>> good afternoon, cpac. what an honor to be with you today. it is so great to be with you. thank you for being true patriots and loving america. you had met me before and you know my background and history. i am a farmer, ranger from south dakota who is blessed to be the 33rd governor of the great stato apworkedery hard. they solved problems, believed in personal responsibility and not waiting for the government to be the answer. i love the outdoors. st the time working in the dirt and being comfortable in my

jeans and wearing of all caps. as governor, my hours are often fi with something different. i am here today to let you know 2024 should not be a year where we get hung up on dirty politics. where one disagreement were picking our leaders on how long they've been in the senate or how many speeches they give each year.the choice is clear. two kinds of people in this country right now. there are people who love america and there are those who hate america. [applause] those who hate americajoe bidena and taking away your freedom. we can't justcomplaining about . we need to do more. i was recently asked an interesting question by group at a chance to speak to cut a leadership class and they asked me a question from the audience

is said, governor, how do you make your hard decisions? i thought, you know wt?it is no. it is easy because i know the foundation i need to start from with every single decision i make as governor. i told them a little how when i first started to run for governor of our state it was clear it was going to be a different race than i had ever run before. it s my pole and it was going to be an issue i was a woman. south dakota has women lead before a business and state legislature and congress that we had never had a female governor before. we never had a woman as a ceo f our state. i had spent my entire life in a man's world. my dad was my best frii was usuy few women driving semis hauling grain, serving and leadership in our state legislature, even

during my time in congress i was one of just a couple of women on the leadership team making decisions on policy. it was normal for me to be one of the few women in the world -- in the room and nothing out of the ordinary. i remember the day i was being sworn in to office as the first female governor of south dakota. much of that ceremony that day was dedicated to the historical nature of that event. i was being sworn in to office on the 100th anniversary of women getting the right to vote in our state for the first time. [applause] as the cnt on and the speakers continued to point out the significance of this anniversary and me taking the oath of office, started to hit me. for the first time i thought, wow, this is kind of a big deal. i looked around the capitol rotunda and saw it filled with hundreds of people. for the first time i started to notice all of the little girls

and the women. i realized this was going to be a part of history. o looked like them take on a different role. for the first time i started to geus. i thought, i better not screw this up. as i sat to be sworn in by our chief justice, placed my hand on my dad's bible and raised my right hand, i realized i was only making two promises. i was promisingld the constitution of the great state of south dakota and uphold the constitution of the united states of america. two promises. i can do that. from that moment on, every decision i make starts with asking the question, is this constitutional? do i have the authority as governor? what authority do i not have? what is the responsibility of the people? i think:tlittle bit about the decisions i've made. the last several years we saw

government leaders in other states use fear to control op agenda of socialism and control. that has not been our story in south dakota. th tr places people's freedom of assembly. they took away their freedom of religion and freedom of speech. but now they are threatening our states right to protect our people. i was only governor in this country that never once closed a single business. [applause] "i never mandated my people, never told anyone they could not go to church. we were the only stager turned on the elevated unemployment benefits because our people wanted to work. we trusted each other and got three challenges together. we are stronger because of it. because of the decisions we have made, we broke the record for the lowest state unemployment

rate in the history of america at 1.8 percent. [applaau we have unprecedented population growth, historic revenues, aaa credit rating, fully funded pension system, and paid off debt. we were the first state to eliminate fees for concealed ca permits and we will even pay for your federal background check. [applause] the federal government tried to push the central bank digital currency, we were the first state in the nation to veto that and say no way, not here. [applause] we have built roads, bridges, dams, and even a railroad. built railroads anymore? we do. we put high state internet across the entire state. we have the highest birthrate rate in the nation. people are having babies. i love it.

