Author: @SoDakCampaigns

Dusty Johnson Secures Landslide Victory!

Sioux Falls, S.D. – Tonight, U.S. Representative Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) secured a fourth term for South Dakota’s lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“South Dakotans recognize I work hard and get things done,” said Johnson. “I’m proud of the accomplishments we’ve had the past six years, but we can’t take our foot off the gas. We must continue to work on strengthening our border, getting our nation’s fiscal house in order, and standing up to China. I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and take this workhorse mentality back to Washington.”

During his time in Congress, Johnson has:

• Voted 90 times for strong border security policies.

• Received an A+ rating from the NRA and has a 100% score from the National Right to Life.

• Championed 19 bills that have been signed into law.

• Voted against more than $13 trillion in wasteful spending since 2021.

• Been named the most effective House Republican on agriculture issues and was named the 14th most effective lawmaker overall out of 222 House Republicans.

• Received the Congressional Management Foundation’s Democracy Award for Transparency and Accountability (2021) and Outstanding Constituent Service (2023).

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In looking at last night’s elections, we can only make it a partial review, because Minnehaha County Leah Anderson is still fumbling around, and we don’t know finals in that county yet.  But looking at what we do know, we can draw some conclusions.

•  A Red Wave swept across South Dakota, only tempered by purple urban firewalls. 

  The Good News? There was a red wave that swept across the state that was not going to be stopped, even by Republican Party disunity. In District 1, Republicans took both House seats in a tough race. Deep in Native American Country, Republican Tamara Grove knocked out Shawn Bordeaux in a race that has traditionally been impossible for many Republicans, In D27, Anthony Kathol with his awful campaign came within a stone’s throw of taking out incumbent Red Dawn Foster (w/in 300 votes), and Hillary Clinton Donor Liz May also squeaked out a win in the House. The GOP swept several seats that many saw as challenging or might have viewed as impossible. And in a move that would have been unthinkable a decade ago, the Democrat Party Machine seems to have retreated from the reservation making those seats now achievable by Republicans.

  The Bad News? While the State Democrat Party seems to have retreated, urban Democrats seem to be consolidating their grip. In Sioux Falls, Democrats completely swept Districts 10 (* this is fluid at moment, as results come in) and 15 – with 15 having stronger numbers than last election as those results are coming in. And we’re still holding our breath that Republicans can keep our numbers as we watch the Minnehaha numbers still come in for D14 Senate.  And for the first time in nearly 20 years a Democrat has captured a Rapid City Legislative seat in District 32, as Nicole Uhre-Balk, niece to former Republican Lt. Governor Carole Hillard, picked up a seat in the House.  This should not be lost on the Republican hierarchy. There’s trouble brewing in our cities, and it starts with “D.” Leaving cities to foppish Republican organizations who care for little else but their own fiefdom, and not candidates is going to cost you dearly at some point. Because those cities are purpling up.

 

• Republicans should quit flirting with independent candidates. It never works out, and just tarnishes reputations.

  For some reason, certain members of  the hard-core right floated indy candidates against Republican nominees  because they didn’t believe someone to be of sufficiently pure ideology.  They did it in 2020 with weird Brian Gentry running in D35. And they tried it again times two with Shana McVickers in D31 and Karen McNeal in D32 this year.  Guess what?  They both got completely smashed.  McVickers was curb-stomped by more than 2-1, despite local maladjusted Republicans promoting her against GOP Vice Chair Mary Fitzgerald.  The one that might sting harder was Karen McNeal showing that no one likes a Karen, as Helene Duhamel took her to school and crushed her on a 60-40 basis, defeating her by more than 1700 votes, despite certain Republicans propping up her effort.  With Scott Odenbach’s Liberty Tree PAC tying for being McNeal’s single largest donor, it may end up being more of a dent in his effort to become the next House Majority Leader.

 

• Who took the biggest hit this election? Rick Weiland.

  Are Rick Weiland’s ballot measure days drawing to a close? Because he took a beating last night.   His poorly written Amendment G to put abortion in the constitution is sitting down 40% to the 60% against it, after he was unable to get NARAL or Planned Parenthood to support it.   His poorly written measure against the food tax that would have bankrupted cities was defeated by an even bigger margin. 70%-30%.  Not sure who is going to hire Rick to run their ballot measures in the coming few years, but they should check out his track record before they start writing checks.

