With the announcement coming in the last hour of the official convention today, the fringe right has it’s challenger to incumbent Lt. Governor Larry Rhoden.
Steve Haugaard.
No, really, You can stop laughing. They’ve put up Steve Haugaard? Fresh off of getting his rear-end handed to him on a 3-1 basis by Governor Noem in the Primary election for Governor, someone had the bright idea to try to force him on the Governor as a running mate?
Steve wasn’t just bad as a gubernatorial candidate, he was awful. He didn’t /couldn’t raise any money, his campaign was non-existent, and he was excruciatingly boring and uninspirational.
I question whether the people who put him up to this are aware that the selection of Republican Candidates at the GOP convention is about putting our best foot forward to win elections? Not putting our foot in the lawnmower as a public display of stupidity. And coming together in the last hour before the deadline gives good indication how much thought went into this. As in none.
The other thing they might want to consider is that Larry Rhoden is an outstanding Lt. Governor. And an outstanding person. Larry has only gotten better in the job over his term of office, and as people have remarked to me as evidenced in the impeachment hearing this week as they watched it, while the Senate had asked attorney and former Lt. Governor Matt Michels for a technical assist in the unprecedented proceeding, Lt. Governor Rhoden really didn’t need it, despite the new and very technical ground the matter covered. He knows the job and his performance in it is exemplary.
Delegates should not reward Haugaard’s last-second, slapped together candidacy.
They can and they should dispatch this last-minute nonsense, and give Larry Rhoden four more – and well deserved – years as Lt. Governor.
Haugaard has ZERO ability to Touch, Move, or Inspire anyone. Sorry, truth hurts. Further, in his campaign speeches and written materials, he nauseatingly beat the drum of the importance of “transparency.” Yet, at every damn turn, he protected any revelations about the hidden facts of Jason Ravnsborg’s accident report. My opinion? You can’t make “chicken salad” out of “chicken crap”… no matter how much mayonnaise or mustard you add. Haugaard’s aspirations for Lieutenant Governor are a fraudulent friggin joke; it may be “legal” under “the rules”, but how dare he? It’s an obscene joke and a middle finger 🖕 being poked in the eye of the legitimate GOP party members and convention delegates. I want to projectile vomit over this ridiculous scheme.
Well now I guess I have to actually make the drive up to Watertown tomorrow to vote……for Rhoden.
I can see this as a sensible check-and-balance.
Convention should have been in Rapid City.
There is nothing sensible about it.
It would be disastrous for our state. He would just oppose the governor every step of the way. Nothing would get done. He was ineffective and definitely not unifying as a legislator. He just wants the easiest path to the limelight…
This is true. I talked to a member of his campaign this morning, and he explicitly said that this was the easiest path to name ID and a re-run for Gov in the future.