In the several days of SDGOP Convention weirdness that a number of us experienced, if I had to try to ultimately sum it up to a disinterested observer I would summarize the event as one of relationships. In fact, it might be the best way to explain to someone why the races went as they did. Some candidates were able to build better relationships with delegates, while others were more successful in running precinct candidates with pre-existing relationships, and getting them to show up.
In the Public Utilities Commission race, It was Don Haggar who had been involved in Republican politics and Government for decades versus Peri Pourier. Who has been a Republican for less than 24 months at this point?
It’s bad enough the SDGOP has a former 32-year Democrat as chair; What makes recently switched former Democrat Pourier the more attractive in this contest? Nothing.
The vote reflected that, but it also reflected that Haggar was not a unanimous choice, only defeating her by 10%. Which means that Don has some work to do. And had Jess Bahmuller remained in the race, we might be talking about a different outcome.
The State Treasurer’s race between Heath Shields and Melissa Hull might also be said to be about relationships. But of a different sort.
South Dakota Republican Party Delegates like Outgoing Treasurer Josh Haeder, having elected him twice. So when Shields came in running for the office, using the tactic of trying to take the bark off Haeder’s manner of running that office, that got the ire of some delegates up.
When some unflattering materials in Shields’ background was dropped out there and directed at delegates at the same time that Haeder came out and endorsed Hull, the die was cast. Too many questions on Shields versus Hull who was Haeder’s choice, and the delegates thought together the team of Haeder/Hull did a good job.
State Auditor was a three way contest between GOP activist Catherine Barranco, Tamara Grove, who just lost a Senate Primary in some controversy, and Renae Randall who went to the podium wearing a baseball cap.
And it was’t even a contest. Grove’s last minute bid came in third place. Baseball hat gal came in second, but was a distant second with only 25% of the vote.
And Catherine Barranco whom a vast majority of delegates know in her work with the state party, Republican Women, revitalizing the Teenage Republican Auxiliary, etcetera, walked away with the nomination with over 50% on the first ballot.
The election for the Commissioner of School and Public Lands was even a bigger blowout. There’s not a soul in that convention hall who if they have been involved with the party for any length of time who doesn’t know Brock Greenfield. Brock has been involved for well over 2o years in many capacities, including State Legislator in both the House and Senate.
Again – relationships! They all have a relationship with Brock and like him. Those that don’t voted for the antagonistic James Bialota. Coming out of the election, Brock had the confidence of delegates comprising 81.32% of the vote, missing out on those preferring Bialota at 18.42%.
So while there’s room for growth, you can’t please all of the people all of the time. As noted, they know Brock, and like him. That’s what was important.
I asked others how they viewed the Secretary of State’s race between Monae Johnson, and Heather Baxter, as those who read this website would know I was not on the winning side and no interest in voting for her, because Baxter is largely a puppet of the hand-counting crackpots. Most with a sense of sanity have no interest in seeing election conspiracist Rick Weible as the next Director of Elections.
So why did Republican delegates opt to overturn this office into chaos again? The message to me was that Baxter adopted the Jason Ravnsborg strategy in running for the office. Show up to everything. And to her credit, I did see her a number of times in the last few months in my own home county. The flip-side of the message was that some reported not having interacting with Incumbent Monae Johnson as often. Which makes sense as she has has a job, and has also been under siege by the election conspiracy kooks.
Baxter managed to pull out a win in this race, but is it really a win? Because now she’s on the greater stage, and will have to explain to the 40% of Republicans who voted thumbs down to her, as well as a number of independents and Democrats why they should consider election conspiracy as welcome in that office?
The race for Attorney General is another one that came down to relationships; Two of the three had ran for the office before. All had their own bullet points to appeal to others. For me, Lance, I’ve known for decades since he was in the trenches working for the John Timmer campaign’s West River office in 1992 when I was with the Pennington Co GOP . I was acquainted with his dad, and I certainly like and respect John Fitzgerald’s record on law enforcement. I’ve have done work for his wife Mary in her legislative races. I’ve known Austin Hoffman’s family for some time. His Dad Charlie, His Mom Holly. His brother in law is my dentist. All salt of the earth people.
What to do? It’s a wealth of candidates, and here we are having to pick one from the three.
I think in this contest it was the positive relationships to others in the current Republican organization/delegations that connected Lance Russell to the most delegates who attended. Not everyone voted for him, and he’ll have to win those others through deeds. but there’s no denying he came in with a tremendous head of steam in the first round of voting that propelled him over the top with 57.14% of the weighted vote in Round 2. And in this race, after not getting over the hump in 2018, Lance Russell found himself in the victory chair in 2026.
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How was the convention conducted? That’s another long answer. It had high points and low points.
Early on, it became evident that the people running the convention were providing a mixed bag of service. Organizationally, questions over whether they could pay for the event early on? Hosting events where the VIP was a libertarian campaign organizer who went to trial on drugging a girl and date rape left many including myself just scratching their heads.
