Dusty Johnson’s fundraising is on fire this cycle, as his affiliated committees post high numbers from supporters in the run up to his recent announcement for Governor.

The Dusty Johnson Victory Committee just slayed at fundraising, as they reported $607,405 in receipts, bringing forward $713,074.22 cash on hand at the end of the cycle – showing roughly 900,000 raised in the last three months (on the federal side).

Dusty Johnson Victory Committee July 2025 by Pat Powers on Scribd

Congressman Johnson’s Leadership PAC, the appropriately titled Dakota Leadership PAC is not due to make a filing until the end of July.

The Senate’s Majority Leader, South Dakota’s senior Senator John Thune continues his dominance in fundraising in the latest FEC Report:

July 2025 Thune FEC by Pat Powers on Scribd

Senate Majority Leader Thune reports $805,298.08 raised between transfers, interest, and people donating to his campaign against $372,846.61 spent, which – if you’re majority leader as he is – spending more on the political end of things is unavoidable as you work hard to get Republicans elected.

After all is said and done, Senator Thune leaves the quarter with $16,234,546.82 cash on hand in his main campaign account.  I think that gets the job done.

Dusty July 2025 FEC by Pat Powers on Scribd

Congressman Dusty Johnson has A LOT of cash on hand as he moves into raising money for his Gubernatorial race, versus the Congressional race. But that Congressional account sure has a lot on hand.

In the past quarter, Dusty raised a total of $301,956.61 against $211,332.86 spent. Providing him a cash balance of $5,995,554.28 left over to conduct political activity with. Not a bad nest egg for other things.

Thune: Republicans Target Egregious Misuses of Taxpayer Dollars

“If [Democrats] really support eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse, they can join Republicans and pass this legislation.”

Click here to watch the video.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor.

From Twitter:

I will now vote to support President Trump’s rescissions package to clawback $9.4 billion in federal spending.

We wanted to make sure tribal broadcast services in South Dakota continued to operate which provide potentially lifesaving emergency alerts. We worked with the Trump…

— Senator Mike Rounds (@SenatorRounds) July 15, 2025

Remember the abysmal turnout for the SDGOP Golf outing fundraiser?

Literally, within minutes of bashing Republican Senator Mike Rounds, the South Dakota Republican Party announced their next fundraiser, as sponsored by Lt. Gov Candidate Karla Lems.

I don’t want to say it looks bad.. but this looks bad.

How many people do you think they’ll get to haul their cookies to Mitchell on a Thursday night in July to go see a Christian comic?  (Now, how many under the age of 75?).  In case you’re wondering what you’re in store for..

 

Maybe I’m wrong, and it’s other people’s cup of tea. But I think this will go as well as the golf outing did. If they’re lucky.

Rounds Secures National Defense Victories in Senate Armed Services Committee’s Fiscal Year 2026 NDAA

Committee version of the bill authorizes $406 million for projects in South Dakota, $3.4 billion for B-21 procurement

 WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, released the following statement on the committee’s passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026. This is the 11th NDAA that Rounds has helped author as a member of SASC. The bill now heads to the full Senate for consideration.

“The NDAA is a critical piece of legislation passed each year which authorizes funding for our national security, as well as our servicemembers and their families,” said Rounds. “We were glad to secure many wins for South Dakota, including $378 million for construction projects at Ellsworth to prepare for the B-21, $28 million for the Watertown Army National Guard vehicle maintenance facility and $3.4 billion for procurement of B-21 aircraft. The NDAA also authorizes funding to support a 3.8 percent raise for military members.

“When I was working as Governor of South Dakota, and subsequently Commander in Chief of our National Guard units, I attended several send-off ceremonies and welcome home celebrations. I also attended 31 funerals for those who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our country. As a result, I made a pledge that I would do everything in my power to make certain our men and women in uniform never enter a fair fight, always having the advantage over their adversaries. This year’s NDAA keeps the U.S. ahead of the curve and takes care of our men and women in uniform who fight every day to protect our freedoms. I look forward to working with Leader Thune and my colleagues in the Senate to get this legislation passed and signed into law.”

In March, Rounds was named as the 6th most effective member of the United States Senate on defense and national security issues for the 118th Congress. Read a full list of his provisions in this year’s NDAA below.

