The Dakota Scout story this afternoon is interesting in that it explores how Heather Baxter has come looking for the Governor’s endorsement after she endorsed someone else in that race. Twice:
“We have a Republican primary and a convention — I support the Republican ticket,” Gov. Larry Rhoden said this week, declining to offer a full-throated endorsement of GOP secretary of state candidate Heather Baxter.
and..
That Baxter did not back Rhoden at any time in the lead-up to the early June primary election and the subsequent runoff in late July could also be keeping Rhoden’s support of her candidacy tepid. She publicly endorsed House Speaker Jon Hansen before shifting her support to Aberdeen businessman Toby Doeden, whom Rhoden beat in the runoff.
and..
“The governor mentioned the primary is over; we had our disagreements and the past is over, and I took him at his word about that, so I believe the past endorsement I gave Hansen and Doeden is a nonissue for him and I,” she said.
I’m sure the Governor is going to get right on that one.
HAHA she can keep dreaming. Something tells me she doesn’t have much in the campaign coffers.
She doesn’t need much money. All she has to do is convince about 100 whack-job delegates and she wins the nomination.
Now it’s time for the general election
Like it or not Larry is the leader of the GOP. He should recognize the danger of a dem SOS.
State the danger you foresee.
Just what danger does a democrat SOS pose? They have to follow the laws enacted by the legislature.
The danger that a majority of the state starts getting ideas about which party to back when and if there’s a direct comparison between a competent democrat SOS and an incompetent republican AG.
if it doesn’t matter who counts the votes, why was the Secretary of State Project formed and funded?
How about the danger of a DUMB Secretary of State? The only TRUE danger Democrats pose, is to the far right’s ability to keep moderate Republicans in their pocket when they’d rather work with moderate Dems to create bipartisan majorities and take legislative action. The far right HATES that. Once I realized this, I quit being a member of the far right and look forward to joining Dems to get the country and state back on track.
I expected more from Larry and I also have some concerns with Baxter.
Nothng better then watchin’ the GOP rot from the inside including the SDGOP Worse part is the vast majority of you would vote for trump again
Queue another butthurt post from 30% Toby.
PP are you voting Democrat? Are you not supporting the candidate of the party?
grudznick doesn’t know about Mr. PP, but I am voting for the best candidate. The evaluations continue between 2 of the 3, so they best get their game up.
For the second time in my life, I am voting for a democrat. Terrance Davis is the right person for the job in this case. Its time to move the constitutional officers to the primary and get rid of the convention. This is a damn joke…
What about nominated by the legislature? The last primary ballots were so congested. Just looking for other options because we all know the convention process has failed us.
I’m not a fan of the governor appointing.
You have how many days prior to the election to review the ballot and make your choices. You also have the option to print off your sample ballot and fill it in and use it as a cheat sheet in the voting booth. No excuses.
I agree with you I’ve had conversations with every person on my ballot and vetted all the candidates but everyone knows that doesn’t happen. What constitutional candidate can afford 2 statewide races. Most are familiar with the legislators.
Legislature is only 105 people. That’s MUCH smaller than convention. We need a bigger pool of people selecting constitutional officers, not a smaller one.
Legislature can be taken over by crazies also. Look at the legislature we currently have— there’s a reason Dusty spent millions to get reasonable people back into the legislature! Putting constitutionals into the hands of the legislature doesn’t solve the problem.
Why? Am I under some obligation?
I am absolutely supporting Mike Rounds, Marty Jackley, Larry Rhoden & Tony V, Lance, Brock, Catherine, Melissa, and Don.
Was there someone else on the list? It gets a bit fuzzy here..
I’m not certain about that Tony guy
No. You’re under no obligation. You don’t work for the Republican Party anymore. Former sdgop affiliate. Does that make you once disgraced? Or has it been many times?
Actually, over 35 years if you count working as a W-2. I’ve produced material, or consulted at their request in the years since. But I’m not sure there’s much work to be had with them at this point, since I don’t think they focus on the things that are important to get candidates elected.
Amen brother. And my list looks almost like yours
me too; voted for one Democrat and one Independent this time.
even if you work for a party, you are under no obligation to vote for all that Party’s candidates
It is a matter of decorum that if you represent a Party, you publicly support them though, just as would be expected to support any employer.
grudznick would like a State Secretary who is both smart and has a reasonable passage of the English Language, unlike grudznick. My good friends Bob and Bill used to say that had I those things, I might be the State Secretary.
