Noem and Lewandowski’s reported affair grabs attention, but more troubling are her political bedfellows
I think most people agree: We really don’t care who Kristi Noem is sleeping with. That’s a personal issue between her, her husband Bryon and her supposed lover Corey Lewandowski and his wife.
Let them hash it out, if there is anything to the rumors.
The latest report of an affair between South Dakota’s governor and the notorious political fixer and schemer came out Friday. The Daily Mail and then The New York Post reported that Noem (seen above in a State of South Dakota photo) and her close advisor had engaged in a years-long affair that was an open secret among many Republicans.
While Noem attacked The Daily Mail — like her mentor, Donald Trump, she is always on offense — it is noteworthy there was no blanket denial from her, her spokesman Ian Fury or from Lewandowski.
Instead, Fury said it was linked to Noem’s appearance with Donald Trump in Rapid City on Friday, Sept. 8.
“This is so predictable that you would attack Governor Noem less than a week after she endorsed Donald J. Trump as the 47th President of the United States,” he said.
Notice the lack of a denial of the affair. It does seem curious.
Lewandowski, who turns 50 on Monday — isn’t this a sweet birthday surprise — was silent on Friday.
He is married to Alison Hardy, a childhood sweetheart who lost her first husband during the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. They got together after that tragedy and were wed in 2005. The couple has four children.
Lewandowski, a former Trump campaign manager, has a very shady reputation. He reportedly had an affair with Hope Hicks, a young, attractive blonde who was a campaign press secretary. Trump reportedly praised Lewandowski for his affair in his typically crude manner.
On Sept. 26, 2021, while at a GOP event in Las Vegas, Lewandowski made drunken and violent sexual advances at Trashelle Odom, the wife of Idaho construction executive John Odom. She said Lewandowski “stalked” her during the evening and repeatedly touched her, including on her leg and buttocks, and while making crude remarks. Noem was present at the event, because a drunken bash in Vegas is just the place you would expect a married, Bible-quoting South Dakota conservative to be, of course.
Trump cut ties with Lewandowski after that ugly incident, and so did Noem — at least publicly.
Maggie Seidel, formerly a top aide to Noem, told The Associated Press on Sept. 29, 2021, that Noem was done with Lewandowski. She said it would be “outrageous for her to continue to associate with Corey Lewandowski.”
Fury told me Lewandowski never had an official role with Noem to begin with.
“As I said last week, Corey was always a volunteer, never paid a dime (campaign or official),” Fury said last fall. “He will not be advising the Governor in regard to the campaign or official office.”
It is rather amazing she was linked to him in the first place.
Before the 2016 campaign, Lewandowski was in the headlines for assaulting Breitbart News reporter Michelle Fields at a press conference. The charges were dropped, but it offered a glimpse into his nature and aggressive, offensive style.
Trump, of course, blamed the reporter. He is always on offense.
Noem and Lewandowski have been working — and maybe more — together for more than four years. Gradually, whispers began to appear that they had grown close personally as well as professionally.
In 2021, a fringe website, American Greatness, claimed Noem and Lewandowski were involved sexually. Noem attacked that report.
“These rumors are total garbage and a disgusting lie,” she said in a tweet. “These old, tired attacks on conservative women are based on a falsehood that we can’t achieve anything without a man’s help. I love Bryon. I’m proud of the God-fearing family we’ve raised together. Now I’m getting back to work.”
The new reports are more detailed and descriptive.
The Post said Noem and Lewandowski were spotted “making out at a hotel bar during the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Fla.”
“I remember it was so absurdly blatant and public,” said the person, who recalled Noem and Lewandowski getting “handsy” at the bar of the Hyatt Regency Orlando with between 100 and 200 others around.
“It wasn’t like 2 a.m.,” the source said. “It isn’t like we caught them at some dive bar miles away. It’s a lobby bar where everyone is staying and so there’s a bajillion political operatives and journalists and electeds around. I remember I saw it with my own eyes and a couple other people saw it and the blatantness was absurd.
“This has been a known, open thing and we’ve all been waiting for it to blow up at some point,” the person added.
The report also says Byron Noem moved out of the governor’s residence in Pierre two years ago. I do know that a moving van was spotted at the home at that time.
Was Bryon Noem departing? We could not substantiate it. There were rumors of a divorce, but when I checked at the Hamlin County Courthouse, the Stanley County Courthouse and others, there was no filing on record.
He runs insurance companies in Watertown and his hometown of Bryant, which is near Hazel, where Noem’s family is from, and Castlewood, where the couple now has a home. They have been married since 1992.
Bryon, who also coaches youth baseball, did not issue a comment on Friday, and has been silent as all the rumors and reports fly about the state of their marriage.
The Noems have made some public appearances together, and he has appeared in some photos and videos. According to Gov. Noem, they are a happy couple with three children.
The rumors and reports suggest otherwise.
