Brevard County Republicans are sticking by a choice to bring South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to keynote its annual dinner. That's after Noem shared that she once shot a puppy for misbehaving, angering commentators on the Left and Right.
The party announced this week that Noem would headline the county party's Lincoln/Reagan Dinner on May 25.
Brevard Republican Party Chair Rick Lacey said the party has already sold 200 tickets in the days since the announcement, and he doubts that the recent controversy around Noem will change that. "Everybody is excited about hearing her and meeting her," he said.
Noem inspired broad outrage after The Guardian reported on an excerpt of her new book, "No Going Back." In it, the South Dakota Governor detailed shooting her 14-month-old dog, Cricket, because of an "aggressive personality" and being "untrainable."
"I hated that dog," Noem wrote.
The former Congresswoman wrote that she decided to execute the puppy after she killed chickens belonging to a neighbor. "I realized I had to put her down," she wrote. She described shooting the dog in a gravel pit, then deciding to also shoot a family goat that previously chased her children.
The story rapidly sparked criticism of Noem from across the political spectrum. Since the story broke, Gov. Ron DeSantis and members of his political team have shared stories about adopting dogs or helping rescue dog shelters.
"It's cruel. You only kill an animal if it's dying, and you do it humanely with euthanasia," Laura Loomer, a former Florida GOP congressional candidate, posted on X. "A perfectly healthy dog should never be killed because it annoys you."
But Lacey defended Noem.
"I saw the movie 'Old Yeller.' When you had a dog that was vicious, the poor guy took care of it," he said. "You have to do what's right. You have to protect your family from animals, whether from a wolf or a rabid dog. The (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) puts down vicious animals every day."
Lacey said he still expected party supporters to want to hear Noem, especially as she's under consideration to be presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump's running mate.
But sources close to Trump have signaled to national media that the dog-killing story on its own has eliminated her from consideration.
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