Just sayin…
I’m Team Heather because she and me haves the most overwhelmingly number of good grammar.
She sounds desperate begging for Rhoden’s endorsement.
Larry supports the whole ticket. Take your scraps and be grateful.
It amazes me that Baxter would expect support from someone she failed to support.
I love how Baxter claims “an overwhelmingly amount of republicans” chose her over Monae.
Yes, 183 registered republicans voted for Baxter over Monae at convention.
183 out of 330,000 registered GOP voters.
There lies that problem now with Convention, the right wingers are loading up precinct people and out voting the rest in order to get their candidate elected. The previous Convention was proof of this and this last one really showed the problem. I think it’s time to put all on primary ballots and deny the crazies this abuse of power if they cannot come up with better candidates then Baxter and Russell.
Or you could just get up off your fat, lazy, low IQ butt and participate. Wild idea I know.
Lol when was the last time even 100,000 voted for any office in South Dakota?
Always trying to change the rules.
RLTW
Sounds to me like Steve is afraid of an election.
Yes, I would agree that all these positions should be voted on in a primary. We were at the ballot box for the governor primary anyway.
Nah, I fought for 23 years for your Freedom to vote!
I stated when was the last time 100,000 South Dakotans voted for, in any (local) state or city election!
With a estimated 350 million plus ( including illegal aliens ) people and we get less than half of those voting for a President!
So 2/3rds of those registered republicans don’t vote!
Let me give you know it all young people some advice. Quit voting for candidates who are 70 plus years old for President.
Just saying
RLTW
The past two republican primaries for governor had over 100k voters.
Steve, I am old enough to remember when JFK was killed, when RFK was killed, when Reagan was shot.
If you google the subject of attempted assassinations and plots to assassinate our presidents, you will see why no sane person under the age of 70 would sign up for the job: it’s a suicide mission.
Only someone who figured he’s already coming into the home stretch anyway is going to run for that office.
If the American people don’t want old men running for POTUS, they need to stop trying to kill them.
June 28, 2026
the one good thing about the convention fiascoes of the past several years is the sound of crickets in any discussion of a Convention of States. For years the advocates told the doubters that there was no possibility of “runaway convention.” No chance of such a thing happening, they insisted, as the SDGOP train went off the rails.
Amen, Amen and Amen
WAY past time for the legislature to put the SOS on the primary ballot, not leaving it to a handful of people attending the Rep State Convention!!! Come on legislature, Baxter wasn’t even reelected to her House seat from Dist 34!!
Put all the constitutionals in the primary, not just SOS and AG.
That’s really the key point. Voters booted the idiot out of her legislative seat, but our “party leaders” decided to elevate her. The party is rotten.
It is amusing to watch MAGA convention fans argue for leaving it up to them. God forbid we, a democracy, would let ALL the people decide.
You know the dark side of this is the low voter turnout at primary time. All the wingnuts and Freedom Caucusers have to do is swarm the polls and they’ll still probably eke out wins. This is what gave an insanely motivated minority a way to wedge their foot in the door in the first place.
They do that with convention. At least with a primary, normal people have the power to vote if they want to!
And they go around spreading lies during the primary
They do that at convention, too
As a Republican i will be voting for rest of the Ticket besides SoS and AG i will just leave AG blank. As a younger person looking the future of this state and party. We need to make all the constitutional officers have a primary election asap. Hypothetically if the Convention picked the gubernatorial candidate. They may have picked Toby which would have been against what the Republican voters wanted on July 28th. Anybody who says it’s the democrats who switched. Rhoden would have won that runoff anyway.
This is not me. Same name, different Austin.
Yeah, baby!
Sorry for the confusion man!! Austin Dreyer here again sorry for the confusion. 🙁 I should probably use my full name going foreword.
No worries!
Remember when winning the SOS job was about competence and following the law?
We had some good ones: Alice Kundert, Joyce Hazeltine, Chris Nelson. But now instead of following the laws you have to recite the correct wacko conspiracy theories to get the nomination.
What a tragedy for the state.
And the country – “and frankly, we did win this election”.
The lie detector determined that was a lie.
Has Shadra, Toby, and the rest their small group abandoned Baxter? No door knocking? Bus stops? fundraisers? campaigning?
Baxter is focused on media attention. More specifically, whining to the media in the hopes they pay attention.
Vote Davis please! Your County Auditor needs a competent leader in the SOS office, not more drama!