Noem: ‘I’m not convinced that I need to run for president’ 

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) on Wednesday said she’s “not convinced” she needs to run for the White House despite talk of the governor as a possible 2024 contender.  

“’I’m not convinced that I need to run for president,” Noem told Robert Costa of CBS News.  

Costa pressed the governor, who won reelection to her South Dakota seat during the midterms, on her plans for the next election cycle.

“Do you not feel a rush, governor, to make a decision on 2024?” he asked.

“I don’t, Bob, at all. No, I think it’s important that people focus on governing rather than going out and making big, broad statements and going out and taking action for their own political futures,” Noem said.  

Noem has been named among a handful of Republican governors floated as possible 2024 presidential candidates as some Americans disillusioned with their party leaders turn their attention elsewhere.   

The governor, who was endorsed in her reelection bid by former President Trump, said last summer that she’d support Trump’s latest White House campaign, but said after the midterms that the former president does not “offer the best chance” for the GOP. 

Noem has also been floated as a possible Trump running mate, but said in November that she’d be “shocked” if he asked her to be on the ticket alongside him. 

Noem on Wednesday said she thinks the top 2024 contender “will emerge” in the coming months. 

Updated at 8:19 a.m.