 

We still have a number of results hanging out there and dribbling in slowly, courtesy of Minnehaha County’s auditor Leah Anderson.  I had started to pull numbers, but I saw Bobbi Andera pull ahead in D10. So, we’ll revisit them when we know more. Maybe tomorrow.

Thune Congratulates President Trump and Senator Vance

“The incoming Senate Republican majority will work hand-in-hand with the Trump-Vance administration to lower costs for families, secure our southern border, and renew America’s energy dominance.”

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today released the following statement:

“Congratulations to President Trump and Senator Vance on their hard-fought victory. The American people have chosen to turn the page on the Biden-Harris administration’s failed policies of high prices and open borders and instead chart a new course for our country. The incoming Senate Republican majority will work hand-in-hand with the Trump-Vance administration to lower costs for families, secure our southern border, and renew America’s energy dominance. The work begins now.”

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I had a note dropped to me that there’s chatter going around to the effect of “Word from Minnehaha County that only halfway through even opening Absentee Ballots. Auditor put out a call for emergency help.”

Don’t know if that’s true or not, but we’re not seeing much in terms of results from the state’s largest county at a few minutes to 10pm.  This might be a performance check of Minnehaha County Auditor Leah Anderson that it will be hard for her County Commission to ignore.

Of course, this is also coming as I’m told Leah is reportedly telling anyone who will listen that she’s running for SOS in 2026.

All but one of the Trump voters I talked to today also voted for pot. One of them said Trump and weed “go hand in hand, don’t they?” A of them few voted for abortion, as well, because freedom.
No clue if that signals a single thing abt the actual results, but I was surprised.

— John Hult (@JohnEHult) November 5, 2024

Had an e-mail blast come across my desk for a high school activity my wife pinged me on to send our son to get signed up for. The new Brookings High School eSports League:

This should not come as a surprise to South Dakotans, as it was piloted last year in a number of schools:

The activities association began exploring the addition of esports about four years ago because of popular demand, Swartos said. Nationally, more states have sanctioned the sport. Colleges also offer esports scholarships and have their own competitive teams. It has become a multibillion-dollar business with an estimated 3.26 billion people worldwide playing video games.

The popularity of gaming continues to grow, and the SDHSAA saw an opportunity to engage more students in school activities.

and..

The esports pilot started with four competitive titles: Rocket League, Super Smash Bros., League of Legends and chess. Rocket League is a soccer-type game with cars rather than people playing the sport. Super Smash Bros. uses characters from Nintendo games who fight to knock each other out of the arena. In League of Legends, two teams of five players battle to destroy the opposing team’s base. Besides Super Smash Bros., all the other games are played on PCs.

Read that all here.

It’s not a terrible idea.. but a few of the games seem to be a bit dated and geared towards a younger crowd (Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros).  Regardless, dust off that game controller for your kids, as they prepare to participate in South Dakota’s newest high school sporting teams.

Had a reader send me a note about a recent Mitchell Chamber Development Corporation forum where Attorney General Marty Jackley was present and explaining the ballot measures to about 60-70 people in attendance, when Marty was asked the question “Are you running for Governor or Congress?”

Jackley’s reply? “I’m not running for Congress.”

I think it’s safe to assume that things are already “Game on” in the 2026 Gubernatorial race.

In case you were distracted by the election:

Heidi Ihnen, 44, and Clint Ihnen, 47, were booked into jail Monday night. They each face 4 counts of child abuse and more than a dozen counts of animal neglect.

Lincoln County Sheriff Steve Swenson told KELOLAND News he believed there was close to 50 animals at the home.

According to the city of Lennox website, Heidi is the city’s finance officer.

Read the entire story here at KELOland.

Did no one notice at the city offices she might have smelled a little funny with 50 ANIMALS in the home? Bleaugh.

Today is the day. And starting in the next 12 hours or so, we’re going to start getting some ideas of what the next session is going to look like. But before that, the outcome of National races are going to affect us more than you might think.  Does Trump win, possibly taking Governor Kristi Noem with him to DC or giving her an ambassadorship? A then Governor Larry Rhoden would trigger both a reworking of state government and a reshuffling of the 2026 gubernatorial race with an incumbent defending against a couple of the GOP’s best.   If Trump loses, does that redirect Kristi’s gaze back to federal office? Would she then challenge Senator Mike Rounds in 2026?

