From the Sioux Falls School District, Dawn Marie Johnson took an early lead in the race for School Board, and never let up:
| Location | Total Ballots Cast |
Dawn Marie Johnson |
Nick Zachariasen |
Brian Mattson |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peace Lutheran Church (1-1) | 578 | 368 | 0 | 210 |
| Memorial Middle School (1-2) | 670 | 432 | 3 | 235 |
| Career & Tech Ed Academy (1-3) | 135 | 87 | 0 | 48 |
| Maricar Community Center (1-4) | 104 | 53 | 1 | 50 |
| Oyate Community Center (1-5) | 194 | 128 | 3 | 63 |
| Our Redeemer Lutheran Church (1-6) | 401 | 276 | 1 | 124 |
| First Lutheran Church (1-7) | 505 | 412 | 1 | 92 |
| Wesley United Methodist Church (1-8) | 131 | 90 | 0 | 41 |
| Kenny Anderson Community Center (1-9) | 319 | 223 | 0 | 96 |
| Morningside Community Center (1-10) | 807 | 556 | 1 | 250 |
| Gloria Dei Lutheran Church (1-11) | 643 | 436 | 2 | 205 |
| Faith Baptist Church (1-12) | 726 | 429 | 4 | 293 |
| Instructional Planning Center (1-13) | 1,266 | 990 | 3 | 273 |
| Absentee Center (1-14) | 1,172 | 925 | 1 | 246 |
| Totals | 7,651 | 5,405 | 20 | 2,226 |
Johnson seemed to have broad based support across party lines, while Mattson focused much of his energy in running as the Republican in the race. As one resident put to me, “this was the first candidate under the Tornow regime” (as leader of the Minnehaha Co GOP) and the Republican candidate was beaten badly, on a 2-1 basis.
If this was a race that area Republicans were supporting, they didn’t show up. But, I think it was less the focus on Republican identity than it was simply name identification. Johnson raised and spent 3-4 times the amount Mattson was able to muster, which gave Dawn Marie Johnson the ability to get her name in front of far more people.
Big stats to keep in mind…
The Sioux Falls School District Annual Election – Official Returns
123,885 Registered Voters in the Sioux Falls School District
7,649 Voters who went to the polls
6.16% Turnout
In a race where turnout was 6%, the race was less about ideology, and more about bringing your voters to the polls, which Dawn Marie Johnson managed to do.
I haven’t met Johnson, but Brian Mattson is certainly a nice person, and I’d encourage him to give it another go in the future.
I’ve never met Dawn Marie or Brian, but…
On one hand you had a long list of community leaders, from all across the political spectrum, supporting Dawn Marie. She was everywhere and had support from so many different pockets within Sioux Falls.
And on the other, Cole Heisey was the only person I saw actively supporting Brian.
Made casting my vote for Dawn Marie very easy.
Happy to see Sioux Falls voters reject the Patriot Q-Lite candidate.
I voted for Johnson because she has experience in the educational arena and Mattson made it partisan. An acquaintance affiliated with a fringe, far-right wing group in the area was pushing for Mattson. Hard pass when it’s a non-partisan race. Shame on Tornow and his ilk.
This is a harbinger of what Republicans can expect if unity doesn’t prevail in the SD GOP. Republicans in SD have enjoyed remarkable electoral success because they embrace the prevailing moral center/right of the majority of voters. The pursuit of unity rather than division will ensure the continued freedom and prosperity that we enjoy here in SD.
To be sure, we have challenges to overcome and opportunities we must pursue but together we can continue to enjoy our great state.
Candidate quality will always trump (Pun intended) any sort of party purity or fealty test in general elections.
The other problem is, Matson was running on this nationally-based anti-woke, anti-CRT platform, when that doesn’t really seem to be a big problem in the Sioux Falls district. (My kids go there and I’ve never seen an issue.) If you don’t have kids in school and you watch cable news all day, you perhaps have a different view of the situation, but that’s not the majority of people voting in a SFSD election.
I can’t believe this site supports a Tornow-picked candidate. I thought this site was against the whack-a-doodles. Guess not.
Couple points..
Considering that I’m not a Sioux Falls resident, I didn’t have a say.
But if I found someone to be a decent person in my interaction with them, why would I not say so?
Nothing else should be taken from my comments. Although, I do agree Shawn Tornow is not concerned with winning elections, and is a dead leaden weight on the GOP’s continued leadership of South Dakota as a whole.
Sad that an election for a school board position has became a political race. I thought we wanted to keep politics out of the classroom. Seriously, the two party system is broke.
No positive changes will occur with the Sioux Falls School Board until the election date is changed so that the school board elections are at the same time as other elections. The separate election date allows the teachers, school administrators, and unions to get out their votes and the votes of their family members and friends and for 6% of the electorate to control the elections. From what I have heard, Dawn Marie is not a radical Leftist, but she will vote with them. What the students, parents, and other people in Sioux Falls will get is more of the same: a significant gap between administrator and teacher pay, Leftist indoctrination of our students, the teaching of critical race theory, the promotion of the LGTBQ agenda, emotional and social learning, etc. The aforementioned problems in our schools are not as bad as they are elsewhere, but they are present and increasing.
You and your crazy theories lost, and rightfully so. Go back to Gab.
Literally nothing posted by this Anon is true or has merit. Anyone who could vote should’ve, there was plenty of notice and the polls were open before and after most individuals work. There was also early voting! But you’re just lazy and instead of debating merit are off jousting windmills.