PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — There are 10 candidates for seats in the South Dakota Legislature this fall who are running as independents or Libertarians.
They face a very steep hill.
It’s been 100 years since South Dakota voters elected a lawmaker who wasn’t truly a Republican or a Democrat.
Back then, the Legislature was in an uproar over a growing crisis in South Dakota’s relatively new rural-credit system, where state government took on debt so that loans could be provided to farmers. The male-only Legislature in 1915 put the measure on the statewide ballot, and male-only voters amended the South Dakota Constitution in 1916 to allow the practice.
A decade later, as farmers increasingly defaulted on the loans, and with a handful of women now serving as state lawmakers after the 1918 vote that gave them suffrage, the Legislature and then-Governor Carl Gunderson held formal hearings looking into the rural-credit system’s lending and borrowing practices. The system’s manager eventually was sent to prison. State government needed many decades to repay the bonds and get out from under the debt.
This year, there’s another rural uproar affecting the Legislature. This time, the argument is over state regulation of proposed carbon-dioxide pipelines that would connect to ethanol production facilities throughout the eastern half of South Dakota. Many rural landowners along the planned route don’t want CO2 pipelines forced through their properties.
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The legislation, SB201, was labeled as “a landowner bill of rights” when majorities in the House and Senate passed it and Governor Kristi Noem signed it into law. But an opposition coalition that says the legislation “stripped local control from counties, municipalities and townships, and smoothed the path for a single private company to benefit at taxpayers’ and property owners’ expense” has referred SB201 to a statewide vote in the November 5 general election.
The backlash led to more than a dozen incumbent Republican lawmakers who voted for SB201 losing their seats in the June primary elections. Amid the controversy, neither of South Dakota’s Republican or Democratic central organizations have chosen to take a formal stand on the SB201 referral this fall. The Legislature’s membership continues to be split over the question of landowner rights.
Some of that smoldering turmoil is on display in the legislative campaigns this fall. Of the 10 legislative candidates running who aren’t listed as Republicans or Democrats, seven filed as independents. Most however have some past or current affiliation with either the Republicans or Democrats. Despite those partisan differences, opposition to SB201 appears to be a common theme in at least several of the campaigns heading into the Nov. 5 general election.
There are three independent Senate candidates.
Karen McNeal of Rapid City faces Republican incumbent Helene Duhamel of Rapid City, who twice voted in the Senate for SB201. McNeal refers on her campaign website to “the unlawful passage of SB201” and says, “The government has no business telling South Dakotans what to do with their personal property by a for-profit, out of state, private company.”
Michael Miller of Freeman is challenging Republican incumbent Kyle Schoenfish of Scotland, who twice voted in the Senate for SB201. Miller previously served on the South Dakota Farmers Union board of directors. Farmers Union is part of a coalition that opposes carbon-dioxide pipelines being classified as common carriers, which under South Dakota law have the right of eminent domain to cross land.
Shane Farlee of Dupree is up against two former lawmakers, Republican Sam Marty of Prairie City and Democrat Dean Schrempp of Lantry. Farlee ran as a Democrat two years ago when he was elected to the Ziebach County Commission.
Four candidates for House of Representatives seats are running as independents.
Victoria Greenlee of Spearfish and Shana McVickers of Spearfish are challengers to Republican incumbents Mary Fitzgerald of St. Onge and Scott Odenbach of Spearfish for that district’s two House seats. Fitzgerald twice voted for House passage of SB201, while Odenbach twice voted against it.
McVickers on her campaign website strongly opposes SB201. McVickers, a political conservative who supports hand counting of ballots, writes, “Lawmakers passed a bait and switch bill. They decided to give big corporations access to your land, but they told you is was about you and your land rights. That was a LIE! This is your chance to tell them NO thanks!”
Greenlee has been endorsed by the Lawrence County Democrats. She doesn’t express an opinion about SB201 on her campaign website.
