South Dakota governor Kristi Noem to face questions during confirmation hearing for DHS secretary
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(WASHINGTON) — Kristi Noem, South Dakota’s firebrand Republican governor, faces a grilling Friday at her confirmation hearing to be secretary of homeland security.
Noem, the daughter of a farmer and a former representative from South Dakota, will be questioned before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
She first came on the national scene during the pandemic and gained notoriety when she did not shut down businesses and schools in the state — instead keeping it open and even hosting a Fourth of July fireworks show at Mt. Rushmore.
“We didn’t mandate anything,” Noem said at the Republican National Convention in July 2024. “We never ordered a single business or church to close. I never even defined what an essential business was, because I don’t believe that the government has the authority to tell you that your business isn’t essential.”
During her last state budget address in December, Noem touted what she called progress on the state economy, education and public safety.
Noem was one of the Republican governors to send National Guardsmen to the southern border to help the Texas National Guard.
If confirmed, border security will be a main concern as Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would fall under her purview at the Department of Homeland Security.
“I have increased resources to combat the horror of human trafficking,” she said in December. “And when President Trump secures the southern border, we’ll cut off the primary pipeline for human trafficking into our country.”
In an interview on Newsmax shortly after President-elect Trump’s election victory she said the “number one priority” will be the border.
“We’ve got to secure our country, and we’ve got to get the murderers and terrorists and rapists out of this country, and make America safe again. That’s really what his goal is. And I’m just so proud of him that he’s working so hard at it immediately,” she said.
A one-time potential vice-presidential prospect, Noem would oversee 22 agencies with more than 260,000 employees — on issues ranging from the border to federal disaster management to the Secret Service.
Earlier this year, she was embroiled in a series of controversies, including drawing scrutiny and a lawsuit over her social media endorsement of a dental work she received from a practice in Texas.
She was also criticized for writing in her new memoir about how she shot and killed her 14-month-old dog “Cricket” after she said it demonstrated an “aggressive personality, and she was forced to admit what she called “errors” in her book, including claiming she once met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. That description was removed from the book, according to the publisher.
Trump defended and praised her amid the controversies last year, saying she’s gone through “rough” days but that he likes her “a lot.”
(PALM BEACH, Fla.) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in Florida at Mar-a-Lago and is expected to meet with President-elect Donald Trump tonight, according to multiple sources.
The expected meeting comes after Trump threatened sweeping 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada until both countries stop what he claims is a flow of drugs and illegal immigrants into the United States.
Trudeau told reporters earlier this week after he and Trump spoke on the phone following the tariff threat that they had a “good call.” He added that he looks forward to “lots of great conversations” with Trump.
The prime minister has cited the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or UMSCA, negotiations as a sign he believes he can work with Trump on trade and avoid a trade war.
USMCA went into effect in 2020 after it was signed by Trump and was designed to provide mostly duty-free trade among the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Trump’s tariff threats could put that deal in jeopardy.
The terms of USMCA allowed it to be renegotiated after six years, in 2026, but experts have told ABC News that the tariff threat may be an effort to move up that negotiation window.
However, some experts told ABC News’ Selina Wang and Karen Travers that the threat is not likely to work in a second Trump term because it is “the same playbook done the second time around. If you’re on the football field and you call the same play twice, it’s not going to be as effective the second time.”
The tariffs also could significantly raise prices for goods after Trump ran his campaign on lowering too-high inflation.
Trudeau spoke with Trump on Monday, Nov. 25, after Trump had announced the day-one tariffs on Canada and Mexico, as well as on China, the U.S.’s top three trading partners.
“We talked about some of the challenges that we can work on together,” he told reporters of the call. “This is a relationship that we know takes a certain amount of working on, and that’s what we’ll do.”
Trudeau’s plane landed at Palm Beach International Airport on Friday ahead of an expected dinner at Mar-a-Lago with the president-elect, according to reports.
(WASHINGTON) — Amid mounting frustration from centrist voters and shifting party coalitions, one group thinks it has the solution to making parties and political candidates: comprehensive election reform.
Unite America, a philanthropic venture fund, is in the middle of a yearslong effort to support ballot initiatives that would fundamentally alter the way candidates are elected. Rather than hold party primaries, some of which independent voters can’t partake in, states would hold one large primary for all candidates for a race. Then, general election voters would be able to sift through winners in some form, including a ranked choice system or a competition between the top two vote getters.