Rounds’ South Dakota Victories:

• Fully authorizes the B-21 Raider program, including over $2.59 billion for procurement and $862 million in advanced procurement.
• Authorizes $378 million in military construction projects to support the B-21 Raider housed at Ellsworth.
  • $63 million for B-21 Flight Simulator 2.
  • $71 million for B-21 Alert Facility.
  • $75 million for B-21 Environmental Protection Shelters.
  • $88 million for B-21 South Environmental Protection Shelters.
  • $81 million for B-21 West Alert Apron & Environmental Protection Shelters.
• Authorizes $28 million for Watertown Army National Guard Vehicle Maintenance Shop.
• Establishes a pilot program within the Department of Defense (DOD) to partner with communities, universities, and industry to establish Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities (SCIF). This has been a major priority for many South Dakota universities and defense companies seeking to establish or deepen their relationship with the DOD.
• Updates the State Partnership Program so that states with only one partner are given priority when a new foreign partner is being considered for the program.  This will directly benefit the South Dakota National Guard.
• Modifies the Defense Community Infrastructure Program in order to make South Dakota schools more competitive in receiving grants.
• Requires the Navy Personnel Command’s Records Analysis Branch to develop a plan to address their delays and backlogs to provide members of Congress and their constituents answers and corrections to casework, record requests, and record adjudication. This will help our South Dakotan veterans dealing with frustrating bureaucracy.

Rounds’ Major National Defense Victories:

• Protect national security spectrum from interference from commercial interests so that critical defense and intelligence capabilities are not degraded.
• Authorizes $5 million for Wing-level additive manufacturing capability.
• Authorizes $10 million for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing for hypersonic weapons.
• Authorizes $5 million for Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory.
• Authorizes $20 million for University Consortium for Cybersecurity.
• Creates a Cyber Command A.I. industry collaboration roadmap. This requires the Commander of U.S. Cyber Command, in coordination with senior DOD A.I. and research officials, to develop a roadmap for industry and academic collaboration on AI-enabled cyber capabilities for cyberspace operations.
• Creates an Artificial General Intelligence Steering Committee. This establishes an Artificial General Intelligence Steering Committee in the DOD to analyze AI trajectories and develop DOD adoption strategies with Deputy Secretary of Defense and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as co-chairs.
• Protects the dual-hat leadership arrangement between U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency.
• Provides authority to the Department of Defense and military to conduct military operations in defense of critical infrastructure.
• Requires a bomber aircraft force structure and transition roadmap, to include training packages and other measures, to make sure our bomber crews are as well-trained and equipped as possible.
• Process to improve Foreign Military Sales to our partners and allies.
• Modernization of the Department’s cyber and network security policies on full content inspection, to include A.I. capabilities to be included in the program.
• Requires the Department to identify how they will achieve implementation of zero trust cyber and network security by December 2025.
• Requires budget coordination of the Cyber Mission Force to increase mutual support between U.S. Cyber Command and cyber elements of the reserve component.
• Provides a pathway for men and women who may be medically disqualified for serving in the active duty military to serve in the Department of Defense or other military services as a civilian.
• Implements significant DOD cyber personnel related reforms to include establishing a Cyber Excepted Workforce (CEW) Interchange Agreement and increased flexibility regarding the pay and benefits for cyber personnel.
• Strengthens the office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy — a position Senator Rounds created.

Rounds-Supported Victories:

• Authorizes funding to support a 3.8 percent pay raise for military members.
• No restrictions on supporting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with deportations, including the use of military air.
• Prohibits DOD from paying for sex change surgeries for military personnel.
• Includes an additional $6 billion for munitions – in concert with $25 billion in reconciliation, which effectively doubles last year’s munitions budget.
• Expands Navy fleet with an additional two destroyers and funds wage improvements for conventional surface shipbuilders (destroyers, amphibious ships, and more).
• Clearly authorizes key portions of President Trump’s Golden Dome, the missile defense program for our country’s national security.
• Clarifies the timing for operational certification of the B-21 bomber with the AGM-181 Long Range Standoff Weapon, which will make the B-21 more lethal and at longer distances.
• Includes a Comprehensive Cyber Workforce Strategy. This would require the Secretary of Defense to develop a comprehensive cyber workforce strategy.
• Encourages the Department to use multi-modal Large Language Models for foreign language translation.
• Directs the Secretary of Defense, as part of the Defense Cyber Workforce Framework, to design and implement a program for active management of cyber talent transitioning out of active duty and into the reserve force.
• Includes report language that directs the Secretary of Defense to assess how to better synchronize the Defense Cyber Crimes Center under the Air Force with the Defense Cyber Defense Command (DCDC) to maximize protection of the Defense Industrial Base.
• Directs the Secretary of Defense to facilitate the integration of existing commercially available AI capabilities to assist with logistics in two relevant DOD exercises.
• Directs the Secretary of Defense to evaluate the establishment of a Joint Task Force-Cyber in each of the geographic Combatant Commands to serve as the operational cyber component.
• Includes report language that will direct the Department of Defense to issue a report on the competition, barriers to entry, and market share of cloud service providers, AI providers, and data services providers.
• Directs the Secretary to develop standards and a strategy associated with digital provenance.
• Includes report language that emphasizes the importance of authentication and directs the Secretary of Defense to establish a strategy to establish phishing resistant authentication.
• Prohibits any use on any DOD system of a large language model created by a Chinese or other covered entity, specifically DeepSeek. It also prohibits contractor use of these models.