In execution, convention was an equally mixed bag.
High Point: I thought the registration process went smoothly. The people were friendly at check-in It was quick, you got your swag bag, and were sent on your way. That was good.
Low Point: The credential messes that spilled over to the convention was a sh*t show, delaying it by over an hour. When they let a few people acting in their own naked self-interest throw a wrench in the process was weak leadership on the party’s part.
High Point: Spencer Gosch did a nice job at the podium, keeping things light and moving.
Low Point: The Saturday invocation. WTF was that? A ridiculously long taped invocation that we were forced to watch on a screen? No one wanted that. They couldn’t find a local pastor? Because that would have been far more appropriate than that mess where you saw Fox-newslike updates on government and the economy scrolling at the bottom. Mark that down as a total fail.
High Point: I actually thought the voting process went well. There was not a lot of fiddling around, and they managed to be quick about it.
Low Point: Welcome to the unfriendly South Dakota Republican Party. Who decided to make this convention a PR disaster inside and out? Setting aside the party’s conflict with self-declared Republican influencer Scot Pressler, and the Chair’s incessant sucking up to him, I’m looking at the local media that was alienated, as related by South Dakota Searchlight:
Pennington County Republican Chairwoman Amy Wagner replied within minutes of receiving Searchlight’s form submission Saturday, writing in an email, “That opportunity is available. There will be a press box in both rooms. You will need to check in at the registration desk to get a press pass.”
and..
Wagner apologized to Searchlight and said, “I didn’t realize that they weren’t going to allow press tonight.” Wagner said it was the decision of “the chairman,” a reference to State Party Chairman Jim Eschenbaum.
The right hand didn’t know what the left hand was doing. That’s an unforced error that lands directly on the chair’s shoulders.
Yet another Low Point: Relating to the prior low point, Let’s not forget the Sergeants at Arms pacing around the crowd, quick to intervene. Was that really necessary?
What was your experience? Kudos? Complaints? The comment section is yours.
In general as a first time observer and guest I generally agree with the mixed bag opinion of how things went for the convention. I only attended one meal but the breakfast Saturday was an absolute joke with zero protein options in site, although the speaker in Jason was quite good, maybe he should have said the prayer at the convention too! I dipped out late morning Saturday as on going count issues bored me to tears and I opted for texts from others to track the voting. I think the Sergant at Arms around was a good thing personally, with people like Presler and his crown and Bailota and his crowd running around a little muscle keeping them tamped down seemed welcome to me. I do think the folks in the audience/delegates, need some refreshers on parliamentary procedure but Spencer did a good job keeping things on track, a good choice having him there. All in all I’d give the whole bag a B-, decent with room for improvement!
Brunerfestivus 2026
I’m hoping at the next one he wrestles someone like a feats of strength for the right to “true conservative” credentials.
Can we also take a moment to reflect on the mess that is Minnehaha County? Jennifer Fuoss and Bridget Meyers resoundingly lost when their complaint was brought to the general body, and they wasted a lot of the delegations’ time in the process. “Don’t pull a Minnehaha” has actually become a phrase I’m hearing used by county offices across the state. The Fuoss and Meyers crew is an embarrassment.
They are insufferable and vile
what was their complaint? Please tell us? We weren’t in attendance so we want to know.
Actually Foss & Meyers challenged the credentials of the “county secretary” on grounds that she was not elected at a legal meeting. (only one officer present). The credentials committee upheld the challenge.
R. Shawn Tornow then moved to overrule the credentials committee and seat her anyway. The body decided to ignore the bylaws and seat her.
The body saw right through Meyers and Flosses BS because they’ve been through it time and time again. Everyone knows Floss and Bridgeout are besties with Pischke and anyone who’s read the affidavit of Pischke’s arrest knows there are two more unidentified strands of DNA. I assume said DNA is still under investigation and will be proven to belong to Floss and little Bridges.
As we read in the Bible: their foot shall slide in due time and pride cometh before the fall.
Actually, the state board panel ruled in favor of the first documented issue. So there’s that. The floor agreed. With that, the member in question of the Mnhaha GOP was removed & lost credentials/voting rights. The day after, someone on the Floor pulled a Schoenbeck and made a motion that people weren’t aware to what was happening and voted Yea. That vote reinstated the previous vote the day before. Bottom line, state GOP committee reviewed the evidence and said there was standing regarding the complaint.
what? so was the county secretary credentialed or not? How about pischke’s fraudulent filers? were they seated?
The secretary was permitted to vote. According to my understanding of the report, the incumbent secretary attended the October 4th meeting via telephone. Following the election of a new secretary, the incumbent’s resignation was formally accepted. However, the reviewing committee questioned whether the election should have occurred before the resignation was officially accepted.
The Minnehaha mess didn’t happen in a vacuum.
The same people who spent months criticizing everyone else, filing complaints, and telling everyone how the party should be run still haven’t shown they can actually build anything.
