Hughes County GOP elects new officers

Pat Powers

The Hughes County Republican Party had officer elections this evening, and I’m informed the results are:

Jason Williams – Chair
Penny Sattgast – Vice Chair
Terra Fischer – Secretary
Mike Lauritsen – State Committeeman
Kristin Gabriel – State Committeewoman

Congrats to all!

16 thoughts on “Hughes County GOP elects new officers”

    1. The party had hit rock bottom. The capital city should be the best party in SD. It will take a while to dig out of the hole. But this is a good group to do it.

  2. This was a needed change!!! Congrats to Jason he will drive enthusiasm and volunteer efforts through the roof!!!

  4. I have been encouraging this since the lack of effort from Hughes county in Kristi’s campaign office. He always rejected the idea when I said we needed change. I wonder what changed his mind.

    Great day for Hughes county.

    1. Lauritsen and Williams were part of a small group of people who volunteered in her office in Pierre. Few others helped her in the general at the office.

    2. There was 0 effort by the party on behalf of Noem. I’m just surprised it took this long for the party to elect a new leader.

  5. Based on the election results, there was clearly a problem in Pierre, but it sure as hell wasn’t those kids working in the Noem office. They deserved better from the county party. Here’s to hoping Williams gets it turned around by 2020 (although Dusty and Rounds won’t have much trouble here).

    1. You make a valid point. I don’t know all these new county officers, but those I know will be superb. Great choices. Happy for P. Sattgast in particular. Now, let’s dig in & get to work on Re-Election 2020.

    2. Megan and George were rockstars. They worked their butts off but got little help from any party officers.

  6. I think it’s easy to point fingers at ‘the party’ — some anonymous group that supposedly didn’t get Kristi the votes in Pierre. But that is very shallow.

    The biggest factors for her loss in Pierre were driven by her campaign — mainly the primary against Jackley. He has been in Pierre for 10 years and has kids active in the school system. A lot of people know him and his family and they weren’t fond of the attacks in the primary. It was about the relationship pure and simple. The second factor for some was the threat early in the election about ‘draining the Pierre swamp’. That’s a sure way a scaring a lot of Pierre residents. Now the reality is that Governor Noem has hired an outstanding team — very impressive group — and she kept a lot of the Daugaard people. In a campaign, draining a swamp sounds good some places, but until you get here and realize the quality of people working in government it’s just rhetoric.

    Having said all that, Williams is definitely a great choice for county Chairman.

    1. I agree. Just as Kristi’s home area rightly rallied around her and unlike Billie’s home area, the people in Pierre came to know Marty as a parent.

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