Kristi Noem likely to become first S.D. governor in decades not to veto anything

Republican governor, South Dakota Legislature could make history

Gov. Kristi Noem greets supporters during an August book signing at the Sturgis Buffalo Chip. (Joe Sneve / The Dakota Scout)

For the first time in a quarter century or more, the governor of South Dakota isn’t likely to veto any new bills sent to her by state lawmakers.

Legislators last week capped their nine-week legislative session with the adoption of a budget, a teacher pay bill and landmark carbon pipeline policy. Unlike years past, the 105 members of the state House and Senate aren’t anticipating having to make the traditional one-day return to the Capitol to settle disputes with the Governor’s Office.

That’s because Gov. Kristi Noem is not expected to withhold her signature from any of the 233 measures that earned the Legislature's approval in 2024. And that wouldn’t just be the first time the 52-year-old Republican hasn’t rejected at least one legislatively approved bill, it’d be the first time any governor in South Dakota since the 1980s or longer hasn’t issued a veto — making the 99th Legislative Session historic.

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According to legislative records going back to 1997 — the earliest year in which digital archives exist — at least one bill has been vetoed each year since.

Ask some state Capitol lifers, it might have been as far back as the 1980s since lawmakers weren’t called back to Pierre for Veto Day votes.

“This could be the first session I've covered since 1985 when a governor didn't veto a bill,” veteran Capitol reporter Bob Mercer wrote last week on a social media page.

The distinction is not lost on the governor, either, though she cautioned in an interview with The Dakota Scout Wednesday that there’s still a handful of measures still being reviewed for potential style and form problems.

Regardless, Noem and legislative leaders credit the harmony between the two branches to improved communication between the executive and legislative branches while focusing on shared priorities like stopping hostile foreigners from buying ag land, ensuring teachers are getting a fair share of annual education funding increases, and bolstering South Dakota’s antisemitism discrimination prohibitions. A lack of hot-button, socially-charged measures, a leaner-than-normal budget, and the governor’s national ambitions might also have played a part, according to other observers.

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