Author: @SoDakCampaigns

Happy Father’s Day to Our Founding Fathers
By: Governor Kristi Noem
June 18, 2021

Father’s Day is a time to celebrate all the great fathers in our lives. My kids have an awesome one in Bryon. My son-in-law Kyle will be a father any day now! And I want to wish every father in the state of South Dakota a very happy Father’s Day. The holiday can also be a tough reminder of loved-ones lost. Father’s Day was tough for me for many years after Dad died. But this Father’s Day, I want to take some time for a little bit of a different remembrance. I want us to remember our Founding Fathers who gave us one of the greatest gifts ever: the United States of America.

We learn lessons from our fathers. My dad’s lessons still resonate with me today. Our Founding Fathers taught us many such lessons. They taught us that freedom is a cause worth fighting for. “Give me liberty or give me death,” Patrick Henry famously said. So many of the brave men who followed George Washington into battle died in the pursuit of that same liberty.

It’s easy to forget that before America’s Founding, liberty wasn’t widely recognized. The rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” that Thomas Jefferson wrote about were a controversial idea at the time. America was the first nation to embrace these rights. If our Founding Fathers hadn’t spelled them out so plainly – and then fought and died to make them a reality – the world may still not recognize these rights. In fact, our nation’s success is directly tied to that transformational idea.

The lessons that we learn from our fathers don’t become less important just because we grow older. And the ideals laid out by our Founding Fathers are no less true in a 21^st Century America. As we see threats to those ideals, to American freedom, we need to fight for them with the same vigor as Patrick Henry and the same resolve as George Washington.

The lessons that our fathers teach us aren’t made false, or somehow lacking, because our fathers’ flaws. We could each name a few of our father’s flaws. We need to keep that in perspective as we discuss our history and the men who built this country. They were flawed men – just as flawed as any of us. Yet those flaws do not make their ideals any less true, and they do not somehow taint the tremendous accomplishments of our Founding Fathers.

You may be wondering why I’m taking time on Father’s Day of all days to talk about America. I want Kyle, Kassidy, Kennedy, Booker, and my granddaughter to be able to celebrate Father’s Day years from now in a country that is just as free as the America that we grew up in. But that won’t happen on its own. It will take all of us – including all the great fathers – teaching our kids the lessons that we can learn from our history. Those lessons should include both our triumphs and our mistakes. And they should include the stories of the Founding Fathers who risked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to build the nation that we know and love.

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Governor Noem Announces Holiday for State Workers on Friday to Honor Juneteenth

PIERRE, S.D. – Today, Governor Kristi Noem announced a holiday for state workers on Friday, June 18, 2021, in honor of Juneteenth. This is in response to the “Juneteenth National Independence Day Act”, which was signed today by President Joseph R. Biden.

“‘All men are created equal.’ That is America’s foundational ideal,” said Governor Kristi Noem. “Juneteenth celebrates an important day when we came closer to making that ideal a reality for all Americans, regardless of race. I hope state employees take the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful South Dakota weather on their day off.”

Juneteenth is celebrated every year on June 19. Juneteenth commemorates the anniversary of June 19, 1865, when General Gordon Granger announced freedom from slavery in Galveston, Texas following President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.

Governor Noem had previously proclaimed Saturday, June 19, 2021, as “Juneteenth Day” in South Dakota.

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Governor Noem Launches Website for Medical Cannabis Program

PIERRE, S.D. – Today, Governor Kristi Noem, along with the South Dakota Department of Health and the South Dakota Department of Education, launched medcannabis.sd.gov, a website to answer questions and provide information about the upcoming medical cannabis program set to take effect on July 1, 2021.

“One of my jobs as governor is to make sure that the will of the people and all constitutional laws are enforced,” said Governor Kristi Noem. “I want South Dakota to have the best, most patient-focused medical cannabis program in the country. I’ve heard from people who are hurting and are hopeful for relief. My team is 100% committed to starting this program as quickly and as responsibly as possible for South Dakota.”

Medical cannabis will be legal on July 1, 2021, after the voters of South Dakota passed Initiated Measure 26 in November 2020. The medical cannabis program is on schedule. The Departments of Health and Education are creating and will operate the new regulatory program to ensure the safety of patients, students, and the public in this new industry.

“We are working hard to streamline the process to get medical cards out to people,” continued Governor Noem. “Other states have made mistakes that we do not want to repeat, so we have been careful in our approach.“

In conjunction with the website, Governor Noem also launched a new public service announcement (PSA) to tell the people of South Dakota where they can find more information about the medical cannabis program. You can watch the PSA here.

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Thune: Abrupt Reversal on Wuhan Lab Story Exposes Mainstream Media Bias and Big Tech Censorship

“I’ve seen too many instances lately where our cherished First Amendment freedoms are subordinated to a political and social agenda, and I hope the Wuhan story reminds us of the responsibility each one of us have to safeguard these freedoms … lest they slip away from us.”

