South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem on Friday told Newsmax that Republicans and conservatives need to unite and present a clear message to voters before the 2024 presidential election.
Noem, during an appearance on "National Report," said many Republicans talked before the midterms, but the future requires GOP members who have backed up their words with action.
"I think that it's important we unite as conservatives so that we can save this country," Noem told Newsmax, "and we need to spend less time blowing each other up, more time really evaluating who's strong enough to lead through a crisis because this country is in crisis, and it's in country crisis because of a lack of leadership in the White House. We need a Republican, a conservative in the White House, but we need one that doesn't just talk and call press conferences.
We need one that actually takes action and protects their people."
While the GOP regaining a majority in the House is great, Noem suggested other national leaders are needed to help forming a clear message to 2024 voters.
"Wouldn't it be wonderful if we had a couple of senators, a couple of leadership members in the House now as Republicans, a couple of governors that really unified on a vision for this country, that really brought all of us together and strategize together on how to push forward conservative principles that actually work?" Noem asked.
Noem has been mentioned as a potential candidate to be part of the GOP national ticket in 2024. In explaining why she loves her current job, Noem seemed to suggest it could prepare her for a larger role.
"My job, as governor, is to protect my people. That's what I do every single day and I love South Dakota with all my heart," she said.
"I think it's important right now that Republicans, conservatives look at leaders they're lifting up and say, Are they talking? Are they giving … doing press conferences or are they actually taking action? Look at what they've done.
"Frankly, Republicans across this country underperformed in the last election cycle. There's a lot of things that people said, that Republicans and leadership talked about, but did they do something? And don't let them rewrite history."
Noem also spoke of an executive action she took banning TikTok from any state-run computer network, or any phone, laptop, or tablet device that has been issued to state employees. She said the step was taken "for national security reasons."
"It is completely blocked on all of our systems and it's because of how the Chinese Communist Party uses that app to gather data on American citizens," she said.
"They're our enemy. They hate us, and they're going to use this information to try to destroy the United States of America. That's why it's incredibly important that I take action to protect the people of South Dakota from this dangerous app that is being manipulated and the algorithms are being manipulated to be used against them.
"We're learning more and more every day about how they are using this app to gather information, and it's not just websites people search, or what they look at, what kinds of videos they watch.
"They also can gather what buttons you push. What your passwords are to get into your financial institutions, to gather personal information about your healthcare, your family, what your trends are, what influences you, and all that all will be utilized by the Chinese government to manipulate us."