<p class="speakable">South Dakota&nbsp;<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/category/person/kristi-noem" _mce_href="https://www.foxnews.com/category/person/kristi-noem" target="_blank">Republican Gov. Kristi Noem</a>&nbsp;emerged from Tuesday's gubernatorial election triumphant, energized and with her sights set on President Joe Biden, declaring her intention to build on the achievements of her first term and asserting that South Dakota is the model of successful Republican governance.</p> <p class="speakable">Noem&nbsp;<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/elections" _mce_href="https://www.foxnews.com/elections" target="_blank">comfortably sailed to re-election</a>&nbsp;Tuesday, defeating Democratic state House Minority Leader Jamie Smith.&nbsp;Addressing supporters gathered at the Downtown Hilton Garden Inn in Sioux Falls, the governor's victory speech drew a stark contrast between her record in South Dakota and "Joe Biden's America." She extolled the virtues of limited government, freedom and opportunity while savaging the "extremist agenda" of Democrats in Washington, D.C., calling Biden a "figurehead" controlled by the radical left.</p> <div class="ad-container desktop ad-h-50 ad-w-300"></div> <p>"Americans across the country are looking to South Dakota as a ‘Shining City on the Hill.’ In states across the country tonight, they’re electing Republican governors because they want their state to look more like South Dakota," Noem said.</p> <p>A rising star in the Republican Party, the 50-year-old Noem earned national appeal within the GOP by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/category/health/infectious-disease/coronavirus" _mce_href="https://www.foxnews.com/category/health/infectious-disease/coronavirus" target="_blank">opposing COVID-19 pandemic restrictions</a>&nbsp;that would have closed businesses and schools. On the campaign trail, she's attributed South Dakota's thriving economy to her decision-making, observing that her state has the fastest-growing incomes of any state in the nation and is experiencing rampant population growth.</p> <p>Noem has also gone to battle for conservatives in the culture wars, signing legislation that bans biological males from participating in girls' or women's school sports, and issuing an executive order that banned teaching critical race theory in K-12 schools.</p>