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What major fundraising totals has Kristi Noem reported for her 2024/2025 political activities?
Executive summary
Kristi Noem’s recent fundraising and related financial activity reported in the available documents centers less on a single “total raised” figure for 2024–2025 than on multiple disclosures and investigations: federal campaign-tracking sites list long‑running totals (OpenSecrets/FollowTheMoney) but the most newsworthy figures in 2024–2025 coverage are an $80,000 payment to a Noem-linked company from the dark‑money American Resolve Policy Fund in 2023 (reported by ProPublica and summarized in The Guardian and Dakota outlets) and reporting about “tens of millions” paid to a consulting firm tied to Noem during the 2024 cycle and a separate $200–$220 million DHS ad program that benefited a firm with ties to her circle (ProPublica and outlets republishing its reporting) [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. What the official trackers show — long career and federal summaries
Public campaign‑finance aggregators hold long‑running totals for Noem’s federal activity, but those pages are summary tools rather than single news scoops: OpenSecrets maintains a profile of Kristi Noem that aggregates “Total Raised and Spent” and other metrics for her federal cycles and notes routine monthly updates to some figures [5] [6]. FollowTheMoney similarly stores state‑level finance records through 2024 but cautions about integration and maintenance issues [7]. These sites are starting points for precise dollar‑by‑cycle totals but the search results here do not extract or quote a single 2024–2025 “total raised” number from those databases [5] [6] [7].
2. The $80,000 payment flagged by investigative reporting
Investigative reporting by ProPublica, summarized in The Guardian and local outlets, documents that in 2023 a nonprofit called American Resolve Policy Fund routed $80,000 to a Delaware company tied to Noem as a fundraising fee; ProPublica’s reporting says that payment did not appear on Noem’s public ethics disclosures [1] [2]. The Guardian notes ProPublica “does not assert that Noem broke campaign finance laws” but highlights that tax records show the payment and that the nonprofit does not disclose donors [2]. Local reporting adds that ProPublica’s filing said the payment was described as a 10% fundraising cut, implying $800,000 raised on which $80,000 was paid out [1].
3. “Tens of millions” to a consulting firm tied to Noem during 2024
ProPublica’s investigation — widely republished — finds federal election records showing “tens of millions” in payments during the 2024 cycle to a political consulting firm that had close ties to Noem’s operation; that reporting says Noem was a particularly lucrative client for that firm [3]. Outlets republishing the ProPublica story emphasize the scale (“tens of millions”) but do not produce a single consolidated fundraising total for Noem herself; rather, they document where campaign and PAC money flowed [3] [8]" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">[8].
**4. DHS ad contracts and the $200M+ spending context**
Separate but related reporting describes a DHS advertising campaign worth roughly $200–$220 million that, according to ProPublica and follow‑on coverage, included subcontracting to a firm with longstanding ties to Noem and her aides [4] [9]. Critics and watchdogs have pointed to parts of that ad spend as benefitting Noem‑connected vendors; Accountable.US quantified early DHS payments at $76.6 million and framed the overall program as roughly $200 million [10]. These are expenditures by the agency under Noem’s leadership as DHS Secretary rather than campaign fundraising totals, but they factor into the financial narrative around her political network [4] [10].
5. State fundraising and campaign committee activity
Local coverage and filings show Noem raised substantial sums in state campaigns (for example, reporting of multi‑million dollar cycle totals in prior years and specific fundraising events), and state filings captured figures such as $3.35 million raised in a single year during an earlier cycle and that she had raised roughly $15 million across an entire gubernatorial cycle [11]. The South Dakota press has also reported on her American Resolve PAC raising “hundreds of thousands” from wealthy donors and spending for travel and events — details that complicate headline “totals” because funds moved among PACs, nonprofits and vendors [12] [11].
6. What the sources do not provide (limits to the record)
Available sources here do not present a single, authoritative “2024/2025 total raised by Kristi Noem” figure; OpenSecrets and FollowTheMoney hold up‑to‑date raw totals but those specific numbers are not excerpted in the materials provided [5] [7]. Nor do the investigative pieces consolidate a campaign‑level aggregate for 2024–2025; they instead trace specific payments (the $80,000 nonprofit payout), vendor revenue (“tens of millions”) and large DHS ad‑spend that benefited connected firms [1] [3] [4].
7. Competing interpretations and potential agendas
Investigative outlets (ProPublica and republishers) frame these findings as alarming pay‑to‑play or conflicts of interest and highlight opacity in dark‑money flows; watchdog groups (Accountable.US) focus criticism on DHS ad spending under Noem [1] [3] [10]. By contrast, those close to Noem or standard campaign‑finance databases emphasize routine nature of PAC activity and aggregated totals without asserting legal wrongdoing — for example OpenSecrets provides neutral aggregation and notes the limits of summary data [5] [6]. The differing frames reflect implicit agendas: watchdogs pushing for accountability, and database sites aiming for comprehensive financial tracking.
Bottom line: if you want a precise campaign total for 2024–2025, consult the OpenSecrets and state FEC/Secretary of State filings directly (the profiles exist but aren’t quoted here) — for investigative context, review the ProPublica reporting on the $80,000 payment and firm payments described as “tens of millions,” plus coverage of DHS’s $200M‑plus ad program that benefited Noem‑tied vendors [5] [6] [1] [3] [4].