If you recall my post this last week on the talk that Sioux Falls City Councilman and former Representative Alex Jensen is looking at running at the District 13 State Senate Seat, things have immediately started to move forward in that contest.
On the heels of that post, the next day in a podcast promoted by local Sioux Falls ultra-conservative group Patriot Ripple Effect Representative Sue Peterson announced that she will also be running for the D13 Senate seat this next year.
Peterson has been a member of the House of Representatives for 7 years, and was a part of the LRC Executive Board as a member from 2019-2020.
While Sue did not have a general election in 2022, she did face a 4 way primary where she and then incumbent Richard Thomason were challenged by Tony Venhuizen and Patriot Ripple Effect candidate Penny Baybridge, where Venhuizen won with a vote of 2227, and Peterson came in second with 1911 votes.
That marked Peterson’s second primary, where she had previously faced fellow Republican challengers in 2016 after seatmate Mark Mickelson decided against running again, opening up the seat. With two challengers also running for the open seat, in the 2018 primary, Peterson was the top vote getter, with the second seat won by Rex Rolfing falling to a Democrat in the fall contest.
Since Peterson’s announcement, the initial drumbeat of Jensen getting into the contest have grown louder, further detailing that D13 Senate race will be a huge race to watch next June, with lots of activity in the interim while we wait.
Wow, I’m surprised that Sue would challenge Jensen like that.
And I’m surprised she would choose, of all places, the Patriot Ripple podcast to announce her candidacy.
Whatever happened to normal candidates? Neither of these people have the breadth of issue grasp or sense of public service as once was the norm.
Those Ripples are toxic, at the convention they were the ones who stood up to be counted in opposition to the resolution of support for the Republican slate of candidates.
She should not have anything to do with that clown show.
Be nice, those are her best friends… voter beware