South Dakotans just came off of a tremendous wave of elections.

We had the June Primary Elections. A number of municipal elections, including a historic election in Sioux Falls where Christine Erickson was the first woman elected to the office of Mayor of our State’s largest city (despite Liz May’s opposition to women being acknowledged in the South Dakota Constitution). This was quickly followed by the Democrat and Republican State Conventions, where constitutional office candidates were chosen.

And finally we had hard-fought July 28 Republican Primary runoff election for Governor – another first in South Dakota state history.  Even this week, we had a sort-of National Republican convention, which was more of a campaign rally than an actual convention where people voted.

Since then, one thing I’ve noticed with a number of candidates – at least on my side of the aisle – is that for many there is a  bit of disengagement at the moment. Even though early voting is only a week away.  Seriously. We start voting on September 18th.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. A number of them are fired up and organized and ready to rock. But at the same time, I think some people are weary of politics. There does not seem to be the same sense of motivation that we’ve seen when candidates had 2 ½ months off with their families to recharge their batteries.

What do you think? Are people suffering campaign fatigue and disengagement from politics?

Or are they ready to press forward because they just want to get it all over with?

From x.com/Twitter:

Good to see Nathan and Brooke with the South Dakota Retailers Association in Pierre and honored to receive their 2026 Hero of Main Street Award. 98.9 percent of businesses in South Dakota are considered small businesses, and I’ll continue to support their operations at the… pic.twitter.com/iskiOinhlo

— Senator Mike Rounds (@SenatorRounds) September 9, 2026

If you haven’t read this hilarity, it might be worth the trip to the South Dakota Freedumb Caucus’ website. This week, they take stock of the fact that only one of them will be returning to the legislature this next session. And of course, they have to blame someone.

As opposed to putting the harsh glare of the spotlight on themselves for being the worst of the worst and embarrassing themselves because of their legislation and conduct, they blame the House Majority Leader Scott Odenbach:

The conservative movement in South Dakota recently experienced a significant impact on its conservative voting bloc in the legislature. These are the conservative lawmakers who fight for the values itemized in the South Dakota Republican Platform, including limited government, lower taxes, individual responsibility, and election integrity. Unfortunately, due to massive anti-conservative PAC spending and a failure by the Republican House Majority Leader to unite conservatives during the session and ahead of the election, the Establishment wing of the South Dakota GOP has taken control of the legislature and the Governor’s office.

and..

Republican House Majority Leader Scott Odenbach recently gave a self-serving podcast interview to one of the state’s most liberal media organizations, the South Dakota Searchlight on August 14, 2026. In this interview, Rep. Odenbach misdiagnosed the state and path of South Dakota politics, demonstrating either deliberate or blind ignorance of the facts surrounding his attempt to run a “conservative term.”

and..

Rep. Odenbach ignores the fact that he was the Majority Leader in this liberal Searchlight interview. He was the person 100% responsible for unity in the House Republican caucus. Numerous times throughout the legislative term, Rep. Odenbach lectured conservatives, spoke to the media about them, and attempted to tear them down rather than finding common ground among the three voting blocs. To establish unity, there must be baseline guiding principles to unite around. In this case, we have the Republican platform that must be followed. As the Republican Leader, Rep. Odenbach should regularly point to these guiding principles, not just half the time, but all the time. Doing so would have helped him be an effective leader.

Read the entire bag of silliness here.

I notice no one is taking any pride of authorship. The only free-dumber left standing is Phil Jensen, otherwise Jordan Mason has been the groups’ errand boy over the years, and neither one of them is putting their name to it.

Not that Scott Odenbach should get off scot-free. The Republican House has not exactly been a unified body over the past 2 years. In fact, it has been a disaster of divisiveness, where leadership under Odenbach and Jon Hansen did literally nothing to seek consensus or middle ground.   The group you might term a ‘Republican caucus of normalcy’ regularly stomped all over some of the most egregious legislation coming through the House in year 1. And by year 2, their alliances were even stronger.  Leadership didn’t lead. They were just an obstacle that serious legislators went around.

But for Phil Jensen, the remaining member of the Freedom caucus to try to cast blame that his group lost epically because everyone else is a bunch of RINO’s and liberals who ganged up on his group is more than laughable.  For more than a decade, Phil has been a national embarrassment to the Republican Party.  They haven’t been the “pure Republicans.”  Just puerile ones.

