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These days, the only similarity between Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem is that they are both former members of Congress turned Midwestern governors.
Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate, is a favorite of the Democratic Party's moderate wing, while Noem, once seen as a potential vice presidential contender for former President Donald Trump, is most comfortable in the GOP's more conservative circles. Since Walz became the Democratic VP nominee, Noem has been lashing out at her ruling neighbor as a “radical” who criticized her efforts to maintain “freedom” during the height of the COVID pandemic.
But just a decade ago, Walz and Noem, then colleagues in the House of Representatives, had a much different rapport, supporting legislation, taking selfies and speaking politely about each other. More than a decade ago, when they taped a short video together promoting a prairie lands bill, they weren't just a little polite with each other.
“This is a smart bill, and I’m grateful to both congressmen because we both have similar geographic locations, and while our producers are great stewards of the land, we share that land with our sportsmen and make sure we have those resources available,” Walz, who was a congressman at the time, said while sitting on a couch with Noem.
“I love working with Tim because he has a very practical approach, which I like too,” Noem said.
Compare that to Noem’s words about Walz in recent weeks.
“Walz is not a leader. He is a radical. I served with him in Congress. He pretended to be a moderate, then showed his true extremist side once he became governor,” Noem wrote on X.
In broadcast interviews, Noem went even further. She said on Newsmax that Harris “picked a radical left-wing governor who actually believes socialism is the future of America and put him on the ticket with her.” And in an interview with Fox News, Noem said that during the protests that followed the death of George Floyd in 2020, Walz “did not take decisive action, did not support his cops.”
Walz has refrained from responding to Noem’s recent comments.
In a statement, Walz spokesman Teddy Tschan said Walz was eager to work with Republicans to help farmers and veterans.
“Governor Walz regularly worked with Republicans in Congress to pass legislation aimed at helping veterans and farmers, and he struck bipartisan deals with a divided legislature in Minnesota to cut taxes and fund schools,” Tschan said. “He knows how to compromise without compromising his values, and he will always work across the aisle if it means getting things done for the American people.”
In addition, Noem's spokesperson Ian Fury also reiterated Noem's recent comments criticizing Walz's leadership as Minnesota's governor.
“Governors are CEOs, and their agendas reflect their priorities. As governor, Walz's radical agenda has shown that he consistently tramples on basic freedoms and refuses to protect the rights guaranteed to all Americans — while Governor Noem has stayed true to the U.S. Constitution by allowing people to make their own decisions,” Fury said in a statement. “Tim Walz has been a terrible CEO of Minnesota. He has lost thousands of people and billions of dollars in business in other states, including South Dakota. When someone fails so miserably, they do not deserve a promotion.”
As a team, they pushed the Protect Our Prairies Act of 2013, which aimed to discourage crop producers from farming on protected lands. The two even recorded a nearly six-minute video together to back up the proposal. In the video, Walz, a representative from Minnesota's 1st Congressional District, sits next to Noem, South Dakota's At-Large Congresswoman at the time. As a pair, they explain how sensible the bill is — and how easy it is to work with each other.
“I love working with Tim because he has a very practical approach, which I like too,” Noem says at one point during the video.
At another point, Walz described his and Noem’s shared background in protecting rural lands.
“It's not theoretical to us. It's the way we grew up,” Walz said. “We lived in these towns, and our rural areas are not just undeveloped urban areas. These are unique places to live where people choose to live and I think that's important. I think what Congresswoman Noem and I are doing is not a false choice of either-or.”
The Prairie bill became one of many bills that Noem and Walz signed on to as co-sponsors. During their time together in Congress, Noem and Walz co-sponsored more than 150 bills. In addition, eight bills introduced by Noem were co-sponsored by Walz and four bills introduced by Walz were co-sponsored by Noem, suggesting that the Noem-Walz pairing was not just a one-time thing, though it was not an everyday tag team either.
This camaraderie was especially notable given their opposing political viewpoints. When he was in the House, Walz was known as a moderate Democrat who was comfortable with Republicans. Meanwhile, Noem was making her debut as a next-generation conservative warrior.
On the one hand, it's clear that Noem and Walz would work well together in Congress. Their states are neighbors, and both representatives prioritize agriculture and rural security.
“South Dakota and southwest Minnesota are some of the best pheasant habitat on the planet. And so we worked a lot on bills that preserve that habitat, or that could potentially preserve that habitat,” said Randolph Briley, a former congressional staffer to Walz.
Now, however, the two seem as different as possible. Walz's major accomplishments as governor, an elaborate set of social welfare programs, have been criticized by Republicans as too liberal. And as she moved from the U.S. House to the South Dakota governor's mansion, Noem has cast herself as a conservative militant.
Congress sometimes forges unexpected friendships or pairings that last long after those lawmakers have left Capitol Hill. From his early days in the Senate to his years as president, Barack Obama maintained a healthy friendship with the late Senator Tom Coburn, despite the fact that the cantankerous conservative from Oklahoma stalled all sorts of bills in the Senate. And Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and Joe Biden developed a solid working relationship in the upper chamber that has since extended to Biden's tenure as Obama's vice president and his own presidency.
Briley, the former Walz staffer, said the relationships lawmakers build in Congress can be different than those a governor builds because job priorities are different.
“when you're [an] “As the executive, the responsibility is yours,” Briley said. But in the legislature, “you're always looking for allies. … Tim Walz is very easy to get along with. He's really friendly and likes everybody.”
The feud between Noem and Walz didn't stop even when they left Congress. In 2018, the two Midwestern members of Congress successfully ran for governor in their respective states. Soon after, they decided to take a selfie together and Walz tweeted about it.
For a time, the two governors' geographic proximity forced them to collaborate on several occasions. In 2019, Walz and Noem wrote a joint letter to then-Environmental Protection Agency Director Andrew Wheeler, “urging the agency to honor President Donald Trump's commitment to pursue the Renewable Fuel Standard.”
And as governors of two largely rural states, biofuels and agriculture policy have pushed Noem and Walz together. In 2019, Walz chaired the Governors Biofuels Coalition, and Noem served as vice chair.
But by 2020, any public rapport between Walz and Noem began to fray. During the COVID pandemic, Noem drew national attention for her unusually strong resistance to any kind of lockdown orders to stop the coronavirus. She was particularly against precautions around the state's Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in August 2020. In contrast, Walz continued to impose additional restrictions on gatherings in Minnesota. He took aim at Noem, calling the Sturgis gathering “totally unnecessary” and saying Noem “has started traveling to other states and criticizing others — now at a time when that state's hospital capacity is overwhelmed.”
Things would only get worse in the coming years. By 2024, her old friend was limited to subtweets. In April, Noem hoped her new book, “No Going Back,” would catapult her into the top tier of Republican politics and boost her chances of eventually being chosen as Donald Trump’s vice presidential nominee. Instead, all the attention about the book went to an anecdote about how she shot her dog Cricket for misbehaving.
What will Walz's response be? Starting a series of governors mocking him on X.
“Post a picture with your dog that doesn't involve him being shot and thrown in a gravel pit. I'll start,” Walz wrote, who also posted a photo of his own rescued pup.
Owen Dahlkamp contributed to this story.