Update on the state of the legislative races; a few GOP Primaries in the near future for Sioux Falls

Catching up on my new State Legislative Filings with the Secretary of State as well as general intel that I’ve collected, it appears that we’ve picked up a couple more primaries in area of (and around) Sioux Falls for the newly formed State Legislative Districts.

• District 2 is kind of quiet with Spencer Wrightsman as the only one filing a committee to run for the Senate at the moment, but with a few names still floating around undecided as of yet.  Jake Schoenbeck has filed committee papers for the House, where State Rep. Doug Barthel is the only incumbent.  There are rumors that there may be as many as 4-5 people considering getting in that District.. as well as talk that Barthel might not run.  But, rumors are just rumors, and there’s a lot of time between now and the filing deadline in March.
• Same goes for District 9 where Wayne Steinhauer is the incumbent Senator in the House, and there are rumors of a possible House primary in this District where Representatives Rhonda Milstead and Bethany Soye reside. But nothing official yet.. This will be one to watch.
• As will be District 10, which is a wide open space at the moment with no Republicans showing their hand against Rep. Erin Healy as the incumbent Democrat for the House, and Senator Maggie Sutton as the anticipated Senate candidate. At the moment.  After redistricting, it’s a tougher district for the GOP, and this may be where Democrats think they can shift a candidate to a higher office. Could be a battleground for both parties.
• District 11 House appears to have incumbent Representative Chris Karr facing newcomers Brian Mulder and Tyler Bonynge all competing for two State House seats. Senate in D11 is stable at the moment with Senator Jim Stalzer expected to run again.
• At the moment, District 12’s primary slate has incumbent State Representative Greg Jamison likely running against Cole Heisey, who unsuccessfully ran for District 15 House in 2020, and newcomer Gary B. A. Schuster who filed a committee this last week.  There’s a bit of interest as there’s anticipated to be an available seat in the House because State Rep. Arch Beal is pretty open about that he’s jumping to the Senate in 2022.
• District 13 seems to be stable with incumbent State Representatives Sue Peterson & Richard Thomason expected to run, and Senator Jack Kolbeck also holding strong in a Senate race.
• District 14 has incumbent State Rep. Taylor Rehfeldt and new candidate & Rounds staff member Tyler Tordsen. With the open seat, there’s talk about others jumping in, but Taylor & Tyler will be two very strong competitors for the GOP.  Watch for Senator Larry Zikmund to stay where he is as well.
• New Republican candidate Dane Wagner will be facing incumbent Democrats Linda Duba and Jamie Smith for the House in a newly reconfigured District 15. I thought I might have heard of a challenger for Senator Reynold Nesiba, but we’ll see what arises. D15 in past configurations has been traditionally tough for Republicans.
• Watch for District 16 House to have incumbent State Representatives Kevin Jensen and Richard Vasgaard competing for two House seats, with possibly Karla Lems who announced she was planning to run at a GOP dinner earlier this year.  Unless redistricting scuttled those plans. No word on whether Senator Jim Bolin will have a Senate challenge in either the primary or the general, but 2022 seems to have a lot of people willing to give it a go.
• As I’d mentioned before, District 25 House still has us anticipating that State Rep’s Randy Gross, Tom Pischke & Jon Hansen will all be forced match up against one another in the District…
• .. But a new twist is that now there’s a primary in District 25 Senate as well. Kevin Crisp, who served in the State House as a Republican from 1997-2000 has thrown his hat in the ring to run for State Senate, filing to form a committee to run for that office against incumbent Senator Marsha Symens.

And that’s what I’ve got for the moment in the Sioux Falls area.

I’ll continue to up this as intel comes in, and trust me – this list is going to continue to grow and change. Stay tuned as we get closer and closer to when petitioning starts on January 1.

(If you have a press release or even just a hot tip, drop me a note here!)