In an interview with ABC News, Unite America Executive Director Nick Troiano said the system is intended to make the general election the race of consequence rather than low-turnout primaries in safe red or blue areas, making candidates accountable to voters of all stripes.
“If you’re a candidate, the advantage is you’re no longer only having to appeal to one side. You can talk to all the voters, and then all the voters can vote for whomever they want,” Troiano said.
“It’s really about trying to make the general election the election of consequence, meaning the primary, everybody can vote, everybody can run, but it winnows down to just a few candidates in a general election, when most people vote, should really be when the decision is made.”
The reform movement is ramping up at a time of transformation for both parties. Democrats, smarting from Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss, are looking to make a brand more palatable to working-class voters. And Republicans are expected to be tied even closer to President-elect Donald Trump after his win this month.
But the election reform efforts are coming off a rough election cycle.
Voters in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and South Dakota shot down ballot initiatives that would have instituted all-party primaries rather than contests grouping candidates of one party together. The effort marked a setback given rising conversations around other democracy-related issues like gerrymandering.
Troiano conceded the defeats, noting spending from both parties against the ballot initiatives and insisting that progress is not anticipated to be “linear.” Unite America’s advisors include those who worked on the marriage equality movement, which saw several states ban the practice in the 2004 election cycle but only to see same-sex marriage become federally legalized in 2015.
“Sometimes it’s two steps forward, one step back. But that’s how any movement that has made meaningful change in our country has worked. And so, we’re disappointed but not deterred from this mission,” Troiano said.
Some states already have versions of what Unite America is proposing.
Voters in 2022 implemented all-party primaries followed by ranked-choice general elections. Maine already has ranked choice voting. And other states like California and Louisiana institute so-called jungle primaries, which hold all-party primaries and then send the top two candidates to the general election if no contender hits 50%.
Rising independent voter registrations give Troiano hope that momentum will build for the reforms Unite America is pushing.
In the meantime, the group will conduct more research, link up with interest groups and push more ballot measures, Troiano said.
And, Unite America insists, both parties can benefit.
Democratic strategists have theorized that Harris lost this year’s presidential race because of a brand that was viewed as too far to the left — a reputation that could be confirmed by party primaries fueled by the most liberal voters. And Republicans have ceded ground in the suburbs, historically GOP power bases, with a reputation too firmly tied to Trump.
Democratic senators-elect who scored victories in Trump-won states were able to establish brands detached from that of the national party, and the only two Republican House members who impeached Trump left standing — California Rep. David Valadao and Washington Rep. Dan Newhouse — use all party primaries.
“I think both parties have a medium to long-term advantage in these reforms because it will help them nominate more mainstream candidates,” Troiano said. “Both parties have a declining market share of the electorate as independents continue to grow, so it is to their advantage to think about ways to broaden their appeal.”
Sen. John Thune; Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Senate Republicans are poised to make a historic decision on Wednesday when they’ll gather behind closed doors to select their new party leader — and President-elect Donald Trump’s influence in undeniable as he insists that whoever be selected support his ability to install recess appointments to his Cabinet.
With Trump’s victory and Senate Republican’s majority secured, the lead up to the race has intensified the jockeying between the three major contenders for the position: Sen. John Thune, Sen. John Cornyn and Sen. Rick Scott.
The leadership election, slated to occur just one day after the Senate returns from its monthlong election recess, will see Senate Republicans selecting their first new leader since 2007, when current Republican Leader Mitch McConnell first won the job. McConnell is the longest-serving party leader in United States history, but announced earlier this year he’d be stepping aside after the election.
Thune, a South Dakota Republican who currently serves as the No. 2 Republican, is somewhat of a front-runner in the race. He has served as the party whip for the last six years and in that time has notched a number of policy wins for the party, and has been working behind closed doors to whip support for the role for months. Thune said he keeps in regular contact with Trump and his team, but the two have at times had an icy relationship.
Running against Thune is Cornyn, a Texas Republican and another established GOP leader who served as the party’s whip for the six years prior to Thune before being term-limited out of the role. Though Cornyn has a slightly more conservative track record than Thune, he also faced ire from Trump for his support of the bipartisan gun safety bill that passed in the wake of the shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
Also vying for the role is Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican who just won reelection. Scott has attempted to brand himself as the most Trump-aligned of the contenders, but is less popular among some of his Senate colleagues after a stint atop the Senate GOP’s campaign arm in 2022 led to a less-than-successful night for Senate Republicans.
