The latter part of 2020 and the first days the new year didn't go as planned for Gov. Kristi Noem as a trio of high-profile GOP candidates she aggressively campaigned for fell short in their elections.
But the defeats of former President Donald Trump and a pair of incumbent GOP senate candidates in Georgia didn't do anything to hurt the South Dakota governor's campaign war chest.
In its year-end campaign filing made Friday with the Secretary of State, the campaign committee "Kristi for Governor" reported raising $966,792 between the presidential election on Nov. 3 and Dec. 31, including nearly $750,000 from individual donors from across the country as well as some large checks from national political action committees.
Noem's office didn't immediately respond to request for comment for this article.
The single largest contribution Noem received came from the highest ranking GOP member of the U.S. House of Representatives: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
McCarthy's campaign committee, McCarthy for Congress, cut Noem's campaign a check for $100,000. Another GOP Congressman, Missouri's Jason Smith, also donated $10,000 to the South Dakota governor.
But it's not just politicians from out-of-state sending support to the Noem campaign. Of the 1,375 individual contributors listed in the campaign filing who donated a total of $603,224, more than 80% were from people residing outside of South Dakota. Money from South Dakotans made up about 30% of those contributions, according to the campaign finance report.
While the reports don't list specific dates in which the contributions were made, the most recent reporting period came amid frequent fundraising and campaign trips Noem made to places like Georgia and Texas.
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