Primary brewing in D5 House between up to 3 long-time Republicans, and a former Independent who calls everyone RINO.

The District 5 House of Representatives primary election contest seems to be heating up a year ahead of time, with a GOP primary brewing in D5 House between up to 3 long-time Republicans, and a former Indy who had been on facebook calling everyone RINO.

While current State Representatives Nancy York and Hugh Bartels are not barred from running for another term by law until termed out in 2024, two others have come forward and announced their intentions to run for District 5 House in 2022.

Byron Callies, former National Vice-Commander of the American Legion, has announced his intention to run for District 5 in the upcoming election. Byron is a long-time Republican, and if elected would join another member of his family, his daughter & former Republican State Representative Melissa Magstadt in serving in Pierre.

Also joining Callies in announcing a run for District 5 House – and maybe more curiously – is Lucas Kobat, who up until recently was a registered Independent.  Kobat declares in his announcement that he is running to “bring conservative representation back to District 5, which has been sorely lacking for sometime.”

If you recall, Kobat is the same person who last year created something he called the “FreedomScore” project, where he declared that most of the Republicans in the State Legislature were RINOs, despite the fact that at the time he was not a Republican himself, as he called people ‘Republican In Name Only’:

As part of his project, he noted that people such as State Reps Lana Greenfield, Brunner, Sam Marty, and Senators Brock Greenfield, Ryan Maher, and Jim Stalzer were bringing liberal measures to the legislature. So, that kind of shows you where he sets the bar.

I’d tell you go read it all yourself… but interestingly in the less than a year since he started on his crusade to call most Republicans RINO’s, in addition to changing his voter registration to Republican along the way, the Facebook page for his project has been taken down from the social media website. With interesting timing since he announced he was now becoming a politician and running for office.

Most politicians would scrub their social media of controversial content before they run, so it comes as no surprise Kobat appears to have done that very thing.

And coming about the same time he announces he’s now a candidate, we see that for at least one politician, the courage of one’s convictions evaporates pretty quickly.

10 thoughts on “Primary brewing in D5 House between up to 3 long-time Republicans, and a former Independent who calls everyone RINO.”

  1. In his announcement on Facebook Byron Callies mentioned that he was running because Rep. York would not be seeking re-election. Has this been confirmed?

  2. Yes, she told me this in person. Nancy is one of the best legislatures I have meet and it will be a loss. Mr. Callies is a well known whiney curmudgeon.

    1. You don’t know Mr. Callies at all if that is the adjectives that you choose to describe him. You are clueless.

  3. Byron Callies is a solid conservative and the State Republican Committeeman for Codington Co. He is active in helping the local party and candidates. Whiney curmudgeon? That is not Byron, never known him to be bad tempered or talk badly of others but, like me, may sometimes show concern about liberals.

    1. Retired military vets never lose their fast balls. Shoot. When he is term limited out, he can still run for president. If Joe Biden can do it and barely be able to put a sentence together. Byron Callies could absolutely do it and run circles around anyone half his age.

  4. The last thing needed is a propped up candidate. Even if one of these “candidates”won the seat, I would doubt they would have any great news for SD in the long run.
    Keep looking
    Vince?

  5. If he’s picking a fight with Ms. Hunhoff, he’s probably got a knuckle sandwich coming his way. That young lady is not to be trifled with. Plus she is among the most powerful in the legislatures on most days.

    1. You mean Jean Hunhoff? She is from the Yankton area. District 5 is the Watertown area.

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