Rep. Kristi Noem on 2018: "Women don't just want to talk about women's issues"
Despite a record number of women running for political office this year, Republican Rep. Kristi Noem says that women voters don't want to just talk about women's issues. As an example, she cites her own campaign to become South Dakota's first female governor.
"In my primary we talked about my experience — my experience running businesses, starting businesses, serving at the state level and the legislature in leadership and then also my knowledge of federal policy and how it impacts our state," said Noem on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday.
"I think that as we look across the country women don't just want to talk about women's issues. We want to talk about everything that's important to our economy, to jobs, to our children's futures. And that's what we've focused on in South Dakota discussions."
Noem said that while there's "always a time when someone is the first person to be nominated in a state and to run and to be elected, potentially, to a leadership position in your state," overwhelmingly South Dakotans are looking for the "best person to sit in that job that can provide the leadership to address some of the challenges that we state that we face."
She added, "We are a very small state but that also means that we can be nimble and we have a unique opportunity here for some states and governors to stand up and address policies that will give us a testimony of what we can do in this country to put it back on its foundation."
When pressed on the fact that there are currently three times the number of Democratic women candidates than Republican women running in 2018, Noem argued that more women need to be "recruited" to run for office.
"Across the country that we have folks out there who, you know, women tend to think 'I don't know if I could do that job.' Men often think 'I can do that job in an amazing manner.' So it's our perspective many times as women in political parties play an important role. Women oftentimes need to be recruited. They need to know that they're going to have some support there and that will help them on their path to victory," said Noem.