SDGOP National Committeeman Ried Holien didn’t just win his city council race last night in Watertown, he dominated (507-158) in a race against Codington County Democrat Chair Kay Solberg:
Former State Senator Ried Holien is one of three new members elected to the Watertown City Council Tuesday.
Holien received 507 votes in a three way race in Ward A that included Kay Solberg (158 votes) and Stephan Tjaden (35 votes).
Read (and listen to) the entire story here at KWAT radio.
Brown Co Dem Chair Jennifer Slaight-Hansen was also recently defeated in her Aberdeen City Council race, after trying to deny her Dem party chairmanship (I think a cock must have crowed, considering how hard she ran away from that portion of her job title).
Between many of these recent city level wins, it shows that South Dakotans are looking for reasoned conservative leadership at the city level, just like they do at the legislative and state level.
And according to an e-mail that just went out yesterday from the state Republican Party, the GOP is ready to step up to the plate to make it happen:
Dear Friend,
The South Dakota Republican party is committed to helping candidates win at all levels. From President, down through our state, legislative and county offices, the GOP works with candidates to help them achieve their goals.We’re always looking to the future. And our future starts with our citizens who serve in local offices. The SDGOP has had remarkable success winning municipal races in Sioux Falls and Aberdeen and we can do more! Local candidates often lack the resources that the big campaigns take for granted. The South Dakota GOP can help fill that gap.
In 2018, the SDGOP activated Republican voters in Sioux Falls to get out for Mayor Paul TenHaken. And in 2019, we made sure that GOP voters got out to elect Travis Schaunaman as the new Mayor in Aberdeen
We want to do more, and continue our efforts, but we need your help. We need you to serve as a valued partner in the election process and consider making a generous contribution to the SDGOP today!
Would you help TODAY by letting us know if you can serve as a valued partner in the election process and make a generous contribution to the SDGOP and put your home state dollars to work where you can see your support in action? It’s not just in election years when campaigns need help.
Thank you,
Dan Lederman
South Dakota Republican Party
You can click here to donate to the GOP’s local election fund.
And in the meantime, congratulations again to Ried Holien for the win!
Ried worked very hard on his campaign and took nothing for granted. I would expect he will serve with same dedication. Good for us
Terrific post as usual, Lee. Congrats to Councilman Elect Hoilen who won > 72 percent of the vote! That’s a landslide! We have every confidence Ried will serve with honor and distinction. Great news for Watertown and for SD.
2 DemocRat County Chairs lose their local races for municipal offices in one month. Not a good sign for the Dems in next year’s legislative races.
Quite the “Pat” on the back, DWC. Except you have once again misused conservative to serve yourself. Yet, there are many conservatives and conservative positions that you ridicule. And there are people and organizations that you champion as conservative which fall short of that mark.
You should be more honest in acurratly representing the spectrum of the Republican Party. Your failure makes you suspect, bad for your brand. But that’s up to you.
Two examples. Dusty won a plurality with more conservative candidates winning the majority. You have an advertiser who doesn’t support border enforcement and battles our anti swamp conservative President on his use of tariffs as a tool to right the wrongs of our trading relationships.
We all find our spot on the spectrum. Party registration and election results highlight the domination and also reflect where the meat of the Party exist. The Party actually had little to persuade the recent mayoral outcomes. The competition did that for you.
Wrong
Pretty soon he’s going to start talking about when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.
Well, Dusty is pretty gosh darn conservative.
Heritage Action, a highly-respected conservative scorecard, gives him a 98%.