Author: @SoDakCampaigns

Announcement – Logan Manhart withdraws from District 1 House Race

@SoDakCampaigns

Announcement
June 8th 2022

Recent speculation has circulated in the news regarding my past residency as well as residency requirements for the Legislature specifically. While I have remained publicly silent during this time as I explore every possible option and outcome, I have come to the decision that the people of District 1 and the residents of South Dakota are what truly matter in this election. I have realized that If I were to proceed with the race, it may put the voters of District 1 in a compromising position come November when they have an important choice to make. After consulting with my legal counsel as well as friends and family, I have made the decision that it’s in the best interest for all for me to withdraw from the race. During the past two weeks I have explored every legal and political option at my disposal and at the end of the day I must abide by all rules and laws that have been set forth for this position.

Recent allegations were made that I had not met the full two-year requirement of being a South Dakota resident, and despite being approved to run initially, I cannot proceed. While I take full responsibility for the ramifications of this decision, I believe that each voter should be able to compare the candidates on their merit, free of the negativity and misinformation spread by others regarding my candidacy. Make no mistake, I plan to remain here in my home in South Dakota and help elect the candidates who stand with the conservative values we believe in.

Moving forward, I will be paying close attention to how things shake out both in the 2022 midterms and 2024 Presidential election. Thank you for the overwhelming support during these last 6 months. The race may be over for me, but the fight for the cause has just begun!

-Logan Manhart

Jordan Youngberg steps out of race for School and Lands. Brock Greenfield only candidate in the hunt.

@SoDakCampaigns

Despite earlier notes that he might still be in, the Argus Leader is reporting this morning that former State Senator Jordan Youngberg is out of the race for the office of School & Public Lands, and the path is clear for Senator Brock Greenfield to take it all:

But there will likely be one fewer race for the GOP nomination of a statewide office after former lawmaker Jordan Youngberg has bowed out of the contest for the open South Dakota Schools and Public Lands seat this week.

“I just want to concentrate on hanging out with my kids now,” said the 31-year-old Madison man who in February 2021 became the first to enter the race for the seat. “It’s more fun than any committee meeting I’ve ever been at.”

Read it here.

Convention races might start to be more dynamic & fluid now, but this definitely clears the deck for Brock to move forward to November and the win!

Postscript to the election. As always, there are winners and losers, and not sure 500k from Convention of States affected anything.

@SoDakCampaigns

Kind of an interesting primary last night. Some people I was cheering for won. Some people didn’t.

I think the number of people dividing up the vote in some of these races affected things. I think the quality of candidates mattered as much if not more than anything. I don’t know that the massive amounts of money pouring in from out of state did anything other than burn bridges for the next legislative session.

Speaking of the cash dumped in by Convention of States.. They targeted five candidates. Michael Rohl, Lee Schoenbeck, Tim Reed, Mary Duvall, and David Johnson.  The only one of them who lost was Mary in the narrow contest between her and former Pierre City Commissioner Jim Mehlhaff.  The rest just shellacked the poor to mediocre competition.

  • Michael Rohl was out there first and never let up, when his opponent didn’t seem to get active until the end. He won 71-29%
  • Lee Schoenbeck had an absolute fusillade of fertilizer thrown at him from every angle, whether true or not. His opponent could barely seem to spell legislature. Lee for the win, 59-41%.
  • Tim Reed had the COS just making stuff up that was woven from pure insinuation. He smashed the nobody running against him 60-40%
  • David Johnson defeated return legislative spouse Janet Jensen 57-43%. Nobody was looking for another Jensen last election, and they still aren’t.

In other words,  if you put money behind a known candidate, you might be able to fight it to darn near even. But if your candidate is not up to par, so shall be your results.

Other interesting observations from last night?  When faced with a lot of choices, people didn’t seem interested in wholesale change, but were more aiming down the middle, and there were a lot of close races.

In District 3 House, Carl Perry won, but in the competition for second place, there were less than 65 votes between Brandei Schaefbauer (2nd place) and Richard Rylance (3rd place).  Same thing in Brookings. Mellissa Heermann 1280, Roger Degroot 1245, and Doug Post 1184. 61 votes between 2nd and 3rd.   District 12 House – 13 votes between second and third. District 20 has 120 votes between 2 and 3. District 29  32 votes between 2 and 3.

In what might be the heartbreak of the evening, Julie Frye-Mueller, was almost taken out in a race separating that trainwreck from her opponent Tim Goodwin on a vote of 2848-2802, only 46 votes, within recount range.  We’ll have to wait for the canvas to see if anything drastic changes.  But, we handily kept Bryan Breitling in the Senate, and picked up Steve Kolbeck.

I don’t know that anyone can say there was a conservative surge or backlash, as much as there was a re-jumbling in the spirit of re-districting.  Arch-conservative Fred Deutsch returned, but came in alongside Kristi Noem ally Stephanie Sauder.  John Mills returned, but came in a distant second to former Cabinet official Tim Reisch.

When it comes down to it, I think it’s based mainly on the quality of the candidates, and the quality of the campaign they ran.

From reports, I think door to door campaigning is back, and candidates better make sure they’re doing it if they want to be competitive.

I’ll be picking these apart all day.. stay tuned.