12 Jul, 2026
Latest News

Second news organization being formed to cover state government & politics

@SoDakCampaigns

On the heels of Mssrs. Ellis and Sneve announcing the Dakota Scout website and newspaper to cover State and Local Politics in South Dakota, a second organization has announced it is hiring reporters to cover South Dakota politics, led by Seth Tupper, formerly of the Rapid City Journal and South Dakota Public Broadcasting.

States Newsroom in South Dakota will be dedicated to serving as a government watchdog, covering policy, politics, and other stories of statewide interest. We want reporters who can provide important information to readers about elected officials, how public money is spent, and the ways that policy decisions affect South Dakotans’ lives.

Three reporters will cover the Legislature, governor’s office, state agencies, elections and other assignments. The reporters will produce daily and enterprise stories, take photos, and share content on social media.

The ideal candidates will know how to track trending topics and hold officials accountable through deep source building and public records requests. The reporting will take readers beyond press releases, providing a deeper understanding of the issues.

and..

The salary for these reporting positions ranges from a minimum of $50,000 to more than $65,000, depending on experience.

Read that here.

Well, good luck to everyone.

US Senator John Thune working on 2023 Farm Bill & meeting with producers

@SoDakCampaigns

US Senator John Thune is traveling across the state during the August work period, and recently met with Ag producers as he tries to ensure that South Dakota has input into the 2023 Farm Bill:

The last farm bill was signed in 2018 and Thune is looking for insight from South Dakotans about their concerns for the 2023 version.

and..

“As we think about agriculture in the future our producers are becoming way more aware and conscious of a lot of their practices and implementing conservation practices and how that is good not only for soil health,” said Thune. “Obviously, there is a way that eventually maybe they will economically benefit from that because they can store carbon.”

Carbon farming uses carbon that would be released into the atmosphere but is instead captured and buried underground. It then helps the soil repurpose that carbon from the ground.

Read the entire story here.

State Rep. @TaylorRehfeldt selected for Toll Fellowship by Council of State Governments

@SoDakCampaigns

Republican State Representative Taylor Rehfeldt was among 48 State Legislators from across the country to be selected to receive the Henry Toll Fellowship for 2022:

According to the program, “The Toll Fellowship, named for CSG founder Henry Wolcott Toll, is one of the nation’s premier leadership development programs for state government officials. Each year, the Toll Fellowship brings 48 of the nation’s top officials from all three branches of state government to Lexington, Ky., for an intensive five-day, “leadership boot camp.” The program’s sessions are designed to stimulate personal assessment and growth, while providing priceless networking and relationship-building opportunities.”

Congratulations to Representative Rehfeldt!

Kristi for Governor Issues Statement on Government Accountability Board’s Illegal Action

Pat Powers


Kristi for Governor Issues Statement on Government Accountability Board’s Illegal Action

PIERRE, SOUTH DAKOTA – Today, in response to the actions taken by the Government Accountability Board (GAB), Kristi for Governor Communications Director Ian Fury issued the following statement:

“The actions taken by the GAB today did not follow state law or precedent. They have yet to point to one single statute the Governor has violated in either of these complaints.

“These complaints are all political and filed by a disgraced former attorney general who literally killed a man, lied about it, and tried to cover it up. Governor Noem was the first to call him out for this, and he filed these complaints in retaliation.

“It is unfortunate the board chose not to bring this charade to an end today. Kassidy Peters did not receive any special treatment, and Governor Noem followed the law, period!”

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Freedom Caucus Group lists couple dozen legislators signing demand for election records, possibly tipping their hand as to membership.

@SoDakCampaigns

After one of the identified leaders of the group refused to answer who their members were, The mystery of who the undisclosed members of the Freedom Caucus group are might have been uncovered with the release of a letter sent to Governor Noem demanding the retention of election records from the 2020 General election.

The release sent today notes in part:

Nearly a third of the current South Dakota legislature signed onto the letter, which argues that the ES&S contract’s provisions which would render election results to become proprietary information should be considered unenforceable. The letter stated that, “such agreement should not be the basis to obstruct or abolish the inherent right of citizens to oversee their elections.”

“Whether there are election issues or not, we stand united that the elections belong to the citizens and it is their right to oversee them to insure they are open, honest, and transparent,” said Freedom Caucus Chairman Representative Aaron Aylward, who was the first to sign the letter.

Nearly a third? Well, no. 24/105 legislators would nearly be 1/4 of the current State Legislature, not a third.  And “ensure” means to make certain, and  “insure” is what you pay your insurance company to do.

So, who is the group backing the Freedom Caucus’ attempt to preserve records to litigate the 2020 election? According to the letter attached to the release…

With the letter signed by..

