(The Center Square) – South Dakota’s nationwide workforce recruitment campaign is sponsoring a NASCAR stock car to help attract more workers to the state, Gov. Kristi Noem announced Thursday.
The “Freedom Works Here” campaign partnered with Live Fast Motorsports to sponsor the #78 Chevy Camaro, which BJ McLeod will drive in two races.
During the press conference, the governor said the race car is part of the $5 million campaign.
“We appreciate what South Dakota is doing for their people through workforce initiatives while providing a beautiful state to build the American Dream. I look forward to partnering with them and spreading the message of Freedom Works Here,” McLeod said.
Four weeks into the workforce recruitment campaign, Noem says more than 3,500 people from every state have filled out applications to move to South Dakota, and 675 of those people are in the final stages of moving to the state. The ads have been viewed more than 300 million times, the governor said.
“This has already been the most successful marketing campaign in the history of the state, just in the last four weeks, than any other marketing campaign in the entirety of what the state has done,” Noem said.
The NASCAR stock car portion of the Freedom Works Here campaign was initiated when individuals from NASCAR reached out to the governor’s office, according to Noem.
“On behalf of Team Live Fast, we want to thank everyone at Freedom Works Here for partnering with us this weekend at Richmond and later this season at Bristol,” said Live Fast Motorsports Co-Owner Matt Tifft. “We’re excited to unveil the Freedom Works Here #78 Chevy Camaro and bring recognition to the opportunities in the state of South Dakota!”
There are approximately 29,000 open jobs in South Dakota, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The state has an estimated 38 available workers for every 100 open positions, according to the chamber.
“As we started to recognize what was happening at the national level and people being willing to move for jobs, they just didn’t know where they wanted to go, the state decided to be very aggressive,” Noem said. “We made a decision as a governor and as a state to go out and tell our story, make sure that people knew when they came to South Dakota they did have opportunities.”
The governor said the state saw similar success when it marketed to law enforcement officers several years ago, an effort that resulted in over one thousand law enforcement professionals moving to South Dakota.
“There will be long-term, cascading impacts of this marketing campaign that we’re excited about,” said Noem. “We want to grow in South Dakota because we want to create careers and jobs and opportunities here that our future generations can enjoy. I don’t want people to have to move across the country to get an opportunity.”
