Chuck, I have a home in Tennessee, Florida and Ohio. In the midst of covid, I had to travel back and forth from California a few times. So, I saw a lot of how the Governors handled things first hand. California was crazy....science fiction novel crazy. It only got better there when Newsome was a short time away from a recall vote. As much dirty play as the Newsome crew did in the recall election, they still would have lost if they had not opened up when they did. The contrast between California and Florida was night and day. DeSantis did not lose his mind durning covid.
Tennessee was weird for a couple of months but nothing like California. Not even remotely close. Things got back to normal there very quickly. The Governor was just fine.
Ohio was odd...not nearly as bad as California but not as sane as Florida and Tennessee.
So, I've got to disagree with you that Noem was the only one who kept a cool head during covid. There are probably other states too. I can only speak to the ones that I frequented during that time.
