Noem is another one of those slick opportunists that has used the pandemic to raise her own profile among the Fox News crowd who view with suspicion anything COVID related. She didn't lockdown her state, has never had any mask mandates or really any measures to speak of. And she could get away with that when South Dakota was relatively unaffected by the coronavirus. But since the Sturgis motorcyle rally South Dakota has now surged to second in states with the highest new cases per capita.
Source: CBS News
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem's administration announced Tuesday that it is using federal coronavirus relief funds to pay for a $5 million tourism ad campaign aimed at drawing people to the state. The move comes even as the state emerges as one of the nation's top hot spots for COVID-19 infections.
The 30-second spot, which premiered on Fox News alongside Noem's speech at the Republican National Convention last month, features the governor saying that "with our breathtaking landscapes and wide-open spaces, we're a place to safely explore." But the state currently ranks second in the country for new cases per capita over the last two weeks, with 439 new cases per 100,000 people.
The ad is narrated by Noem. It offers dramatic footage of South Dakota scenery such as Mount Rushmore and Badlands National Park, then concludes with the governor introducing herself and pitching a visit to South Dakota.
Noem defended her negligence yesterday for allowing Sturgis to go ahead by going on the place where wingers go to defend their stupidity, Fox News. Noem whined that researchers were being mean to her when they found that Sturgis was a superspreader event which likely accounted for over 250,000 new cases of coronavirus throughout the United States.
