South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem and political strategist and Trump campaign advisor Corey Lewandowski are familiar Donald Trump allies, as the former president courts the evangelical vote in his third White House bid. Noem and Lewandowski, however, are accused of carrying on a yearslong extra-marital affair, proving MAGA’s conservative “family” values are just for show.
Noem’s alleged Lewandowski affair stands in stark contrast to her stated goals of defending traditional marriage between a man and a woman and upholding family values in her 2018 campaign for South Dakota governor. That hypocrisy was pointed out in a recent X post from writer and humorist Paul Rudnick.
Noem married Bryon Noem, the father of Kristi’s three children, in 1992. As for Lewandowski, he married 9/11 widow Alison Lewandowski in 2005. They have four children together.
Rumors of an affair started in 2021
American Greatness was among the first outlets to report the affair story in 2021. The outlet cited unnamed sources, but also a New York Times report stating Noem’s former Chief of Staff Joshua Shields left Noem’s inner circle because of Lewandowski’s influence.
Meanwhile, an unnamed source told American Greatness, “There are members of Congress close to Mar-a-Lago who have called the affair ‘an open secret’ and worried about Noem’s viability as a national candidate and within the movement.”
Around that same time, Noem reportedly wrote on X (then Twitter), referring to the American Greatness report, “These rumors are total garbage and a disgusting lie. 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 2023 reports
Reports of Noem, 52, and Lewandowski’s affair reemerged two years later, in 2023 when a New York Post report said that Noem and Lewandowski, 50, were secretly a couple, again citing multiple unnamed sources. At the same time, the Daily Mail reported evidence of an alleged affair in private jet flights and resort stays Lewandowski and Noem shared on what were meant to be business trips.
The Mail also cited Trump insider Charles Johnson’s Substack post reporting “flirtatious” behavior between Lewandowski and the South Dakota Governor. Responding to The Mail story, a Noem spokesperson denied the affair. Lewandowski declined to comment.
Other Noem and Lewandowski controversies
Despite Noem’s attempts at a wholesome image, affair allegations are in keeping with Lewandowski’s past behaviors. A 2023 South Dakota Searchlight report lists Lewandowski’s 1999 arrest on charges that were later dropped, and sexual misbehavior including a 2016 incident in which Lewandowski was accused of simple battery for grabbing a female reporter in a case prosecutors failed to pursue.
In 2021, Lewandowski was also accused of sexually harassing a female attendee at a Vegas charity dinner he and Noem attended. According to the woman, Lewandowski told her he killed two men in his youth.
That same year, Politico wrote that Noem “cut ties” with Lewandowski — who the outlet called one of Noem’s “top advisers” — over the Vegas accusations. After Vegas, Lewandowski agreed to pay a fine and perform community service without admitting guilt.
Despite those controversies, Lewandowski remains a trusted Trump campaign advisor. Noem, meanwhile, remains a rising star in the post-Trump MAGA-influenced Republican party. Her name was floated as a possible Trump VP pick or even a candidate on the Republican ticket.
But Noem wrote in her memoir, No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward, that she once shot and killed a 14-month-old puppy named Cricket in a gravel pit because the dog attacked chickens and was “untrainable,” among other misbehavior, she said, possibly explaining why Trump kept his distance from the South Dakota politician.
Rudnick’s X post aside, Lewandowski and Noem’s alleged affair has otherwise been kept quiet during Trump’s 2024 campaign for the White House. Nonetheless, as the South Dakota Searchlight points out, in light of Lewandowski’s past behavior and criminal record, Noem should rethink their working relationship, whether or not rumors of a romantic affair are true.