GOP to pick up 2 seats in the State Senate

Pat Powers

South Dakota Republicans are enjoying a good night tonight, and in the State Senate are set to gain 2 seats over their current split of 27-8 and turn it into a 29-6 split.  The GOP is picking up formerly held Democrat seats in Districts 4 & 8, while Democrats are not picking up any of their own.

John Wiik decimated Kathy Tyler in her bid to keep the Seat Democrat, and in a squeaker, Jordan Youngberg ousted Scott Parsley from his Senate Seat to mark the end of Democrat control of the seat, returning it to the GOP column.

The House has some races that are too close to call, still with results out. But hang on, I’ll get it in the AM..

11 thoughts on “GOP to pick up 2 seats in the State Senate”

  1. Two things were big news.

    Trump and IM 22.

    Those leading the fight on IM 22 failed miserably. AFP SD is ineffective with current leadership.

    1. Bingo. AFP is all fluff. They can’t kill a tax increase during session and they failed miserably on 22. They need a new direction with a team that has what it takes.

      This is a wake up call for the party also. V was a big problem and those fighting it showed they lack much in abilities also for campaigns.

      I was truly stunned by how close these were and that one passed.

  2. Can the legislature do anything to overturn IM 22? I am shocked that this passed, except that it sounded good and most people don’t see anything past that.

    1. This is the people’s reaction to a governor and leadership that has ignored the problems of corruption and ethics in Pierre since Richard Benda was caught.

      I voted no on IM 22 but I supported the idea of an ethics commission.

      This should be a lesson to elected officials. DO YOUR JOB or the people will make a rash decision and do it for you.

      IM 22 is a result of elected officials looking the other way and hoping the problem would go away. It could have been Daugaard and leadership writing these laws and instead it is Rick Weiland and Drey Samuelson with a majority of SD voters – many of whom voted for Trump, Thune, Noem and Republican landslides on the same night.

    2. I want to run my daughters yellow lab, a real live yellow dog, for office.
      The campaign will center on the gathering of democracy credits and the money donated to animal shelters around the state.
      Voters not sure what to do with their democracy credits will surely be happy enough to donate them to a yellow dog.

      1. I have a question regarding this. (Oh, first of all, I would gladly donate my democracy credit to your yellow lab – labs are smart and loyal and would make great office holders!). So according to reports, state revenue is expected to be down more than projected. So just where is the money for these “democracy credits” coming from? Infrastructure funding, Medicaid, jails, what, state employee wages (who aren’t getting raises anyway probably), teacher raises?

    3. Yes, it’s an initiated measure, so they can change it just like any law. They may be reluctant to because of the will of the voter, however.

  3. Well, they had better think about stripping out the public funding part anyway. It passed but not with a huge majority.

Comments are closed.