Representative Aaron Aylward
Representative Drew Dennert (gone for ’23)
Representative Fred Deutsch
Representative Randy Gross
Representative Jon Hansen
Representative Taffy Howard (thankfully all 86% of her is gone for ’23)
Representative Kevin Jensen
Representative Phil Jensen
Representative Chris Karr
Representative Sam Marty (gone for ’23)
Representative Liz May
Representative John Mills
Representative Tina Mulally
Representative Scott Odenbach
Representative Ernie Otten
Representative Marty Overweg
Representative Carl Perry
Representative Sue Peterson
Representative Tom Pischke
Representative Tony Randolph
Representative Bethany Soye
Representative Kaleb Weis (gone for ’23)
Senator Julie Frye-Mueller (still stuck with her in ’23)
Senator Marsha Symens (gone for ’23)

..that tells us that South Dakota Pillow Guy groupies Tina, Taffy and Julie might have found some friends to sign on to their wacky crusade, but over 3/4 of the legislature have no interest in re-litigating the 2020 election in South Dakota. Especially considering no one can identify any elections in the State that had their outcomes altered by the alleged fraud they claim to be searching for.

If you take out the number of people who are not coming back next year, that knocks down the number of rebel caucusers participating with the Freedom Caucus down even further.

Stay tuned.

Congressman Dusty Johnson’s Weekly Column: Biden’s Broken Border

@SoDakCampaigns

Biden’s Broken Border
By Rep. Dusty Johnson
August 19, 2022

July 2022 marked a 388% increase in border crossings compared to July 2020 when President Trump was in office. This number is slightly down compared to June—however—July is the 17th consecutive month under Biden’s presidency that the southern border had over 150,000 illegal border crossings. Not to mention the 200% increase of fentanyl seizures from June 2022 to July 2022.

Recent news articles detail drug and migrant smuggling—both are now multi-billion-dollar industries. Over 5,000 people were arrested and charged with migrant smuggling last year, and federal agents are raiding stash houses holding dozens of migrants on almost a daily basis.

The lax illegal immigration policies by the administration have allowed for mass releases and encourage more border crossings. One thing is clear—this administration should never have ended the Remain in Mexico program.

Taking a weak stance on the border isn’t the humanitarian thing to do—it’s created unmanageable organized crime. Human and drug smuggling have caused thousands of deaths and people continue to remain held against their will in stash houses. This is inhumane. Congress must act to stop the illegal actions by coyotes.

There are simple steps to combat illegal immigration. The administration should start with ending catch and release—allowing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to detain those who illegally enter our country while their cases are pending. We should reimplement the Remain in Mexico program. The Biden Administration should also fully fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and border patrol, and deploy technology to stop the humanitarian crisis at the border.

I am committed to keeping America safe—for those who live here and those who plan to come here legally. Keeping South Dakota’s communities safe includes securing our borders.

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Governor Kristi Noem’s Weekly Column: Raising the Bar

@SoDakCampaigns

Raising the Bar
By: Governor Kristi Noem
August 19, 2022

I’ve never been the type to settle for “good enough.” No matter what I’m doing, I try to strive for excellence. That’s all the more true when it comes to policies that impact our kids. Everything that I do as Governor is to make our state safer, stronger, and healthier for our kids and our grandkids, and I want to set the bar. We should set an example for the entire nation and send the message that South Dakota pursues excellence for our kids.

And that’s what we are doing with my administration’s new social studies standards.

After nearly a year of diligent work, my administration has released standards that will shape our children’s social studies education into the future. These standards focus on teaching American history and civics in a true, honest, and balanced fashion.

We won’t allow political ideologies to invade our classrooms. We are proactively removing divisive teachings like Critical Race Theory before they can infiltrate our kids’ education. We will not have our children being taught to hate.

Over the last year, there has been quite a bit of conversation about teaching the history and culture of our state’s Native American tribes. These standards do that to a greater extent than any standards that have been proposed in South Dakota to-date. That’s important – and it needs to be done in a balanced way that takes into account the full context of our nation’s history. These standards achieve that goal and give Native American history the acknowledgement that it deserves.

That education will include some difficult conversations about mistakes that were made in our nation’s interactions with our tribes. And there will be tough conversations about other mistakes made in our nation’s past. We have to learn about those mistakes so that we can take lessons from them and never repeat them.

But we must also teach our children about the tremendous triumphs in our history. Our nation’s founding was a tremendous accomplishment and marked a huge step forward for human freedom. Our nation set the bar for defense of the rights of our people. And in the years since, we have built on that to advance our freedoms to more and more of our people. These standards will tell that story.

I love our nation, and I love talking about our history. I hope that our kids will come to love it, too. My hope is that by setting the bar for social studies education, we will deliver to our kids a healthy respect for our nation’s story and the freedoms that made it possible. I hope they will grow up and pass those onto their own children, just as we’re passing it onto them.

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