Which legislative seats are going to win or lose? It’s no secret that the hard right has been trying to engineer their return to power after they used SDRTL and SD Protecting Kids to play in the primary to attack and remove incumbents in an attempt to return to legislative Leadership. Through his PAC, State Rep. Scott Odenbach has dumped cash into the D32 Senate Independent’s campaign to knock out Republican Senator Helene Duhamel. Democrats are resurgent in a few areas, which might not seem to be much – but they don’t have to do much to upset the well laid plans of those trying to play power politics.   It seems to be a complete free for all as various parties compete to put their person in.

A lot of this is driven by the upcoming leadership races. After the last election we had a number of legislators led by Jon Hansen voting against Republican Leadership in the Speaker of the House race. The consequences of that in the upcoming session could be more dire if there is a larger group of defecting Republicans trying to overturn caucus decisions again. So, how many Republicans is as important as which Republicans get elected tonight.

Predictions?  Here’s the races I’m watching.

D1 House
Logan Manhart (R)	Steven D. McCleerey (D)	Josh Dennert (L)
Christopher Reder (R)	Mark Sumption (D)	Tamara Lesnar (L)

Watch this race. D1 has the possibility to roil House caucus elections. No incumbents, at least one known Democrat, and 2 libertarians who have strong enough local names to potentially peel votes off of the Republicans could spell trouble in this this swing district.  L’s won’t win – but they could steal numbers that the Republican need.  I believe Dems could take one, if not both seats.

 

District 3 House:
Al Novstrup (R)	Erin R Rudner (D)
Brandei Schaefbauer (R-Incumbent)

Word coming late in the game that the Democrat Rudner seems to have some steam. I’ve looked at her website, and she might have had more if she focused on better messaging (US post office?), but some locals think she could bump one of the Republicans off.  Not sure that I see it, but that’s what some are claiming.  I am doubtful Rudner is going to happen, but people in Aberdeen think Schaefbauer might be the one to get bumped off if one of them does.

 

District 10 House:
Erin Healy (D – Incumbent)	Bobbi L Andera (R)
Kameron Nelson (D – Incumbent)

Sioux Falls Districts are more important to watch, as those are where the state’s deep red moves into shades of purple.  Here, the district is pure blue. Both of these Dems will sail through and Bobbi Andera should end up squished in the road as Democrats roll over her. This one is just not going to happen for R’s

 

District 11 Senate:
Chris Karr (R)	Steve Natz (D)
District 11 House:
Brian Mulder (R – Incumbent)	Aaron Matson (D)
Keri Weems (R)	Sonja Mentzer (D)

On the Senate side, neither Karr ($10.4k spent, $5.4k cash on hand) or Natz ($7.3 spent, 3.6k cash on hand) have put up serious numbers going into the last 2 weeks, so they’re just going through the motions of campaigning. Having been elected before, Karr will likely take it because Natz didn’t give voters a reason not to.  In the House, Mulder as the incumbent should be fine.  Matson showed some sparks of life, raising over $20k in the campaign, spending $12.8k, with $8.7 cash on hand for the last 2 weeks, but I don’t know that it will be enough to put him over Keri Weems.  This should be a safe Republican District by the end of the night.

 

District 12 Senate:

Arch Beal (R- incumbent)

Clay Hoffman (D)

District 14 Senate:

Sandra Henry (D)

Larry Zikmund (R – Incumbent)

D12 and 14 Senate are the big two for Republicans in the Senate contests. But I believe as we get closer to the election, they are becoming less competitive, and the incumbents should cruise through just fine, unless there’s a lingering anti-incumbent sentiment that we don’t know about.  Everyone knows Arch Beal. Everyone Knows Larry Zikmund, and their opponents have not made enough of a case to why they shouldn’t be there.

District 14 House:
Taylor Rehfeldt (R – Incumbent)	B.J. Motley (D)
Tony Kayser (R)	Keith Block (D)

Taylor Rehfeldt should be fine, but there are those expressing to me that they are nervous about Kayser being eclipsed by a Democrat. I don’t see it. This should go GOP all the way.