God forbid we have an election cycle where the voters finally catch on.

Arriving in an envelope mailed from Indianapolis, the SDGOP is sending out fundraising letters to their donor base.

And it might be one of the worst fundraising letters ever, as the former 32-year Democrat chairing the party actually tells Republican donors that he was a 32-year Democrat, and that Summit Carbon outspent him.. even though that was a ballot measure.

And we find that the Republican Party has no money for things such as proofreading:

I think the biggest blunder is where they ask for $1000, $500, $250, etcetera in the body of the letter, but when they got to the bottom, they’d be happy if grandma sent them a $10 check for their birthday. Almost as if when Eschenbaum says the party needs to raise $50,000, they’d be happy to gather $500 in $10 checks.

I suspect that with all the formatting issues, a complete abandonment of grammar, and a rambling semi-coherent mess of a fundraising appeal, this might be another one of those fundraising drives where they end up spending more on the letter than they raise from it.

Candidates, if you’re writing your own fundraising appeal, here’s a few good examples of what NOT to do.

Moving on.

From KOTA News, it appears that the second largest political party lost something, and now they’re asking for it back:

Officials say fewer than half of the more than 5,000 voters who switched have switched back, only about 2,000 as of this week.

Officials are asking everyone to do so immediately, saying this could severely hurt the Democratic Party by making it significantly harder for its candidates to win this November.

Read the story here.

Well, what did they think was going to happen?

Yesterday the SDGOP sent out a plea for volunteers to the mailboxes of Republican County Chairs and others.  Except they may have shot themselves in the foot by noting who is sponsoring the training. In part…:

and…

And that just screeched everything to a halt. The SDGOP is pushing precinct level training as organized in part by the goofballs at SD Canvassing?

Since when are they a Republican affiliated group? Because last we know, they spent their time on paranoia about electronics in elections, and finger (aka hand) counting. Which never really seemed to impress anyone.

I won’t go into the conspiracies over the CIA affecting the algorithms.

But, that’s who they’ve got organizing these trainings?

Hard Pass.

 

Caught this on facebook yesterday. Can’t imagine the host list is going to get people to open up pocketbooks on behalf of Heather Baxter who the event is to support:

The fundraiser is featuring Steve Haugaard, who is still trying to cling to relevance ever since challenging Kristi Noem in the primary and losing, and then Larry Rhoden for Lt. Gov at convention way back in 2022.

This year had him endorsing Toby Doeden in the primary, so I’m not sure how many followers of his political acumen he has left.

Then you can add Aaron Aylward who also endorsed Doeden (in runoff), Tony Kayser who lost his primary, and a host credit for the “Comfort King.”  “Comfort King,” which is code for the nutty mattress guy, Chris Larson. The same Chris Larson who used to take to substack to complain that “Nefarious shadow groups are somehow controlling the weather,” as well as gaze into Haugaard’s eyes and tell him he should have been Governor.

I can honestly say this does not spur me to action to open up my checkbook or anything else to Heather Baxter.

 

What do they say about people who forget the past? They are doomed to repeat it,

How are people forgetting the last time Brian Bengs ran for US Senate in 2022, when he got his clock cleaned by John Thune for being a goofy tax-and-spend liberal Democrat?  Because not much has changed, except he’s kind of skipping over his whole party identification thing this year against Mike Rounds.   I was reviewing old material from the last time Brian Bengs ran for the US Senate, and came across this gem from 2021, where Brian Bengs was explaining how we need to blow up the US tax system. By having all states impose income taxes.

From my post in 2021, where Bengs was quoted from his campaign announcement:

His plan would exempt people from federal income tax if they make up to four times the median income. In South Dakota, that’s $124,000. That means, he said, with income verification, no taxes need to be filed, but also no tax refunds.

and..

The goal, he said, is to shift the tax burden to the states, which then create their own systems.

 and..

Bengs said one program he would advocate cutting would be federally subsidized flood insurance..

Read it here.

So, Bengs’ plan is that he wants more state taxes?  Hmm. If memory serves, who was the last person who advocated for that?  That would be Senator Thune’s last opponent, Jay Williams!

