Representative Kristi Noem and Democratic challenger Paula Hawks faced off in a live conversation on topics you the viewer wanted to hear about.
The night started with each candidate sharing opening statements on how they would like to represent South Dakota in Washington, D.C.
“As I look across the state of South Dakota, there’s a lot of encouraging things. Our kids are chasing their potential. Small businesses are going after opportunities. We see a lot of things going right, and that’s been encouraging for me because there’s a lot of dysfunction in Washington,” Rep. Kristi Noem said.
“There’s one more story that I wish to share with you. And it’s something that I never would have thought I would talk about publicly. I am a survivor of sexual assault. I was raped in college by a man in a position of power over me. So I understand how devastating sexual assault can be,” Paula Hawks said.
The candidates then addressed a viewer question about how they feel as women in the political arena, after recently released comments from presidential candidate Donald Trump.
“That speaks to the character of the individual. And what we’ve seen from Donald Trump even in the past two weeks, his behavior and his language and his words have conveyed to me, that he has no respect for women,” Hawks said.
“I’ve seen for years her put herself before her country over and over again, and that’s not acceptable to me. So I’ll vote for Donald Trump. I don’t defend him or what he’s said, but the 30 years of actions by Hillary Clinton are simply unacceptable,” Noem said.
The candidates also touched on racism, gun control, Indian Health Services and more.
If you’d like to watch the debate, you can see it in its entirety on the Campaign 2016 page.
