trajectory that we've had for the past few months ever since her name's been circulating around. I mean, Donald Trump works on impulse and no one is going to bank on anything when it comes to who's most probable in terms of his pick. He is not your typical candidate, obviously. But in 2016, he did fall back onto a fairly well established politician and I would imagine he would try to do that again. I mean, it does bring some credibility to the ticket. It does bring some support that an outsider really can't bring them. But somebody like Governor Noem or any of those others on the list, really, would be good solid choices.
Lori Walsh:
Lisa Hager talked to us a little bit about what Kristi Noem needs to do next. We're going to get into her sending National Guard troops to the southern border in just a minute. That might be one of the things that the president is looking for regarding loyalty and that particular topic in some kind of action. How does she sort of split, if this is something that she wants to do and we're making an assumption there that she would be willing and ready to take on that kind of challenge if she got the call? So that's noted fairly, I think. But if she wanted to, is she trying to get his attention in any specific ways right now? How does she position herself knowing that that's the shortlist?
Lisa Hager:
My guess is that she has been trying to get Donald Trump's attention for quite a while so that she would be included on the shortlist that he discussed recently. And so I think in order to remain on that list and ultimately, possibly get selected, she's going to want to play up her qualifications every chance she gets. So when she is making decisions and communicating about anything that she's doing in her dealings with the legislature or other executive decisions that she's making, like sending troops to the border, she's going to want to talk about her qualifications, her experience. These are the kinds of things that an executive needs to be able to do because as we see from political science literature, as women are trying to achieve executive positions, especially when we look more at the pipeline to governorships, that's where we see Republican women really needing to play up their qualifications. And that just tends to be the case when we're looking at them running for really any type of office.
Lori Walsh:
At the same time, Lisa, she has been criticized for her national ambitions and for taking her eye off the ball in South Dakota. She's been criticized for her use of the state airplane. She's been criticized for her travel itinerary and some of the decisions that she's made. She came into this legislative session and the state of the state address and the budget address with, I think you could argue it's a lighter policy look and more of a, "Hey, these are my priorities," but she's kind of letting the state lawmakers do what they need to do. So where is that line between she's too checked out and doesn't have her eye here at home versus I'm letting the state legislature do the legislative work that needs to be done. And that's a good thing. It's better than being in conflict with them from last year. She's a lot to balance here is what I'm getting at. So any final thoughts on how she manages that during a legislative session?
Lisa Hager:
I think showing that she has a healthy respect for the legislature is going to serve her well moving forward. So no, you definitely don't want to appear checked out, really to focused on your national ambitions, but you also don't want to appear too interventionalist. And so I think that does serve her well if she's showing I have this healthy respect for the legislature when she is trying to possibly be named as vice president. But also Donald Trump is pretty heavy handed in his approach to things, so maybe that won't serve her well. But I think in general, it is good for her moving forward, especially with any additional political ambition she may have.
Lori Walsh:
All right, let's bring this to the next topic of the day, which is South Dakota National Guardsmen. The governor's office says about 60, but not all at once. They'll go on rotating deployments to the southern border. This all comes from her visit to the southern border from her joint session in South Dakota, talking to lawmakers about what she calls a war zone at the southern border. She's really looking, Dave, for this idea of the rules of engagement need to be determined, and this ties into Governor Abbott's battle with President Biden on implementation of border security. There's a lot happening. I'm hoping we can kind of focus on that state versus federal call to action. Dave, what's important to you in this whole conversation about what this governor is doing in sending those troops, the fifth time that they've gone, how it's paid for, what do you think is the most important thing for us to talk about today regarding that?
David Wiltse:
Well, this is all just virtue signaling and just setting up a manufactured conflict that will play well with the Republican base when it comes time for the general election. In the end, these sorts of things are going to have very little effect on actual conditions down at the border. And Lisa can certainly comment better than I can on where the constitutional authorities lie and what the courts might say about this. But this is political theater and I wouldn't read too much beyond that. It's good for their base, it's good for the general election. It is a topic that they think that they own right now, and they're running with it and they're running with it hard.
Lori Walsh:
Are there concerns that you see playing out about political theater with a state budget and the South Dakota Disaster and Emergency Fund, how it's being paid for and with our own National Guard troops being part of that political theater? When does that rise to a level of concern for South Dakota voters?
David Wiltse:
I think it would really be concerning if you start to see open criticism from the National Guard itself, from the troops, from the leadership within the National Guard about this kind of action. But until it gets to that point, I don't think people are going to care too much. People have been pretty tolerant of these sorts of ventures in the past. You look at what's happening with a lot of these southern states that are sending busloads of immigrants and applicants for asylum to various cities across the north and the west. People aren't really up in arms about this when it comes to the base that they're trying to cater to here. So again, it really is, it is theater. And until lives are lost or until we have a real conflict within the National Guard itself, I don't think people are going to pay too much mind to it.
Lori Walsh:
Lisa Hager, help us understand that constitutional foundation and some of the challenges between what Governor Noem is saying, Governor Abbott is saying, versus the federal government. There seems to be some tension there that has made me uncomfortable as I watch some of the rhetoric. Help us parse it out a bit, please.
Lisa Hager:
Yeah, so when we talked at the beginning of the month about some of the statements that Governor Noem had made, she did reference some areas of Article One of the U.S Constitution, which Article One, as I always tell the student, deals primarily with Congress. So that's the best way to kind of think about the Constitution. And she specifically referenced one section that I think is worth talking about today, which really gets at this idea of how much power states have in situations like this. And where we do see the Constitution empowering the states has to do with when there is some sort of invasion or imminent danger.
And so here we get into this question of really what is an invasion, what is imminent danger? Early Supreme Court cases that have looked at this particular provision tells us that this has more to do with some sort of armed invasion. And so if we're looking at that definition, that's not necessarily what we're seeing at the southern border where we have immigrants and asylum seekers there. And so I think from that type of perspective, we could see some sort of clash coming about really what is the interpretation of the Constitution and how does that compare to what we're seeing at the southern border?
Lori Walsh:
Is there a benefit, Lisa, in pushing that? Because when I think about the mission that's been laid out by the governor's office in a press release is wall construction, these National Guardsmen from South Dakota are primarily their mission is going to be helping construct some kind of barrier. That would indicate to me that they haven't found a broader mission for them other than that which is fairly confined. Is there a benefit to pushing that and testing the limits of it, or is that a fool's errand? What do you think?
Lisa Hager:
I mean, I think at this point, the benefit of sending National Guard troops to the southern border gets back to what Dave was talking about, where this plays well with the base. It sets up this conflict between what the states are wanting or certain states are wanting compared to the federal government. Texas in particular, feeling that they're not getting the support from the federal government in dealing with this particular issue. Or even dealing with a larger issue, which relates to immigration law and asylum law here in the United States.
Lori Walsh:
All right, we are going to leave it there for today. Our Dakota political junkies have been Lisa Hager and Dave Wiltse, both associate professors of political science at South Dakota State University in Brookings. Dr. Hager, thank you so much.
Lisa Hager:
Thanks for having me.
Lori Walsh:
Dr. Wiltse, thank you as well.
David Wiltse:
Thanks.
