Did Minnehaha County GOP skip the Sioux Empire Fair?

Pat Powers

Given its location in the largest county in the state, in the heart of South Dakota’s largest metropolitan area, the biggest county fair in the entire state of South Dakota is the Sioux Empire Fair, with annual attendance over the week-long exposition running between 250,000 – 300,000 people who show up for exhibitions, concerts, carnival entertainment, and to walk through the buildings.

So, why am I hearing that when more than one elected Republican went through the commercial building looking for it, they were left wondering why there wasn’t a Minnehaha County GOP booth?

Did the Minnehaha County GOP actually skip the Sioux Empire Fair? It sure looks that way.

If that’s the case, that’s a shocker, even for the new leadership model of the Minnehaha County Republican Party, where yard sales are important, but the Sioux Empire Fair with 300,000 warm bodies passing through isn’t?

I know that it would be the first time in my 35 years of involvement that they didn’t have a fair booth. And I would bet it goes back much farther than that.

I thought Minnehaha GOP Chair R. Shawn Tornow’s argument to overthrow and take over the party was that the former group didn’t do things such as holding a Lincoln Day Dinner.

Well, staying home in your easy chair when potentially a quarter-million people might walk by your booth and want to talk or learn more in reference to what the GOP is about is not really anyone’s definition of doing a thing that I’m aware of.

I did catch this item from Minnehaha County Republican’s Facebook page on August 4, the day the fair began:

They posted a picture of a fair on Facebook. In lieu of actually interfacing with people at the fair.

I guess that’s what they consider a thing.

Not that it will get anyone to vote.

13 thoughts on “Did Minnehaha County GOP skip the Sioux Empire Fair?”

  1. For what it’s worth, when I was 18 years old and still a Democrat, I remember going back and forth between the Dems and GOP booths and asking a lot of questions. It was a good place as a young person to learn and compare view points. All my friends wanted to run around and enjoy rides, corn dogs etc., but the first place I wanted to go every year was the political booths. I’ll never forget Herseth and Noem’s debate at the fair. By 2013 I converted to Libertarian and by 2015 I converted to Republican, mostly because of talking to, you guessed it, Republicans. The county fair was always political for me, seems almost tradition. These types of events and discussions are important if the party is going to win over up and coming generations.

  2. I predict they don’t support Wiik in a couple weeks and Tornow is SD GOP chair. Meaning the SD GOP won’t do anything in cycle 2024.

  3. we (sd) already have a large centrist / conservative-leaning republican majority in this state. we win because democrats stopped fighting for the middle due to the fact that they don’t like where this state’s big gop/leaning middle cluster sits on issues. if the far right is telling us they don’t like the centrists or want to serve them either once they’re in party leadership, it’s a problem.

  4. Tornow and the rest of the Minnehaha GOP board keeps saying they’re all about grassroots. Obviously not!! You can’t be all about grassroots when you decline to take advantage of the best opportunity all year for grassroots outreach.

  5. If they did have a booth, they would have to display campaign materials for Republican politicians they don’t like, which is practically everybody. It’ll be even more interesting next year, after all their favorites lose in the primary and they will be expected to support the winners.
    In fact, as soon as the primary is over, if they cannot bring themselves to support the winning ticket, they should be replaced with people who do.

    1. You are exactly right. They hate Republicans. All their candidates continue to lose. To not show up at the fair is unforgivable. What an embarrassment to the party.

  6. One problem, I see, is that radically right Conservatives are so immersed in self interest that they rarely volunteer their time for any cause. They suspect that people who volunteer are Liberals or at best RINO’s. They are lost in talk radio and internet conspiracies. They think those activities are political activism.

  8. To be fair (haha), the expo building at the Sioux Empire Fair was an absolute joke compared to years past. There were about 15 booths set up, with most of them selling “spirit crystals”. The Dems had a tent right inside the entrance of the fair, as opposed to in the expo itself, but they did have a signature gathering booth inside the expo building with 3 petitions (Abortion, Open primary, grocery tax). The “decline to sign” booth was across the aisle and 3 booths down.

    Not sure if that was the logic, but if so, it may have been sound.

    1. Personally, I don’t like the Expo Center. But the issue isn’t that they took it out of the Expo Center. The issue is that they had no booth at all! Even the Dems had a booth and they’re in a tailspin! The Dems’ booth was in a prime location— right inside the entrance of the fair!! Why didn’t the Minnehaha GOP have a booth right next to them and make sure that the Dems didn’t get a free bite at the apple?! Not having any booth ANYWHERE at the fair is inexcusable!

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