SDDP Chair Race: John Cunningham to be challenged by Dem’s Vice-Chair Jennifer Slaight-Hansen. Republicans are good with either one.

Looks like the race for South Dakota Democrat party Chair is heating up to be a lukewarm contest.

In advertising for the Minnehaha County Democrat Forum over at the Nebraska based Dakota Free Press, an ad has been posted noting that the candidates for SDDP Chair are speaking at the Minnehaha Democrat Forum tomorrow, with speakers being State Democrat Vice Chair Jennifer Slaight-Hansen and John Cunningham.

This is the first indication we’ve seen that Cunningham is being challenged for the job and the Vice-Chair is officially in the hunt for a promotion.

We’ve already pointed out John Cunningham’s background in a prior post..

Cunningham had ran for the chairmanship previously, in 2019, where he was unsuccessful against Paula Hawks, receiving 12% of the vote at the time.  (With Hawks later running far away and fast when she figured out how bad things were. )

In the 2022 election for South Dakota Treasurer, Cunningham lost to Josh Haeder on a 2-1 basis 67.7% to 32.3%, which is not really demonstrative of the ability to generate efforts that might post a threat to Republican dominance in the state.

Read that here.

We’ve also covered Jennifer Slaight-Hansen a time or two in the past while she was on the Aberdeen City Council.

Such as when she claimed Al Novstrup talking about a Right-to-Life/FHA Legislative recap luncheon was a slight against her campaign…

And she denied being the Brown County Democrat Party chair to a constituent.. despite the fact she was ACTUALLY the Brown County Democrat party chair...

And her City Council race when she was crushed on a 2-1 basis…

If the candidates for South Dakota Democrat Party Chair are John Cunningham and Jennifer Slaight-Hansen, I think I can safely speak for a lot of South Dakota Republicans in noting that we are absolutely good with either one of these choices.

Both Cunningham and Slaight-Hansen will help preserve the electoral dominance that the South Dakota Republican Party has enjoyed for over a decade now, and give us a grand opportunity to expand our grace with the voters of South Dakota.

Carry on, Dems!