South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and potential Donald Trump running mate wants America to know how thrilled she is with her brand-new veneers.
The staunch MAGA Republican on Monday night shared a bizarre, nearly 5-minute long video promoting the services of a Houston-area dental practice that left social media users scratching their heads.
“I’m the governor of South Dakota, and [I] had the opportunity to come to SmileTexas to fix my teeth, which has been absolutely amazing,” Noem says in what amounts to a nearly five-minute-long infomercial. “... The team here was remarkable and finally gave me a smile that I can be proud of, and confident in, and that really is a gift that I think is going to be incredibly special to have. You know, I think that I chose the team here at SmileTexas because they’re the best.”
Noem is carrying on a neo-GOP tradition of hawking sundry consumer products with seemingly little relevance to their public lives: former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani for cigars, gold coins, vitamin supplements, and mattress toppers, onetime Trump lawyer and convicted felon Jenna Ellis shilling for IRA accounts that invest in gold, and the 45th president himself pushing everything from sneakers to NFTs to an eponymous cologne.
It is unclear whether Noem was compensated for the video testimonial, if she bartered the ad for free dental work, or if she paid for the veneers out of pocket. A spokesman for Noem did not respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.
Craig Holman, a campaign finance and governmental ethics expert at nonprofit D.C. watchdog Public Citizen, said that doing an ad for a private business is strictly prohibited at the federal level. However, he told The Daily Beast, Noem’s conduct in this instance would be governed by South Dakota ethics laws, which have “quite a lot of wiggle room.”
“Though if she was paid to do the ad, that would seem to violate the gift rules,” Holman said.
In an email, Paul Knecht, the executive director of the South Dakota Dental Association, said, “The Governor knows several SD dentists quite well, so she must have had a good reason for selecting [SmileTexas].”
The lengthy video begins with former rancher Noem, who was crowned South Dakota Snow Queen in 1990, telling viewers that she has felt uncomfortable about her teeth ever since knocking several out in a bicycle accident. But, she says, her “kind of crazy and very busy” schedule as governor kept getting in the way. At the same time, Noem says, “the job that I’m in… where everything is speaking and interviews and giving speeches, I want, when people look at me, to hear the words that I say and not be distracted by something that I’m wearing, or how I look, or even my appearance.”
“I want them to focus on my thoughts and ideas and what we can do to really make this country better,” Noem goes on. “So for me, being able to have a confident smile and have my teeth be something that’s not a distraction, but actually is appealing to people, will be helpful because I think that it’ll make sure that we’re focused on, really, the right points that I want to make, and make sure that that confidence shines through.”
That’s why Noem says she chose Dr. Bret Davis, who’s billed as “the Official Dentist of Miss Texas USA and Miss Teen Texas USA.”
“We’re proud of our work. But don’t take our word for it. Hear it from our patients!” the SmileTexas homepage says as testimonials rotate by.
In Noem’s bizarre retelling of her dental journey, she “studied a lot of the work that they had done” at SmileTexas, and, after a consultation on Zoom, chose to travel to the Houston area from South Dakota for the procedure “because they were so kind they wanted to make sure that I was happy with my smile.”
“Not only that the bite was correct, and that I liked the shape, the color, but that it was going to work for me for the rest of my life, and that it was something that I could be proud of,” Noem says in the video. “So for them, they care about people, and that they are happy, more than they do about just fixing something to get by. They want it to be perfect.”
Noem says her veneers were completed in only two visits, and she was able to get back to work quickly.
“Well, when they first showed me, with a mirror, my new teeth, I started to cry,” the governor recalls. “And I think it’s because I had an uncle that was an orthodontist. And he did braces on all of his nieces and nephews, everyone except for me, and I remember being a little girl and having him say, ‘Your teeth just aren’t bad enough.’ But even from that time, I knew that my teeth—that they were OK, but they weren’t bad enough to fix. It’s just been something that I’ve always thought, and hoped that at some day, I could address it and have a confident smile.”
The video concludes with Noem telling viewers it “means a lot” to her that “something as small as your smile really can change the world.”
“I think that people’s views are important,” she says. “And I want people to know how much I enjoy seeing them. I love being with people, and the fact that he gave me the smile to do that now… I love that my bite is better, that my teeth are a better shape, that they feel better in my mouth, and that I can be confident when I smile at people and know that they can actually appreciate and see the kindness in my face, and the love that I have for them.”
The reaction online was, largely, puzzlement over why a sitting governor was flogging cosmetic dentistry to her 485,000 Twitter followers.
“The fucking governor @KristiNoem is now going [sic] infomercials? Seriously?” one posted.
“Well if nobody’s going to stick up for the hardworking dentists of South Dakota, I will,” posted another. “Buy your teeth locally, governors!”
Attorney and political commentator Ron Filipkowski, a former state and federal prosecutor, told The Daily Beast that he is baffled by Noem’s unashamed plug for SmileTexas.
“The whole thing is bizarre,” he said. “Who is this supposed to appeal to? Is this supposed to get people to fly to this one dentist in Texas? ... It just blows my mind.”
Bret Davis did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
