During last week’s more “civil” vice presidential debate, Vice President Mike Pence acknowledged that he was honored to share the stage with California’s Sen. Kamala Harris, the first black and South Asian woman to be chosen as a major party candidate’s running mate.

It was a cordial moment during the substantive 90-minute debate which showed voters the huge ideological divisions between the two VP candidates and their respective major parties.

Top media outlets, including the three major networks and the liberal torch bearers at CNN and MSNBC, have fawned over Harris, who owns the most liberal voting record in the U.S. Senate, since the day she joined the Biden ticket. Strong female conservative leaders like South Dakota’s Kristi Noem, meanwhile, who became South Dakota’s first female governor in 2018, receive much less airtime.

Noem’s star has been on the rise among conservatives since gaining national exposure as a prime-time speaker at the Republican National Convention and also narrating a commercial to promote her state. But the main reason for her lack of airtime with the liberal media is her firm conservative principles that align with the president’s policies. The Daily Beast has called her a “master of COVID delusion” while PBS referred to her RNC speech as “dark.”

In her short two years as governor, Noem has loosened concealed carry restrictions, signed a bill requiring state universities to promote intellectual diversity and signed several bills restricting abortion and urged personal responsibility rather than issuing a statewide lockdown in South Dakota during the start of the coronavirus outbreak.

She reasoned that small businesses needed to stay open to survive, explaining during her RNC speech that the people of her state are not - and will not - be the subjects of an elite class of so-called experts.

“We the people are the government,” she stated.

In a follow-up interview, Noem said it’s one thing for Americans to take simple, sane, sensible solutions to protect themselves from getting sick but quite another thing entirely to shut down an entire nation, an entire economy, entire school and church and business communities.

Noem said emotionally driven decisions are never a good thing and criticized liberal politicians and media cohorts for helping generate a fear that has been used to motivate people throughout the pandemic.

Addressing South Dakota lawmakers during a special legislative session on COVID-19 recently, Noem noted there was one media person who credited the governor for standing firm in her beliefs.

“As you all might imagine, these last seven months have been quite lonely at times,” Noem said. “But earlier this week, one very prominent national reporter sent me a note that said, ‘Governor, if you hadn’t stood against lockdowns, we’d have no proof of just how useless they really have been.’?”

Noem’s analysis of this year’s nationwide rioting has also found disfavor and been virtually ignored by the mainstream media. She’s blamed the democratically led city leaders for allowing the nationwide riots and property destruction to continue, comparing this moment in history to when Abraham Lincoln called the anti-war rioters as ‘worse than savage mobs’ - destroying property, attacking families, and threatening lives - over a century and a half ago.

Regarding the unrest gripping many urban areas across the nation, Noem said that there is no mother in this country who wants to raise her children on the streets of Portland, Seattle or Washington, and warned that if Republicans do not maintain control of the White House this fall, the alternative will be more violence and turbulence.

Liberals and their media allies take no prisoners when attacking strong women who defend the Constitution. Prominent conservatives within the administration like White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and her predecessor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, have been constant targets of a hostile liberal press. Unfortunately, Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett, and her family, can expect the same treatment during the upcoming Senate confirmation hearings.

During her RNC address, Noem pointed out that it took 244 years to build this great nation - flaws and all - and warned that we stand to lose it in a tiny fraction of that time if we continue down the path favored by socialist Democrats.

The governor’s authenticity is refreshing, going against the grain of the many career politicians. She still ranches her family’s land and espouses America’s founding principles of equality, freedom and opportunity.

She and millions of other conservatives are hoping the nation can hold onto those ideals.

By Jim Zbick | tneditor@tnonline.com