Jennifer Foss talks about “building the party,” yet supported censuring Senator John Thune—the Republican Majority Leader from her own state. That’s an interesting definition of party building.
Bridget “Bridge Out” Meyers made it very clear to anyone who would listen that she was going to fill every precinct spot and reshape the county party. So… how did that work out?
Ask Tom Pischke. He is there lackey if you heard Jen speak…
Most Republicans have careers, businesses, kids, and grandkids. They volunteer because they care about the future of the party. They don’t have time for endless procedural fights and internal drama.
This weekend proved something: some people are far better at tearing things down than building them up.
If the South Dakota Republican Party is going to move forward, we need to stop rewarding constant outrage and start rewarding the people who are actually doing the work, building relationships, supporting candidates, and growing the party.
And then there’s the video that’s now making the rounds involving Mike Austad and Pam, who is Bridget Meyers’ mother and has been involved in the same political circles and disputes. The video appears to show a confrontation while Mike was recording. People can watch the footage and draw their own conclusions. But Pam grabbed the phone from his hand and threw it.
At some point, Republicans have to decide what kind of party they want to be: one consumed by internal fights and constant controversy, or one focused on building relationships, winning elections, and moving South Dakota forward.
The South Dakota Chaos Party needs to have their conventions be broadcast live and recorded for now on. Often times their nominees will be elected in the general no matter how crazy and incompetent they are.
Can we just not let a grift like Scott bully his way into our party? His followers are so blind lmao.
They need to firm up the press credentials issue. Can anybody with a Facebook page and camera on the phone qualify?
If you can’t keep a guy recently convicted of disorderly conduct and another guy fired for sex in the Va. GOP office out of your event, who can you?
I observed this as well. Tonchi Weaver a member of the “press”? That’s what her badge said….same with Bialota. The media mess at convention along with the credentialing snafu is all indicative of the overall dysfunction of the state GOP apparatus. Yet, for a party that supposedly welcomes everyone, it sure excluded folks.
So was everybody with a press pass excluded from the infamous Thune event? Or not?
GOP excluded everybody. Including Seth Tupper who wrote a story about it.
Tonchi did/does have a talk show.
Um, ok. If that counts as press/media I’ll start my own online “talk show” right now. My first guest, an interview with my cat. Won’t last long but I guess that counts then. I’d like my press pass now please. I’ll hold on to it until next convention. Geez. This clown car has definitely driven off the cliff.
I was encouraged to see young delegates there this time. I think the South Dakota Young Republicans Chair Erich Piepho and another Young Republican Christian Skunk did add a lot of good input when they spoke. I was especially encouraged by Mr Piepho getting up and defending the Minnehaha GOP Secretary and Treasurer. He definitely is a leader to look at in the future because he also came to me and had a really good discussion about the goals of what our county party can do to help the YR organization and mend the fractured GOP that continues to grow.
Just to clarify, Tyler Swanger is the newly elected Chair of the South Dakota Young Republicans, and Eric serves as Vice Chair.
I’ve known Tyler for years and had the chance to visit with him again at Catherine’s hospitality party. He’s a very hardworking professional who has quietly carried water for the Republican Party for a long time without seeking much recognition.
If Eric is as active as many of these comments suggest, that would be a good thing for the organization. An engaged vice chair working alongside Tyler can only help the South Dakota Young Republicans continue to grow.
Tyler and Erich were definitely great picks for the chair and vice chait spot in the YRs Tyler does a lot behind the scene and Erich is not afraid to talk to anyone. I was at the convention as well and I watched him literally talk to some very far right and moderate chairs of county Republican parties and be able to have them laughing, shaking their hands and getting them on board to help unify the party and grow the YRs all at the same time. The YRs are in great hands and I really look forward to watch Tyler and Erich bring the YRs to the top!!
He lives with his boyfriend who is like 15 years older than him. Can’t be the future
I knew the day was going to be a sh*t show when the first two people I saw standing by the doorway to get inside the convention were Ismay and Jensen. I almost turned around and went home!
The Ismay appearance was certainly a surprise!
You guys really have to lay off the rants about Eschenbaum being a lifelong Democrat. Remember, your darling Trump was a YUGE fan of Pelosi in 2007 and tried to shove his way into Dem leadership because he was impressed with the way Pelosi and Schumer manhandled the GOP back then. They laughed and turned him away, and he set his sights on destroying Obama with the GOP.
Remember, MAGA is a product of alchemy, with disaffected former Republicans and former Democrats all pulling for Trump under the cover of the GOP banner. The enemy of your enemy is your Eschenbaum so hold him close and never let him go.
32 year Democrat. Just for clarification.
Thank you sir. So we don’t know what he was affiliated as beyond 32 years then.
My point was, GOP people can’t have their empowering from their Trump, without embracing their Eschenbaums and such.
GOP, the party you can’t switch to lest you be ridiculed by old dusty crusty grumps. Godforbid we welcome anyone to the party. Idiocy.
This is an excellent summary and analysis, thanks for sharing.