Trump won’t get a vote in this secret-ballot race, but his influence over it is palpable.
Many Republicans see Trump’s comfortable victory in Tuesday’s elections coupled with Senate Republicans’ new majority as a sweeping mandate to implement Trump’s policies, and as such, potential party leaders seem to be cozying up to Trump ahead of the vote.
Trump has not yet endorsed a specific candidate for the race, and it’s unclear whether he ultimately will. Instead, Trump has attempted to exert influence over the race by arguing that whoever is slated to fill the role supports a modification to what has become the Senate’s normal operating procedure to allow him to temporarily install appointments to federal vacancies without Senate approval during the Senate recesses.
“Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner. Sometimes the votes can take two years, or more. This is what they did four years ago, and we cannot let it happen again. We need positions filled IMMEDIATELY!” Trump wrote on his social media platform on Sunday.
Recess appointments are permitted by the constitution, and allow presidents to fill federal vacancies during Senate recesses. Though once a regular occurrence, the Senate has operated in such a way as to block all recess appointments since former President Barack Obama’s first term. Allowing recess appointments for Trump’s second term could allow controversial nominees who may otherwise fail to get the support they need from the GOP-controlled Senate to serve for nearly two years without Senate approval.
None of the top contenders have ruled out supporting the use of these recess appointments, and their responses to Trump’s post show how far each is willing to go to show that they’re on Trump’s side.
Though Thune said in an interview on Thursday that his “preference” would be for Trump to stay out of the Senate leadership race, he issued a statement Sunday night following Trump’s post affirming his commitment to installing Trump’s Cabinet, and not ruling out the appointments Trump is seeking.
“One thing is clear: We must act quickly and decisively to get the president’s cabinet and other nominees in place as soon as possible to start delivering on the mandate we’ve been sent to execute, and all options are on the table to make that happen, including recess appointments,” Thune said in a statement. “We cannot let Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats block the will of the American people.”
Cornyn meanwhile discussed the use of recess appointments with Trump prior to his post, per a source familiar. In a post on X Sunday afternoon, Cornyn affirmed his support, noting that if he is elected leader, he will keep the Senate in session continuously until nominees are confirmed.
“It is unacceptable for Senate Ds to blockade President @realDonaldTrump’s cabinet appointments. If they do, we will stay in session, including weekends, until they relent. Additionally, the Constitution expressly confers the power on the President to make recess appointments,” Cornyn wrote.
Almost immediately after Trump posted on Sunday, Scott posted on X that he was in lockstep with Trump on this policy.
“100% agree. I will do whatever it takes to get your nominations through as quickly as possible,” Scott wrote, reposting Trump’s post.
A small handful of senators have come out publicly to endorse their chosen candidate.
Scott, for his part, has picked up endorsements from some of Trump’s most out-and-proud supporters in the Senate as well as a number of Trump-aligned outside voices, including Robert F. Kennedy and Elon Musk.
But this critical race has a very small constituency: only Republican senators serving in the incoming Senate get a vote. ABC News has not yet reported a projection in the Pennsylvania Senate race, but that means only about 52 people will get to cast ballots.
Senators are also shielded behind closed doors and by secret ballot in this race. In order to win the election, a candidate must amass a simple majority of the vote. If all candidates fail to get a simple majority, the lowest vote earner is eliminated from the process, and senators vote again.
Because of the secret nature of the vote, it’s unclear how much of an influence any outside factor, including Trump, will ultimately wield.
Newly elected incoming senators including Bernie Moreno of Ohio, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana and John Curtis of Utah and Tim Sheehy of Montana will all be in attendance to cast votes.
Sen. JD Vance, who is now the vice president-elect, is also eligible to cast a vote in the election if he so chooses, but his team has not yet said whether he ultimately will attend Wednesday’s vote.
In addition to the closely-watched race for party leader, a number of other positions will also be selected during Wednesday’s vote. Sen. John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, is running unopposed to becoming the No. 2 Senate Republican. Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican, and Sen. Tom Cotton, the Republican from Arkansas, are in a race to become the conference chair. Additional down-ballot races will also be voted on Wednesday.