we do not have an income tax. we have no personal property tax. last year we pass the largest tax cut in our state's history by lowering our sales tax to 4.2%. we are one of the fewzç■q states with mental health challenges going down. we have the lowest drop in overdoses the last couple of years as well. what does this say? this says our people are happier. ey are happier because they are free. leadership matters. i'm just going to say it, joe biden and kamala harris, they suck. [applause] to be honest with you, we should

not look to congress for the answers, either. the gridlock on capitol hill is not going to break in time to save america's. we need a president who will. 5-0 is believed in support afext president needs to be president trump. we have incredible cash two years ago, i was at the southern border. i was the first governor to deploy national guard troops down to the southern border to protect our country. other statesational guard as well. innovation of our country is happening. our border is a -- an invasion in our country is happening. our border is a war zone. i was alarmed recently to hear democrats encouraging biden to federalize the national guard r title x to take them away from the control of governors and take away my ability to be

their commander-in-chief of the national guard. i gn them easily the danger in the threat. if the president took that action to remove me as commander-in-chief of my south dakota national guard, it would be the first time in american history that a president paid soldiers to stand down, to not protect our country. i went to the board at the next day. i offered to bring razor wire so texas would know south dakota stands with them and i would and i wanted them to know we will defend our states rights to protect our people a corrupt fel government. when i came home, i gave a joint address to my legislative session and that very day, our state legislature passed a resolution■y in support of securing our border and standing with texas. south dakota was the very first state legislature in this nation to take such an aggressive action and i am so proud of them for doing that.

[applause] this week, i announced we will deploy national guard soldiers to the border for the fifth time. this time they will be constructing a a barrier [applause] a barrier to keep those who want to come to this co■nun out and m from trafficking drugs, from proliferating sex trafficking over women and children and stop the human -- the inhumanity of joe biden for policy. my people are affected by the open border every day. i will do all i can in south dakota to bring back peace and stability where joe biden has we note that china is taking advantage of the situation. they are funneling men and women enter our country and many dangerous criminals and terrorism other countries who hate us are making their way here, too.

some countries renting out their prisons and mental health institutions to send their responsibility to us to handle. these countries are infiltrating us to destroy ud are doing it from the inside. i saw this coming. i was the first governor in the country to ban tiktok for state government devices. [applause] > i know how china is using that to collect our data, spy and manipulate our opinions and our ideas. since then, dozens of states and even the federal government followed my lead and took action. apparently, joe biden gets a pass for his campaign but whatever, joe. we need to face the fact -- joe biden is not fit to be president and kamala is no backup plan. they have facilitated communist policies2- socialist programs into our american democracy. it is not the government's job to simply do everything for people.

it is the job of the government to empower people to do things for themselves. [applause] >> we have a clear choice -- i was one of the first people to endorse donald j. trump to be our next president. last year, when everyone was asking me if i was going to consider running for president, i said no, why would you run for president if you can't win? i didn't say that to be nice. i said it because it was a fact. no one we knew coul dwe've knowr that he's the only person who has the support to be the republican nominee. [applause] >> why did all these other people iny -- and candidates get into the race? for themselves? for personal benefit?

for a spotlight for a period of time? it did not and it does not strengthen her country if conservatives are not united enough to recognize we need to win. we need a fighter. we need someone who doesn't give up, who has never quit on us so don't you quit on him. president trump [applause] >> president trump, he broke politics in 2016. he just did. i think that's a good thing. because he is real. he is not perfect, none of us are but he cares about you. what i love about him the most is he doesn't think he's better than you. luckily, we are not going back to the good old days of the romney's and the cheney's [applause] >> the republican party is much bigger than that now. we are filled with blue-collar workers, many cultures, perspectives and viewpoints. but most importantly, we all

love america and we realize what a gift this country is. ■z country is the greatest experiment in humankind. if we lose it on our watch, where will we go? where is there another country that is better or offers us more opportunity? it just doesn't exist. for me, there is mxno going bac. i am all in. and you need to be, too. [applause] >> we need to look for our leaders outside of the swamp. nobody turns to d.c. for the solutions. nothing meaningful gets accomplished here. governors have had to leave and i have seen governors make bad decisions in devon eight their states and we have governors that did the right thing. for me personally, i put my foot on the gas and promoted responsr constitution. today, south dakota and are happy.

they are making decpursuing the american dream. there is a famous quote from margaret thatcher where she said god needno faint hearts for his investors. with your help, we can always do more. if america wants to be great again, i suggest you take a look at south dakota and see all that we have achieved and then vote for president trump. [applause] i want to thank you for your dedication to freedom. you are inspirational. i want you to leave here and go be hopeful and be happy. may god bless you and may god bless the united states of america. [applause] >> thank you. ♪

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