Noem is the first female governor in South Dakota history, taking office in 2019, the centennial year of women gaining the right to vote in our state.
Noem is a strong person, personally and politically. She rides motorcycles and horses, shoots guns, raises bison. She first ran for office in 2006 and has never lost an election, a remarkable run of success almost unmatched in South Dakota history, and in the last few years, she has set her sights on national office.
Her involvement with Lewandowski, who has a long, troubling record of offensive behavior, was linked to her goal of being president or vice president. He has provided her a boost onto the national stage, positioning her as “America’s Governor.”
They have toured the country together, and he has spent a lot of time in South Dakota. Lewandowski even used the TV studio Noem bought for herself and installed in the state Capitol on Dec. 4, 2019.
He and Noem were seen all over the country in 2019. They were at the Denim and Diamonds “gala fundraiser” in Carmel, Ind., on Oct. 5, 2019. Four days later, they were at The Hayride’s event at Lake Charles, La.
In late November or early December 2019, they made a pair of stops, at Dakota Game Lodge in Onaka and at Champion Vizslas in Roscoe. Lewandowski picked up a puppy there; Gov. Noem already has one, according to a Facebook post.
“It was a real honor to host Governor Kristi Noem and Senate Candidate and former campaign manager for President Trump, Corey Lewandowski, here at our kennel recently. Many don't know, but Kristi herself has a Vizsla and brought Corey here to our kennel for him to pick out one for his son for Christmas!
“We would like to sincerely thank Kristi for recommending us to Corey, and a big thank you to Corey for listening to Kristi and choosing us for your new puppy!!”
Lewandowski briefly considered running for a New Hampshire Senate seat before dropping out. He said he would have won but would pass on the race.
Lewandowski also attended the annual Law Enforcement Dinner in Sioux Falls on Nov. 13, 2019. He had become a real South Dakota regular, and was often seen around Pierre.
Then came the ugly scene in Las Vegas. While she said in the fall of 2021 that they were done forever, it was hard for them to stay apart.
On April 9, 2022, Noem and Lewandowski were reunited at a Houston fundraiser held by “actor,” martial arts legend and regular punchline Chuck Norris. The two old pals posed for a photo with Texas politician Greg Travis and his wife Julie.
The Daily Mail and New York Post reports are filled with photos of them together. Are they more than candidate and advisor? Many people who reportedly have seen them in action are convinced they are lovers.
Noem does have a strange track record of associating with deplorable men with track records of abusive behavior against women. In 2022, she supported Nebraska Republican gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster, who had multiple accusations of assaulting women and making unwanted advances.
“I am proud to endorse Charles W. Herbster to be the next Governor of Nebraska. Charles is a strong conservative, and with decades of experience as a farmer, rancher, and successful businessman, I know that he will fight to advance the America First agenda in Nebraska,” Noem said in a statement.
Eight women say he touched them inappropriately, including state Sen. Julie Slama, a Republican who shares his political views but found that to be no barrier to his crude come-ons.
Slama said that during a joint appearance in 2019, he reached under her skirt and touched her. She was stunned. This happened in front of numerous people at the Douglas County Republican Party’s annual Elephant Remembers dinner, Slama alleged.
The scandal eroded Herbster’s support and he lost in the GOP primary.
Noem’s strong support for Trump has helped boost her national reputation.
Lewandowski and Trump have a lot in common, since the former president has been accused of sexual assault by more than 20 women, and even bragged about it before he was elected president.
The disclosure of his boasts of grabbing women by the, well, you know, was enough to convince Gov. Dennis Daugaard and Sen. John Thune to pull their endorsement of Trump in October 2016 and urge the Republican Party to make Mike Pence the presidential nominee. Noem, along with Sen. Mike Rounds, denounced Trump’s offensive comments but stopped short of asking him to step aside.
Of course, that didn’t happen and we were fated to undergo four years of Trump’s misrule and misbehavior. He and Noem became pals, with Trump holding a rally and fireworks show at Mount Rushmore on July 3, 2020, and Noem providing him with a sculpture depicting him alongside Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.
Seriously? Trump lumped in with those significant figures in American history? Trump, whose crude, caustic nature created deep divisions across the nation? Trump, whose racist comments have empowered the worst kinds of people?
Trump, who tried to overturn an election and now has been indicted four times, with 91 criminal counts hanging over his head?
At the end of the day, however, the real scandal isn’t if Noem and Lewandowski are having a steamy affair involving make-out sessions in bars and weekends in hotel rooms. Since both are married to other people, and Noem has repeatedly claimed to be a family-oriented conservative with old-fashioned morals, it’s hypocritical and bad for her career.
But that’s her business, sordid as it may well be. She is just drawn to bad boys, personally and politically.
What’s really troubling is the people she is in bed with politically. That’s what really impacts our state and nation.
Tom Lawrence has written for several newspapers and websites in South Dakota and other states and contributed to The New York Times, NPR, The Telegraph, The Daily Beast and other media outlets.