William Craig Lafferty of Mission is taking on Republican Ron Frederick of Mission and Democratic incumbent Eric Emery of Rosebud for a single House seat. Emery twice voted against SB201 in the House. David Reis of Oacoma is challenging Republican incumbent Rebecca Reimer of Chamberlain for the same district’s other House seat. Reis currently serves on the Farmers Union board of directors. Reimer twice voted for House passage of SB201.
Three candidates are running as Libertarians for seats in the House, and two are from the same district. Tamara Lesnar of Grenville, who ran for the U.S. Senate in 2022, and Josh Dennert of Aberdeen are in a six-way contest for two seats.
Lesnar and Dennert face Republicans Logan Manhart of Aberdeen and Christopher Reder of Warner and Democrats Mark Sumption of Frederick and former legislator Steve McCleerey of Sisseton. Manhart and Reder finished first and second in the Republican primary to advance, leaving behind Republican incumbent Tamara St. John, who voted twice in the House for SB201.
The third Libertarian candidate for a House seat is Greg Zimmerman of Wentworth, who’s running against Republicans Tim Walburg of Madison and Tim Reisch of Howard, an incumbent. Zimmerman’s campaign Facebook page currently features a link to South Dakota Property Rights and Control Alliance, the coalition that referred SB201.
The full list of candidates running in the general election for the Legislature can be seen here. Eighteen of the 35 Senate seats will go uncontested on November 5, as will 27 of the 70 House seats. Nearly all of the uncontested seats will be held by Republicans when the Legislature opens the 2025 session on January 14.
The South Dakota Republican Party’s top leadership appears linked to SB201. The party’s current chair, Senator John Wiik of Big Stone City, twice voted for SB201; he isn’t seeking re-election. Dan Lederman, the party’s past chair, appeared at the Legislature on behalf of SB201 and has repeatedly reposted tweets from Summit Carbon Solutions, the company that wants to build the pipeline.
Lederman’s most recent statement on Summit’s behalf, posted September 6 on X above a Summit re-post, said: “As corn prices hover around the 52 week low, the market for low-carbon fuel is growing. @summit_carbon’s pipeline is the best way to keep our nation’s corn growers and ethanol producers competitive to meet the rising demand.”
Clearly, the political times have changed from a century ago. While the Legislature has traditionally been a stronghold for Republicans in South Dakota, the mix of lawmakers was a bit more fluid in the early decades of statehood.
The 1922 and 1924 campaigns for the Senate saw a victory by a member of the old Farmer-Labor Party, Stephen Henderson of White Rock, a once-bustling town in Roberts County. In several subsequent elections in the 1930s, he ran as a Democrat and won.
As for the House races in 1924, a half-dozen men who were neither Democrats nor Republicans won seats. That’s according to the 1925 Blue Book, which is published every two years by the South Dakota Secretary of State office.
Four won as Farmer-Labor candidates — J.J. Wipf of Freeman, O.J. Holm of Victor, G.D. Ladd of Wilmot and C.M. Fonder of Peever — while independents Rennie Buikema of Ipswich and David Crouch of Leola also won.
The peak of ‘other-party’ representation in South Dakota’s Legislature was two years earlier. Ten men who weren’t officially Republicans or Democrats won seats in the 1922 elections, according to the 1923 Blue Book.
In the Senate, in addition to Henderson, there was William Bartling, of Clayton in Hutchinson County, who ran on the Nonpartisan League line.
Eight other-party candidates meanwhile won House seats in 1922. Holm, Fonder and Ladd all ran as Nonpartisan League candidates So did five others who won: H.F. Harnisch, of Menno in Hutchinson County; William Isaak, of Parkston in Hutchinson County; H. Van Dan Acker, of Emery in Hanson County; Andrew Sieverson, of Milbank in Grant County; and John Maxwell, of Ortley in Grant County.
Since then, only two candidates have won election as state lawmakers running independent campaigns — and neither stayed independent for long.
Alfred Burke of Lead won a Senate seat in 1964 as an independent, but in the next four subsequent elections he ran as a Republican. Likewise for Jenna Haggar Netherton of Sioux Falls, who won a House seat in 2010 as an independent but ran and won in subsequent elections as a Republican.