Click here or on the picture above to watch the video.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), ranking member of the Subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband, today discussed his two bipartisan bills that would increase internet transparency while preserving the light-touch approach to regulation that has allowed the internet to flourish: the Filter Bubble Transparency Act and the Platform Accountability and Transparency Act. Thune discussed the heavily curated social media experience that many consumers encounter and the mainstream media’s abrupt reversal of the Wuhan lab coronavirus origin story. At the end of May, Facebook announced that it would no longer censor claims that the coronavirus was man-made, something many conservatives thought was worth investigating. The mainstream media, which had savaged the story during the previous administration, has now accepted the story as a credible theory.

The District 5 House of Representatives primary election contest seems to be heating up a year ahead of time, with a GOP primary brewing in D5 House between up to 3 long-time Republicans, and a former Indy who had been on facebook calling everyone RINO.

While current State Representatives Nancy York and Hugh Bartels are not barred from running for another term by law until termed out in 2024, two others have come forward and announced their intentions to run for District 5 House in 2022.

Byron Callies, former National Vice-Commander of the American Legion, has announced his intention to run for District 5 in the upcoming election. Byron is a long-time Republican, and if elected would join another member of his family, his daughter & former Republican State Representative Melissa Magstadt in serving in Pierre.

Also joining Callies in announcing a run for District 5 House – and maybe more curiously – is Lucas Kobat, who up until recently was a registered Independent.  Kobat declares in his announcement that he is running to “bring conservative representation back to District 5, which has been sorely lacking for sometime.”

If you recall, Kobat is the same person who last year created something he called the “FreedomScore” project, where he declared that most of the Republicans in the State Legislature were RINOs, despite the fact that at the time he was not a Republican himself, as he called people ‘Republican In Name Only’:

As part of his project, he noted that people such as State Reps Lana Greenfield, Brunner, Sam Marty, and Senators Brock Greenfield, Ryan Maher, and Jim Stalzer were bringing liberal measures to the legislature. So, that kind of shows you where he sets the bar.

I’d tell you go read it all yourself… but interestingly in the less than a year since he started on his crusade to call most Republicans RINO’s, in addition to changing his voter registration to Republican along the way, the Facebook page for his project has been taken down from the social media website. With interesting timing since he announced he was now becoming a politician and running for office.

Most politicians would scrub their social media of controversial content before they run, so it comes as no surprise Kobat appears to have done that very thing.

And coming about the same time he announces he’s now a candidate, we see that for at least one politician, the courage of one’s convictions evaporates pretty quickly.

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel launched a podcast this week to talk about the amazing things happening in America and the people who make it work by interviewing policymakers.

In the inaugural edition of the podcast, South Dakota’s own Governor Kristi Noem was her first guest. Ronna & Kristi discuss a number of topics, including America’s freedom, unity, and how Kristi kept South Dakota open during the COVID pandemic.

Following Thune Request, Senate Agriculture Committee to Hold Hearing on Potential Cattle Market Manipulation

“We need to hold the highly concentrated meatpacking industry accountable to both the producers who supply them and the consumers who depend on them, and this hearing marks significant progress.”

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), a longtime member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, issued the following statement after the Senate Agriculture Committee agreed to hold a hearing on June 23, 2021, to examine the cattle market, including potential manipulation by meatpackers. This hearing announcement follows a letter that Thune sent to Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Stabenow and Ranking Member Boozman requesting a hearing to consider the challenges facing the livestock industry and the numerous bills that have been introduced that seek to improve the situation. Thune will question hearing witnesses on possible manipulation in the cattle markets and advocate for increased transparency for ranchers and consumers.

“South Dakota cattle producers are some of the hardest working people I know, and they have faced significant hardships that are jeopardizing their ability to stay in business,” said Thune. “I’m glad to see that the Senate Agriculture Committee agreed to my request and is holding a hearing on this important issue next week. We need to hold the highly concentrated meatpacking industry accountable to both the producers who supply them and the consumers who depend on them, and this hearing marks significant progress. While this hearing is a step in the right direction, Justice Department leaders shouldn’t take their foot of the gas. They should continue their investigation, and I will continue urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold a hearing as soon as possible, too.”

Thune also recently sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin urging the committee to hold a hearing to look into possible improper and anti-competitive activity in the cattle market. Thune has repeatedly called for the U.S. Justice Department to investigate this matter and recently urged Attorney General Merrick Garland to prioritize this investigation.

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From Facebook:

From Facebook:

With three of five wards in (A, B & C), the current vote is 1862 for Ried Holien, 783 for Incumbent Mayor Sarah Caron.

Kind of hard to overcome that kind of deficit.

Update..

Adding Ward D, now it’s at 2341 for Holien and 969 for Caron.

FINAL UPDATE

Holien with 3010 over Caron, who was turned out of office on a more than 2-1 vote, with 1237 votes