“Instead of looking for spending cuts, we must look for ways to increase tax revenue. Look at yourself, if you have property, ask for property taxes to be raised. If you have income, lobby for a state income tax. If you buy lots of things, go for a sales tax.”

Read that here.

Is the election over yet?

Vote YES on Amendment I.
by Lt. Governor Tony Venhuizen; Sen. Casey Crabtree, Madison; and Rep. Will Mortenson, Ft. Pierre

Amendment I is about making sure that South Dakotans get to make their own decisions about how to spend state money. It would NOT automatically end Medicaid expansion. It would let South Dakotans make that decision.

In 2022, voters approved Medicaid expansion. The state has honored that vote, and today about 30,000 South Dakotans receive coverage through the program.

A major reason voters supported expansion was a promise from the federal government: Washington would pay 90% of the cost, while South Dakota would pay 10%. Amendment I says that as long as Washington keeps that promise, nothing changes.

But what if Washington changes the deal? Think about any service you buy at a set price. If the company raises the price, you get to decide whether the service is still worth the cost. South Dakota deserves the same choice.

For every 10% of Medicaid expansion costs shifted from Washington to South Dakota, our state would have to find about $36 million more each year. That could mean higher taxes or cuts elsewhere. Our state has many important needs. We fund schools, law enforcement, nursing homes, and services for people with disabilities. Medicaid expansion for able-bodied, working-age adults should not have a guaranteed place at the front of the line if Washington stops paying its promised share.

Amendment I does not prevent South Dakota from continuing Medicaid expansion. It simply ends the constitutional requirement if federal funding falls below 90%. Legislators and voters could then decide whether expansion is still worth the new cost. Our state has participated in Medicaid programs for more than fifty years, without having it in the constitution.

South Dakotans made the decision to expand Medicaid. If Washington changes the deal, South Dakotans should make the next decision too.

Fairing Well
By: Gov. Larry Rhoden
September 4, 2026

Summer is winding down. Folks are trying to capture the last days of warmth and long sunlight. Meanwhile, farmers are getting ready for their harvest, and ranchers are ready to show off the calves they’ve been raising this year. And it all culminates with our South Dakota State Fair!

The South Dakota State Fair always feels like home because of its focus on our state’s number one industry: agriculture. Ag means everything to me and my family. My family has ranched for four generations, making our living off the land.

Similarly, the State Fair takes time to honor family farms that have stayed in the same family for generations. Every year, I make sure to attend the Century Farms program, where we honor family farms that have remained in the same family for 100 years or more. Approximately 95% of South Dakota’s ag land is privately owned by family farms and ranches. That’s huge! Those farms are key to passing down our South Dakota work ethic and values to our kids and grandkids. And they are a huge part of keeping South Dakota agriculture strong, safe, and free.

Through my adult life, I’ve focused on cattle ranching. But when I was growing up, we had a much more diverse farm operation. We grew crops. We raised cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, and more. It gave us kids plenty of chores to do, and that’s where we learned the value of hard work!

At the State Fair, everywhere you look, you see young South Dakotans learning that same value. 4-H competitions and other youth competitions are teaching young South Dakotans the value of working with their hands and seeing a project through to fruition.

I joined many of those kids as we signed a ceremonial copy of the Declaration of Independence. It was the perfect way to celebrate America’s 250^th birthday! And it was a treat seeing excitement and wonder in the eyes of so many students!

But none of this – not our nation, not our strength, not our celebrations – would be possible without the sacrifice of the veterans who came before us. And our State Fair recognizes that truth, as well. The Salute to Veterans event takes time out of our day to recognize veterans across our state. It was humbling shaking the hands of so many brave men and women who have served our nation in uniform. Hearing their stories of sacrifice was a sobering reminder that freedom is never free.

It was my great honor to serve our nation in the South Dakota National Guard, and it’s perhaps an even greater honor to serve as Commander in Chief of the National Guard today. My family has a long, storied history of military service to our nation, so it’s humbling anytime we pause and honor the men and women who served.

Agriculture, family farms, youth involvement, rodeo, and military service are just a few of the incredible aspects of our great State Fair. I didn’t even get into all the fried food or South Dakota ag products available to eat – my favorite is bacon-wrapped pork loin on a stick!

I hope you took the time to get out to the State Fair this year. And if you didn’t, we’ll see you next year. It’s the place to be!

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