Bold – and Sustainable
By: Gov. Larry Rhoden
December 12, 2025

An old pastor of mine used to give the advice, “Don’t wait for doors to open; check the doors, and see if they’re unlocked.” More often than not, South Dakota takes this advice. We don’t settle for the way things are – we always strive to do better and pursue opportunity.

Aberdeen is a community that is building on its momentum thanks to strong leadership and a vision for the future. Aberdeen’s job growth has climbed by 8% in recent years – that’s remarkable! They’ve attracted high-quality companies like Harris Machine Company and Smack Pet Food. But instead of saying “good enough,” they’ve looked for opportunities to build on that growth.

Success also brings responsibility, and Aberdeen is taking that responsibility seriously. Currently, Aberdeen has just one available investment property left, so the community got to work expanding its capacity. They aren’t waiting for doors to open; they’re checking the doors. They’re creating their own opportunity, and they have a plan to make it happen.

Aberdeen is developing two new business parks, and they’ve launched an ambitious capital campaign to get it done. They’ve already raised $7 million from local leaders and private investors – that’s remarkable! And I’m supporting that momentum with a $1 million grant from the Future Fund.

When vision turns to action, that’s how we keep our communities growing and thriving. That’s how we keep expanding local businesses. That’s how we keep recruiting new companies. That’s how we ensure strong career opportunities for our kids and our grandkids.

Ultimately, that’s what economic development is all about: opening more doors of opportunity for our kids and grandkids. We want them to be able to pursue the careers of their dreams without having to go somewhere else to do it. And we want our communities to prepare for the next wave of opportunity.

There are a number of tools in the economic development toolbox. I view the Future Fund as a tool that works best when it is supporting strategic, forward-looking investments. These investments support growth, strengthen communities, and ensure that South Dakota remains competitive.

As governor, I am going to prioritize investments that are bold, yet sustainable. They’re bold enough to seize opportunity – and they’re wise enough to prepare for the future in a responsible, sustainable way.

Our state has a lot to celebrate. Communities like Aberdeen are growing and thriving. South Dakota is moving forward! And for as long as I am your Governor, we will keep it that way.

###

It was a big week in Congress
By Rep. Dusty Johnson
December 12, 2025

 BIG News

My bill to preserve the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre is heading to President Trump’s desk after receiving unanimous support in both the House and Senate.

The Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial and Sacred Site Act preserves a section of land where the 1890 massacre occurred. After almost 135 years, the time is finally here to properly memorialize the lost and preserve the land. I look forward to seeing the president sign this into law to ensure the land remains sacred for generations to come.

I’m grateful for the partnership of Oglala Sioux Tribe and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe on drafting this important legislation.

Johnson at St. John Church, near the Wounded Knee site

BIG Idea

It has become harder and harder to get big projects done in America. I’ve been working on reforming the antiquated permitting system in our country, and I’m leading a bill to digitize permitting technology across the federal government and reduce processing time for National Environmental Policy Act reviews. This week, my bill passed unanimously out of the House.

The same road project that can get approved in Germany in six months takes six years in America. America is full of innovators, creators, and builders. It’s time we let them build again, fueling economic growth and unlocking domestic energy production.

Click here or the image above for Johnson’s remarks

BIG Update

 

My bill to protect women’s sports at military service academies was included in the annual defense bill which passed the House. Biological men should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports. Women deserve the opportunity to achieve academic and athletic greatness.

Our military service academies should set an example for integrity and fairness. Athletic programs at our prestigious service academies like West Point, the Air Force Academy, Naval Academy, and others should focus on military readiness, not implementing radical gender policies.

The annual defense bill with my provision now heads to the Senate. I’m hopeful it passes and gets signed into law soon.

###

Delivering for South Dakota
By Sen. John Thune

 It’s been a busy year in the United States Senate. The new Republican majority is working hard to deliver on our promises to the American people, and while there’s more to be done, there’s a lot we’ve accomplished just this year. We’ve delivered permanent tax relief that puts more money in working families’ pockets. We’ve provided certainty to small businesses, farms, and ranches with permanent tax relief and strengthened the farm safety net. And we’ve made significant investments to make America safer and stronger.

