Ezra Hays of No on H campaign announcing his run for SDGOP Chair.

Meade County Republican Ezra Hayes, who ran the “No on H” campaign sent out a text blast a short time ago announcing his intention to run for Chair of the South Dakota Republican Party:

The ballot measure group he led raised around $71,500 from individuals, but $50,000 of that came from a single source, James Koehler of Aberdeen, along with nearly another 10k coming from his vice chair, Juliann Perrigo Talkington. So, in reality, except for those two people, over the course of 4 months, he raised about $12K from individuals.

Vote_No_OnH by Pat Powers on Scribd

Even though the measure was the sole ballot measure officially opposed by the Republican Party, only 8 County Republican organizations supported the effort monetarily.

Of particular interest to the rank and file of the GOP was that Hays had the support of former Minnehaha County GOP Chair/former NDGOP Exec. Director Dave Roetman, who had donated to No on H both personally and from his Ripple Effect PAC.

I had heard from early on rumors to the effect that Ezra had Roetman involved behind the scenes in the No on H campaign. Which might mean that Hays could bring Roetman in to fill the SDGOP’s Executive Director role if he were to win the chairmanship of the party in early 2025.

I’m sure that will all go well. 

Keep watching the sky for jet contrails.. I’m sure we’ll have lots more to talk about in the coming days and weeks.