Click HERE to read an executive summary from the Senate Armed Services Committee.

###

Jim Eschenbaum’s version of the South Dakota Republican Party is on Facebook tonight using party resources to promote an attack on Sen. Mike Rounds by the clowns in the local Free-dumb caucus:

Well, that’s kind of funny. Last I knew the freedom caucus was not affiliated in any way whatsoever with the Republican Party. At the same time Senator Rounds is one of the top officials for the party.

Does this mean Eschenbaum will be posting Democrat attacks against the Senator next?

I hope the party is not looking for a donation from the Senator anytime soon.

Maybe the SDGOP central committee should add an item to the agenda for this weekend’s meeting. Requesting the chairman’s resignation.

Remember when lawmaker Phil Jensen was in the news for saying businesses should be able to refuse services to black customers?

A South Dakota Republican lawmaker believes that businesses have the right to refuse services to African-American customers because the free-market will shut out discriminatory practices, according to an interview with a local newspaper.

and..

In the state’s last legislative session, Jensen introduced a measure, Senate Bill 128, that would have protected employers from potential prosecution for turning away clients based on free speech. The measure proposes that businesses should reserve and enforce their rights to refuse services based on a customer’s sexual orientation.

“It’s a bill that protects the constitutional right to free association, the right to free speech and private property rights,” Jensen  told the Journal.

Read that here.

And more recently, when he was removed as vice-chair of House Education because he wanted to defund the Huron School District to “send a message” over a tip he’d received..

A firestorm of criticism Wednesday forced a South Dakota lawmaker to lose a committee vice chairmanship and withdraw his bill to defund the Huron School District, which he filed in reaction to a tip about the district’s bathroom policy.

and..

The demoted legislator is Rep. Phil Jensen, a Republican from Rapid City. He filed a bill Tuesday to cut off state funding for the Huron schools — which are 300 miles from his own legislative district — with no reason given in the text of the legislation.

Backlash was immediate at the Capitol, where lawmakers are gathered for their annual legislative session. Reactions to the bill dominated morning conversations.

Read that here.

That’s just a smattering, but you get the point.

Why do I bring it up?  Because, after dodging the draft, and asking that some doctors are able to be legally killed, Phil wants you to vote for Toby Doeden for Governor:

[redacted], you have a message from your State Rep, Phil Jensen:

——— 🇺🇸 ———

Southern Meade County, it is truly an honor to serve as your State Representative. I know you have a busy schedule, so I’ll keep this short:

Toby Doeden is a bold conservative Republican running for Governor of South Dakota. And on Thursday, he’s holding a town hall + meet and greet event in Piedmont. I’d love to see you and your family there.

The event will be held at the Elk Creek Resort & Lodge [xxxxxxxxxx I’m redacting this – pp xxxxxxxxxx ]. Free food and drinks will be provided.

I hope you can make it, but even if not, I wish you all the best and will continue fighting for you in Pierre!

Best Regards,
Rep. Phil Jensen

——— 🇺🇸 ———

Reply STOP to opt out. Paid for by Dakota First Action.

Once Phil has made an oath for Toby, you know he’ll keep it, since he’s also been a member of the far-right Oath Keeper Militia.

They say you’re known by the company you keep. And if this is the company Toby is keeping, he’d better buff up on his phrenology skills.

(You’d think after the whole Logan Manhart White-boy thing, this isn’t who Toby would send out as his next campaign representative)

The blowback from reploganmanhart.com apparently began before the website. According to one critic’s comments to the author on instagram, allegedly there are “quite a few lawmakers in South Dakota” regarding the website that was put up pointing out Representative Logan Manhart’s pale-oriented social media.

Yet, the author isn’t much intimidated by the threats against him from “the many.”

I wonder who the “quite a few lawmakers” are? Logan? Dylan “Dj Jazzy” Jordan? …. I’m quickly running out of people in the bro-faction of the SDGOP who might care about this.  Unless this correspondent is referring to the entire free-dumb caucus?

The website author must be immune to “quite a few lawmakers.” Or at least someone throwing out the “they” pronoun at him.

(This was painful to watch before this silliness began.)