 

District 15 House:
Joni Tschetter (R)	Kadyn Wittman (D – Incumbent)
Brad Lindwurm (R)	Erik Muckey (D)

Right now, this district is double Dem, but if anyone has a chance of breaking that tradition, it’s Republican Joni Tschetter who came within less than 100 votes of doing so last election. I would venture Kadyn Wittman of the many press releases will take a spot as the incumbent. But I anticipate Tschetter who came close last election will fight it out down to the end with Muckey for the #2 spot. (Bad Brad Lindwurm is a dog that isn’t going to hunt).

 

District 18 Senate:
Lauren Nelson (R)	Sarah Carda (D)

Here’s another big sleeper to watch. School voucher advocate Lauren Nelson might have edged out Jean Hunhoff in the primary, but Democrats pivoted to one of the best candidates on the board for them this cycle in Sarah Carda, the President of the Yankton School Board. Carda has served on the South Dakota Department of Education Special Education Advisory Panel and SD Council on Development Disabilities as an appointee of Governor’s Daugaard and Noem, and is married to a current Yankton City Commissioner.  And from what I’m told, she’s been able to gather substantial resources to compete with Bernie Hunhoff as her campaign chair and Ryan Cwach as her treasurer. $23,830.31 spent, and $4,602.32 cash on hand, plus another $3500 raised since, compared to Lauren Nelsen’s $30,301.26 spent, $391.18 cash on hand, plus another $1000 since.  With the Yankton County GOP’s utter disorganization, the stage has been set for this race to be close.

 

District 26 Senate:
Shawn Bordeaux (D – Incumbent)	Tamara Grove (R)

On Dakota Town Hall this last week, several of us were speculating on the races, with Austin Goss of the Dakota Scout hot on possibility of this contest flipping for the GOP.  But, despite saying my prayers at night, I don’t think this is in the R Column.

Shawn Bordeaux is not a favorite in the Senate, and at one time was removed as chair of the State Tribal Relations Committee because of him being a jerk. But I don’t think this split district is going to boot him and replace him with Jason Ravnsborg’s former Campaign Manager. Tamara is a great person, and has the experience of the other side of the campaign and as a candidate herself in a couple of other races (2018 Legislative, 2016 City) in Sioux Falls, but as a recent transplant to D26, making the case to remove an incumbent is a tough, tough challenge that I don’t think is going to happen.  We’re also in a very high turnout year, which will favor the status quo because people have voted for Bordeaux several times before.  It might take Rep. Rebecca Reimer to displace Bordeaux from that seat down the line. But even that will take a very strong campaign effort.

 

District 27 House:
Peri Pourier (D – Incumbent)	Liz May (R – Incumbent)
Elsie Meeks (D)

Pourier is a given, but the question is how well Meeks is going to perform? Meeks was a former Lt. Gov Candidate back in the day, and has raised a bit, but again – the question is whether or not her campaign has risen to the level of knocking out an incumbent, even one such as Hillary Clinton Donor Liz May.

 

District 31 House:
Mary Fitzgerald (R – Incumbent)	Shana McVickers (I)
Scott Odenbach (R – Incumbent)	Victoria Greenlee (I)

This one should be Fitzgerald and Odenbach, no matter what the resident D31 crackpots crow about on facebook. Stick a fork in the indy’s.  That tater is done.

 

District 32 Senate:
Helene Duhamel (R – Incumbent)	Karen McNeal (I)
District 32 House:
Steve Duffy (R – Incumbent)	Nicole Uhre-Balk (D)
Brook Kaufman (R)

No matter the amount that D31 Representative Scott Odenbach might funnel to Karen McNeal through his PAC, or how many facebook posts come from Toby Doeden, right-wing Indy wackadoodle Karen McNeal isn’t going to happen. McNeal raised $17,325.00, and spent $16,880.36, leaving her nothing but $444 and trash-talking door to door for the last 2 weeks. That’s up against this cycle’s nicest and most MOTIVATED candidate, State Senator Helene Duhamel.  In this contest, everyone was ALL IN for Helene, who started with $33,862.10, raised another $71,576.97, had $$62,215.47 left for advertising in the last 2 weeks, plus another $5k in late donations. I believe there were party postcards, facebook promotions, and so many others jumped in to support a genuinely nice person who always runs like she’s 10 points down. Say goodbye to the Karen, folks.  This race is over.