I know the top concern for many South Dakotans is higher costs – it’s something I hear about when I travel across our state, whether it’s from a small business owner in Isabel, a farmer at Dakotafest, or working parents. Affordability begins with having more money in your pocket, and that’s exactly what Republicans have done with the Working Families Tax Cuts, which prevents a $2,500 tax hike on a typical South Dakota family next year. When the new tax law takes effect in the new year, South Dakotans will begin to see benefits from permanent tax relief. The larger child tax credit, bigger standard deduction, and a bonus deduction for seniors will be available this tax season, and that means larger refunds come Tax Day.

South Dakota’s farmers and ranchers are also at the top of my priority list. Agriculture producers will benefit from this permanent tax relief too, including from the 199A deduction and a higher death tax exemption threshold. Republicans also delivered updates to the farm safety net to support farmers and ranchers through the economic headwinds they continue to face. That includes increased reference prices for every covered commodity, making livestock programs more responsive to drought, and funding prevention of animal diseases that can devastate livestock.

Supporting rural communities is also an important priority of mine. Separate from the Working Families Tax Cuts, this year’s annual agriculture funding bill puts federal dollars toward rural broadband expansion, and I’ve been working with the Trump administration to deliver internet access to unserved areas. Then there’s health care, which can be challenging to access in rural areas, especially when a hospital or health center closes. So Republicans took action to support rural hospitals with the Rural Health Transformation Program, which South Dakota plans to use to bolster health care facilities and grow and retain our health care workforce in rural areas. And we repealed a Biden-era staffing mandate that threatened the viability of rural nursing homes in South Dakota.

There’s a lot more that we’ve accomplished for South Dakota this year. There are the investments in Ellsworth Air Force Base – including full funding for the B-21 mission and supporting infrastructure. There’s the support for local law enforcement in the One Big Beautiful Bill, and new border security resources to help stop illegal immigration and the flow of drugs across our southern border. We’ve repealed electric vehicle mandates that were simply not realistic for a state like ours, where long distances and cold weather are a fact of life. And we’re even doing our part to support the pheasant population in our state.

I come to work every day to get results for South Dakota. I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished this year, and there’s still more to come. So I’ll be keeping my foot on the gas to continue delivering for South Dakotans.

###

From Facebook:

One of the commenters had brought it up under a prior post, and they were very correct when they mentioned that it appears that incumbent Republican State Senator Kevin Jensen is included among those who are delinquent in filing their property taxes in Lincoln County, according to a notice published in the newspaper on December 12th:

Should there be a law that legislators are ineligible to serve in Pierre, unless they are current on their sales and property taxes?

This was an odd press release by the City of Brookings today:

Press Release – “The City of Brookings has been made aware that Operation Prairie Thunder, an anti-crime task force with the State of South Dakota, will be in the Brookings area Dec. 17-19. The City of Brookings will not be participating in these operations.”

If you recall from the recent press release from the Governor and the State of South Dakota..

Operation: Prairie Thunder is a comprehensive, targeted public safety initiative to protect South Dakotans. Operation: Prairie Thunder includes two main initiatives:

• • A targeted anti-crime initiative in the Sioux Falls metro to interdict drugs, investigate gang activity, hold parole absconders accountable, and deter lawlessness; and
  • A comprehensive effort to support the work of ICE secure our borders and deport illegal alien criminals.

I’m not sure what they have against drug interdiction operations in the area that the Federal and State governments are conducting…  but to go out of their way to say we’re not with them smacks of politics.

I can tell you from the several years I spent doing bail bonds that we absolutely have meth dealers and parole absconders in the area.  I seem to recall doing a bail bond on a member of MS-13, before that term was more widely known.

But not wanting to participate is the message from the City of Brookings. Such as it is.

I believe the word used when this was sent over to me was ‘cringe’ for what looks like to be a tree farm venture State Senator Kevin Jensen is involved in.

From facebook, State Representative Dylan Jordan is taking a moment to get up from his gramma’s couch to attack lobbyists that represent groups receiving funding through public entities:

So, big schools, small schools, teachers, administrators, county officials, county commissioners, municipal officials, town & townships, state employees, public university students, regental institutions, Board of Regents, any state agency, any state elected official who hires a lobbyist, etcetera and so on,  DJ Jazzy Jordan has no interest in learning anything about the organizations you represent or how his actions will affect your groups or South Dakotans as a whole.

