South Dakota’s top Republican leaders are attacking the newly announced Democratic presidential ticket.

Gov. Kristi Noem and Sen. John Thune took to social media after the news broke Tuesday that Vice President Kamala Harris had chosen Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.

Walz’s elevation to the campaign post was quickly criticized by Noem, who wrote Tuesday morning that her Midwestern counterpart was “no leader.”

“He’s a radical,” Noem wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I served with him in Congress. He pretended to be moderate, then showed his true extremist colors as soon as he became Governor.”

Noem and Walz served in Congress together from 2011 to 2019, and were elected to governorship for their respective states in 2018.

Noem also claimed South Dakota has been beating the neighboring blue state economically for years. In a follow-up post, Noem labeled Walz as “terribly radical” based on a failed state bill brought by two Republican legislators that would have allowed Minnesota counties to essentially leave the state.

“Last year, nearly 7,000 Minnesotans moved to South Dakota because Walz took his people’s Freedom away. Harris-Walz will be the most radical left-wing ticket in American history,” Noem wrote.

The second-term South Dakota governor was once herself considered a contender for former President Donald Trump’s vice-presidential pick. She received international criticism when she admitted to killing a 14-month-old hunting dog in a recent memoir, which hurt her public image within her own party. The book also had errors and exaggerations regarding meetings with foreign leaders, including a fabricated account of a meeting between the governor and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Thune echoed Noem’s sentiment and called the Harris-Walz ticket “the most radical and liberal presidential ticket in history.”

“We can’t turn the country into California. Vote Trump-Vance,” Thune wrote on X.

Conversely, South Dakota Democrats were quick to back Harris’ choice.

State Party Chair Shane Merrill lauded Walz in a Tuesday statement, calling him a “proven leader.”

“He’s shown that he can work across party lines, including when he flipped his district for US Congress. And, with a slim Democratic majority in the Minnesota legislature, he’s worked on bipartisan policies for the betterment of his state,” Merrill wrote. “I’m thrilled to see the Midwest and small town America represented on the Democratic Presidential ticket.”

He also compared the second-term Minnesota governor to Noem on the topic of youth food programs. South Dakota has resisted the use of federal funding meant to combat child hunger, while Walz earned the goodwill of teachers and children by signing a universal free school meals bill into law in 2023.

VERMILLION, SD (KTIV) – University of South Dokota Coyotes hosted an open practice this morning as part of their Media Day.

The excitement was in the air for the Yotes on Monday, as they look to build of the success of their 2023 campaign.

Players and coaches talked about how last year was successful and disappointing at the same time but believe it has made this group a better team.

Over the course of the offseason, they have been focused on growing as players and leaders which has been going well for the senior heavy team.

But one of the key pieces for this team will be Redshirt Junior Aidan Bouman who will start at QB.

”Working out with each other every single day, we’re grinding every single day. We’ve got captains practice, I just said this the other day but one of the big things is being together outside of football because obviously we all go through the hardships together, but you build your chemistry outside of it and I feel like we’ve done a really good job of that,” said Aidan Bouman, quarterback for the Coyotes.

“I think the two things that I can sense in this group that makes it a team that I think has a chance to be really good, is there a team that has a great deal of maturity and a great deal of confidence, we’ve got the biggest senior group that we’ve had in my 9 years here,” said Bob Neilson, the head coach for USD.

The Yotes hit the field on Thursday the 29th of August to open their season against Northern State in Vermillion.

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The South Dakota Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit aimed at preventing an abortion rights initiative from appearing on the November ballot.

In an effort to invalidate a state abortion rights ballot measure brought by Dakotans for Health, the anti-abortion group Life Defense Fund brought a lawsuit against the measure last month.

While the lawsuit was dismissed last month by Judge John Pekas, Life Defense Fund appealed the ruling and accused the measure’s supporters of various forms of misconduct, including leaving petitions unattended and allegedly deceiving voters into signing.

On Friday, the South Dakota Supreme Court reversed an order of dismissal and sent the case back for further proceedings, according to the Associated Press (AP).

Newsweek reached out to Dakotans for Health and Life Defense Fund via email on Monday for comment.

In a statement, Life Defense Fund co-chair Leslee Unruh applauded the court’s decision and took aim at the ballot measure.

“[Measure leader] Rick Weiland and his paid posse have broken laws, tricked South Dakotans into signing their abortion petition, left petitions unattended, and much more. Dakotans for Health illegally gathered signatures to get Amendment G on the ballot, therefore this measure should not be up for a vote this November,” Unruh said in her statement, according to the AP.

South Dakota outlaws abortion as a felony crime and only allows exceptions to save the life of the mother.

However, the proposed amendment aims to prohibit the state from regulating “a pregnant woman’s abortion decision and its effectuation” in the first trimester and would permit regulations in the second trimester only if they are reasonably related to the pregnant woman’s physical health. For the third trimester, the amendment would allow the state to regulate or ban abortions except in cases where the procedure is deemed necessary by a physician to preserve the woman’s life or health.

Friday’s ruling comes after Dakotans for Health successfully submitted approximately 54,000 petition signatures in May, and the measure was then validated for the ballot by South Dakota Secretary of State Monae Johnson’s office, the AP reported.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wadein June 2022, many Republican-controlled states have put abortion restrictions into effect, with 21 states banning or restricting the medical practice at every stage of pregnancy. However, most Democratic states have laws or executive orders in place to protect access. Voters in California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Ohio, Vermont and Arizona have taken steps to adopt similar ballot measures, hoping to put the abortion issue directly before voters.

With the 2024 presidential election fast approaching, abortion has been a key issue for both the Republican and Democratic campaigns as former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, who began her White House bid after President Joe Biden stepped down from the race last month, are expected to face off in November.