District 32 House should also come out fine for Republicans with incumbent Steve Duffy and Brook Kaufman. Single Democrats running alone might attempt a bullet voting campaign, but those are challenging because you have to convince people to only use half of their vote.  Even though Democrat Nicole Uhre-Balk looks a lot like her aunt Carole Hillard, I give this one to the R’s all the way.

 

District 34 Senate:
Taffy Howard (R)	Kehala Two Bulls (D)

Kehala Two Bulls was a good replacement candidate for the Dems, but I don’t think she’s going to be able to overcome the voter registration advantage. Senate Leadership has been supporting Taffy’s candidacy, so I think you can safely mark this one down in the R Column.

 

Those are my predictions. Am I way off? Any others that you see might be on the bubble? Let us know in the comment section.

Looks like the Minnehaha County GOP of 2024 is the State Democrat Party of 2006 or 2008. Because both spend more time worrying about ballot measures than the thing they’re actually supposed to be there for. After quite a bit of waiting, their campaign finance pre-general report has finally been posted. And aside from it being a mess, the picture it does paint is a that the State’s Largest County Republican Party really doesn’t seem to give a flying fig about candidates – the very reason they’re supposed to exist.

Minnehaha County GOP Disclosure by Pat Powers on Scribd

Under income, it starts by painting a bleak picture..

Which gets a little better when you get to the “other income.” But, someone explain to me how it’s allowable to say you took in over $36,000 from an event (Over 21K in expenses for it, BTW) without disclosing the source, and just lumping it all together in a mish-mash?

But I digress..  They raised some cash, and did so at great expense (about 55% of every dollar raised via an event). So, what did South Dakota’s largest county GOP organization do with all this money they raised?  Well, they really didn’t do much:

First and foremost at the Minnehaha County GOP’s donation list were Vote No on H ($500), The Life Defense Fund ($750) and $1000 to the SD Property rights and Local Control Alliance – a group who’s cause is not even endorsed by the Republican Party. And they threw in $950 to the Free-dumb Caucus PAC.

And only then did they think of why they’re there, to support & take care of candidates. And in some cases their contribution to the efforts were in silly amounts.

Tony Kayser (D14) and Joni Tschetter (D15) both received a respectable $1000. Bethany Soye (D9) got a check for $750, and Brenda Lawrence (D15) received $700.  Tesa Schwans (D9) $500. Chris Karr (D11) $450.  And then the downhill slope picks up.

The two most competitive races in Sioux Falls were supported with $200 for Larry Zikmund (D14) and $175 for Arch Beal (D12).  Another contested race – Sue Peterson in D13 got a whopping $130.  Don’t think I would have given Brad Lindwurm (D15) or Bobbi Andera (D10) $250, but they fared batter than Greg Jamison (D12) who received $125.  Tom Pischke who doesn’t have a general got a check for $199.50, and came out almost even with Keri Weems and Brian Mulder (D11) added together – who both have a race, but only saw a $110 donation each from the Minnehaha County GOP.

Who got stiffed by the Minnehaha GOP? No help to Amber Arlint (D12) or Assistant Majority Leader Taylor Rehfeldt (D14), despite the fact Minnehaha County donated to their running mates.

It’s like they’re not taking a thoughtful approach to anything, and just running things in a thoughtless or haphazard manner making significant donations to the candidates and causes they like, and telling Weems and Mulder that here’s their obligatory check, when they wouldn’t even go that far for Arlint or Rehfeldt.  As big of a dipstick as he is, I don’t notice Cole Heisey on that list, nor do I see Dean Karsky – Minnehaha County candidates who both have a fall contest.  (Apparently county races don’t count).

The conclusion that we can draw from looking at Minnehaha’s campaign finance report? Candidates don’t seem to be as important as ballot measures. Zero funding a few, $110 donations to others. 

The only remaining question I have?

How many Louis Vuitton bags is Tom Pischke sitting on exactly?