Who is Bryon Noem? Kristi Noem's husband honored to be first man of S Dakota, proud of 'what she stands for'
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem was one of the hits at the recently concluded CPAC. Her headlining speech saw her take a shot at public health experts when she said, “Let me be clear — Covid didn’t crush the economy, the government crushed the economy." Vox termed Noem's speech a 'victory lap' despite the fact that South Dakota has been placed the tenth hardest-hit state when it comes to mortality rate.
With Noem garnering the attention, the focus also shifted to Bryon Noem, her husband and first man of South Dakota. Bryon became the first man after Noem took the role of being the state's first female governor.
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Who is Bryon Noem?
Bryon married Kristi in 1992 when she was 20 and still in college; he originally worked for Bryant State Bank as an insurance agent, before deciding to go into business for himself. According to Your Tango, he bought out the insurance part of the bank to start Noem Insurance, an organization that offers policies to South Dakotans. The site also added he teaches high school basketball during his free time. He even started an initiative called "This Is South Dakota," where he would visit small towns around the state to bring more attention to these towns.
"Small towns, they're the heartbeat of our state. They always have been and this is our culture, this is who we are and this is South Dakota," he said, according to Argus Leader. "I want not only people inside the state to learn more about their own state but people outside the state to learn about South Dakota because we believe there are so many hidden gems and hidden treasures in the state. I just want to uncover them."
Talking about his position as the first man, Bryon was all in support of his wife. "I am honored to have this position,” he said at the time. "I want to do a good job at it, and I do want to visit all the towns in South Dakota. I am honored to serve beside Kristi. I am proud of who she is and what she stands for. I think she is an amazing governor," he remarked.
In an interview from 2019 with the Black Hills Pioneer, Bryon said that he and Kristi spoke about her campaign as governor before she decided to go for it, and they both decided that they were all in. "Anytime you make a life-altering decision, of course it’s hard. For us, we prayed heavily about it and we really sensed that this is what God wanted us to do at that time," he said. "Everything we do, we do together. This decision was made together and we knew things would look different if she won."