South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem tried to attack Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz on X, only to be bombarded with mockery.
Noem tried Tuesday to call out Walz as a radical, claiming that he “pretended to be moderate” while they were serving in Congress together but “then showed his true extremist colors as soon as he became Governor.” She also said that South Dakota was performing better economically compared to Minnesota, with people moving away from Walz’s state due to his policies.
But on Thursday, former Representative Adam Kinzinger, an anti-Trump Republican, called her out with a photo of a happy Walz hunting with a dog, referring to Noem’s disturbing account of how she killed her puppy after it failed to live up to her hunting expectations.
Noem’s puppy story drew attacks from other Republicans including Mitt Romney, and was likely a major factor in Noem losing out on becoming Donald Trump’s running mate. In contrast, Walz not only has that good photo but also has a pet dog, Scout, that is already an internet darling. The black lab mix, a rescue, was adopted by the Walz family in 2019 and memorably locked himself in Walz and his wife Gwen’s bedroom in 2023. The story resurfaced this week after Walz was named as Kamala Harris’s running mate.
Noem follows Arkansas’s Sarah Huckabee Sanders as red state governors that have tried to attack Walz and failed. Like Noem, Sanders was trolled with a photo of a happy Walz, in this case surrounded by children hugging him, contrasted with Sanders surrounded by serious, unhappy children. Perhaps Republicans can’t comprehend a governor that is actually liked by their constituents—Native tribes have actually banned Noem from all of the tribal land in her state.
