WASHINGTON – Donald Trump did it selected South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security, one of the largest government agencies that will be an integral part of his vow to secure the border and carry out a massive deportation operation.

Here are five things to know about noem:

She is a farmer

The 52-year-old was born in Watertown, South Dakota, and grew up on a farm and ranch outside of town. Her father died in a grain bin collapse at the age of 49.

“When dad died, it was devastating for our whole family,” she said during a 2022 interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network. “He was my best friend. He was the person I looked up to the most, the person I cared the most about what he thought of me, and he had planned my whole life just to grow up and work with him and be in business with him. ”

She was involved in a number of family businesses before successfully running for the South Dakota House of Representatives in 2006. In 2010, she won the state’s at-large seat in the House, and in 2018, she was elected the first woman governor of the state. She was re-elected in 2022.

After becoming governor, Noem began working closely with Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s 2016 campaign manager. Then, during the pandemic, she rose to prominence in conservative circles for resisting most government regulations to slow the spread of infections. Since then, she has become a regular presence in Trump’s political world and at one point was considered his running mate.

He enjoys pheasant hunting and hosts the annual Governor’s Hunt. And she is an excellent rider.

The dog’s story

This year she was vilified for a story she told in it book about murder her 14-month-old wire-haired pointer named Cricket.

Cricket was Noah’s hunting dog, but he was restless. Noem took the dog with her on a hunting trip with older dogs, hoping to calm her down.

It didn’t work, and then, on the way home, Noem wrote that when he stopped to talk to a family, Cricket got out of Noem’s truck and attacked and killed several of the family’s chickens. Then the dog “lashed out to bite me,” she wrote.

“At that moment,” Noem wrote, “I knew I had to stop it.” He led Cricket to a gravel pit and killed her.

Critics slammed her as she defended Cricket’s killing as an example of her willingness to make tough choices.

She talks tough about immigration

Noem has been a key supporter of Trump, including supporting his tough talk on immigration.

“President Trump will first deport the most dangerous illegal aliens — the murderers, rapists and other criminals that Harris and Biden have allowed into the country. They don’t belong here and we won’t let them back in,” Noem said in a post on X after Trump was elected.

Noem joined other Republican governors who sent troops to Texas to help Operation Lone Star in Texaswhich sought to deter migrants.

Noem’s decision was met with particularly harsh criticism because it covered most of the implementation costs with a $1 million donation from a Tennessee billionaire who often donated to Republicans.

Noem described the US-Mexico border as a “war zone” when he sent the troops there, saying they would be on the front lines of stopping drug and human traffickers. But records from the Guard they painted a more nuanced picture of their mission.

Difficult relations with tribes

The Oglala Sioux told him in 2019 that he was not welcome on the Pine Ridge Reservation after leading efforts to pass a state law targeting demonstrations like those in neighboring North Dakota that have affected the Dakota Access oil pipeline.

“I hereby notify you that you are not welcome to visit our homelands,” Oglala Sioux President Julian Bear Runner said in a letter to Noem. He told Noem that if she ignored the directive “we will have no choice but to drive you” off the reservation.

The governor also clashed with the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe 4th of July fireworks at Mount Rushmore. The tribe has objected to fireworks displays at a monument they see as a desecration of land violently stolen from them decades ago.

Daughter’s real estate appraiser license

In 2020, the South Dakota agency responsible for licensing real estate appraisers denied Noem’s daughter’s application.

A few days later, Noem summoned the state employee who ran the agency, the woman’s direct supervisor, and the state secretary of labor to her office for a meeting with her daughter. Four months later, Noem’s daughter was certified.

South Dakota lawmakers later unanimously approved a report that found Noem’s daughter received preferential treatment during the license application.

A Associated Press report on Noem’s actions surrounding his daughter’s license sparked the investigation. The governor said her daughter did not receive preferential treatment.

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Associated Press reporter Stephen Groves contributed to this report.