Especially any lobbyists representing the South Dakota National Guard or municipal airports – who will be affected by his pledge to bring legislation to shoot down planes.

I’m guessing he doesn’t want to hear a damn thing from you.

KCCR News in Pierre recently featured a press announcement from a candidate who announced his intentions to take on Senate Majority Leader Jim Mehlhaff in the next election.

According to the candidate’s announcement on facebook:

Brian Murphy is a former state and federal prosecutor, a constitutional conservative, and a retired U.S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant. A combat-wounded veteran who served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Brian has dedicated his life to defending the United States and the freedoms we hold sacred.

After his military service, Brian continued that commitment in the courtroom—fighting for justice, protecting victims, and upholding the rule of law at both the state and federal levels.

Now, Brian is running for South Dakota Senate, District 24, to serve the people with the same integrity, discipline, and devotion he brought to the Marines and to the U.S. Justice Department.

As a constitutional conservative, Brian will bring a steady focus on protecting individual liberties, defending property rights, strengthening public safety, and ensuring government remains accountable to the people—not the other way around. He will apply his deep knowledge of the law to safeguard the constitutional freedoms and interests of the people of District 24 and all of South Dakota.

Read that here.  You can also read about it at KCCR News.

He talks about being a conservative.. but doesn’t actually use the word ‘Republican‘ in his release. So we can only assume he’s running for a position on the GOP ticket at this point.

Johnson’s Wounded Knee Memorial Bill Passes U.S. Senate

Washington, D.C. – Today, the Wounded Knee Sacred Site and Memorial Act, introduced by U.S. Representative Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), passed the United States Senate by unanimous consent. The bill now heads to the president’s desk.

“Nearly 135 years after hundreds of lives were lost in the Wounded Knee Massacre, the time is now here to properly memorialize the lost and preserve the land,” said Johnson. “I look forward to seeing the president sign this into law to ensure the land remains sacred for generations to come.”

“We thank the Senators Thune and Rounds and Congressman Dusty Johnson for their leadership and support in helping us protect our sacred site through the passage of the Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial and Sacred Site Act,” said Ryman LeBeau, Chairman, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. “The U.S. Cavalry shot at and murdered more than 350 unarmed Lakota babies, girls, boys, women, men, and elders at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The U.S. Cavalry stopped our people out on the high plains as they were seeking peace, surrounded them with guns and cannons, disarmed them, opened fire, and murdered them. Today, we stand to acknowledge the atrocities committed against the Lakota people to continue to heal, to protect, to educate, and most importantly, to ensure that we never forget the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890.”

“On behalf of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, I am pleased that today the Senate passed the Wounded Knee Massacre site bill, a bill that passed the House earlier this year,” said Frank Star Comes Out, President, Oglala Sioux Tribe. “It is now poised to become an Act of Congress: an important Act that will preserve the memory of the Wounded Knee Massacre and the legacy and sacrifice of our ancestors. Significantly, it also promotes tribal self-determination and allows us to protect our Wounded Knee site in perpetuity. We thank Representative Dusty Johnson as well as Senator Rounds and Majority Leader Thune for getting this bill through both chambers of Congress. It is fitting that this action comes as we prepare to commemorate the 135^th anniversary of the Wounded Knee Massacre on December 29^th.”

After months of working in coordination with the Oglala Sioux Tribe and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Johnson introduced the legislation last Congress, which passed the House unanimously but was not voted on by the U.S. Senate. Johnson reintroduced the bill in January 2025 and it passed the House later that month.

The identical Senate companion bill is led by U.S. Senators Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and John Thune (R-S.D.).

Wounded Knee Massacre Background:

In the late 1880s, a movement called the Ghost Dance swept across the nation. Indians believed that this dance would give stolen land back to the Indians, bringing about a renewal of Native society. Indians would join together, wearing shirts they believed would protect them from bullets, to dance for this renewal, all at the protest of the federal government.

On December 29, 1890, a group of Lakota Indians led by Chief Spotted Elk had made camp near Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. There, U.S. Army 7th Calvary troops were sent to disarm the Lakota. A struggle occurred between the U.S. Army and some of Chief Spotted Elk’s band – a majority of which consisted of women and children. A shot rang out, and the U.S. Army opened fire on the largely unarmed group, massacring an estimated up to 350-375 Lakota Indians. Twenty-five U.S. soldiers also died.

###