MANHATTAN
Govs. Laura Kelly of Kansas and Kristi Noem of South Dakota will never be mistaken for allies.
The two took drastically different approaches to the COVID-19 pandemic. Kelly, a Democrat, closed schools and businesses and mandated masks until GOP lawmakers weakened her executive powers. Noem, a Republican, kept her state open.
But their small piece of common ground caused some heartburn Saturday for Kansas Republicans at their state convention.
Noem, a rising party star and possible 2024 presidential candidate, was a natural get as a headline speaker for the GOP fundraising dinner. Then, last month, she vetoed a priority item on the Republican culture war agenda — banning transgender athletes from girls sports.
Noem’s veto stoked criticism from conservatives nationwide. She arrived in Manhattan just a few days after Kelly vetoed Kansas’ version of the proposal — one in a series of bills on taxes, elections and gun rights she has bounced back to legislators in the past two weeks.
In district and party meetings ahead of the dinner, the name of the headline speaker went unmentioned. Some said her veto had caused them to question a politician they previously viewed as a strong voice.
“I won’t be attending the dinner. I disagree with what she did, I can’t support it,” said Brittany Jones, director of advocacy for the Family Policy Alliance of Kansas, a driving force for passage of the Kansas sports bill.
Others were milder in their response. Gubernatorial candidates Attorney General Derek Schmidt and former Governor Jeff Colyer both said they would have signed the Kansas version but respected Noem’s choice, which Schmidt said will need to be sorted out in South Dakota.
“These are decisions you need to make as governor and what you’re going to do and sometimes you’re going to get people pushing back on you,” Colyer said.
Former congressional candidate Adrienne Vallejo Foster said she still saw Noem as a strong leader. “She is displaying a lot of great courage. We have a shirt that says ‘lion not sheep’ and she’s definitely a lion.”
Throughout the convention Legislative leaders pledged their intent to override Kelly’s vetoes. Schmidt said she held “the most dangerous pen in Kansas.”
In her speech, Noem was quick to call the Democratic governor “a mess.” She said she was disappointed with Kelly’s veto and she sought to explain hers, claiming it wasn’t a veto.
Her “style and form veto” attempted to exempt transgender collegiate athletes from the ban. When the legislature rejected those changes, the bill died and Noem issued a weaker executive order.
“Those executive orders do not have an expiration date,” Noem said. “They will stand until my legislature gives me bills that protect girls sports in the long run.”
South Dakota had one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the nation but Noem earned acclaim in conservative circles for resisting calls to close businesses and mandate masks.
In her speech, Friday, Noem said other governor’s exceeded the bounds of their authority that her strategy saved the state’s economy and kept people employed.
“(Other governor’s) made completely different decisions and they made those decisions out of fear. They made them for political purposes and the people in your communities paid the price,” Noem said. “That’s what your governor did and that’s why she’s going to lose her job.”
With Democrats controlling all three branches of government in DC and Kelly in the governor’s office, Noem presented her governorship as a picture of what the alternative could be. That alternative aligned closely with the messaging of Colyer and Schmidt, already campaigning 14 months before Kansans will cast a vote.
