NOTE: This is the first of seven stories previewing the seven different ballot questions South Dakota voters will weigh in on in the 2024 General Election. Absentee voting starts Sept. 20, the voter registration deadline is Oct. 21 and Election Day is Nov. 5.
PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — In 1918, the South Dakota Constitution allowed only men to vote in state elections. That November, 64% of the men agreed that women should have the right to vote, too. Turn the calendar ahead to 2024. This November, South Dakota voters will decide whether the wording of their state’s constitution regarding state elected offices should become equal as well.
Giving women an equal chance at winning state office is the thrust of Constitutional Amendment E, which the Legislature decided last year to put on this year’s statewide election ballot. The constitutional revision proposes to eliminate references to men regarding various state offices and, by so doing, make the constitution more open to women and men alike.
What does a “Yes” vote mean, what does a “No” vote mean?
A “Yes” vote on Amendment E would adopt changing the South Dakota Constitution for gender references.
A “No” vote on Amendment E would leave the South Dakota Constitution as it is.
How Amendment E got on the ballot?
South Dakota voters elected the first woman as governor in 2018 when they chose Republican Kristi Noem. Four years after taking office, Governor Noem opened the 2023 session of the Legislature by raising the issue of gender equality.
After recognizing those in the chamber and the public, Noem said, “The South Dakota state constitution requires the governor to begin each legislative session by ‘[giving] the Legislature information concerning the affairs of the state and [recommending] the measures he considers necessary.’ Notice I didn’t say ‘she.’ The Constitution doesn’t say that. We’re going to fix that.”
Toward accomplishing that fix, Republican Sen. Erin Tobin brought Senate Joint Resolution 505, that would ask voters to amend the South Dakota Constitution. Meanwhile, Republican Rep. Jess Olson brought a companion measure, House Bill 1175, that would make gender-neutral a wide variety of state laws regarding powers and duties of not only the governor but also the lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, state economic development commissioner and the Supreme Court’s chief justice.
No one in either chamber publicly argued against any part of HB1175, and the 14-page piece of legislation sailed through on the consent calendar, without debate in either chamber, passing 64-4 in the House and 34-0 in the Senate.
It looked like an easy path as well for the resolution. At its Senate committee hearing, the governor’s legal counsel, Katie Hruska, joined Tobin in calling for support of letting voters decide the matter. Hruska cited the governor’s State of the State remarks and said the constitution should reflect that not only men can be chosen for governor or other state elected offices.
Republican Sen. Jessica Castleberry commended the governor’s office for proposing the resolution and Senator Tobin for bringing it. “I think this is an important change,” said Castleberry, who had signed on as a co-sponsor. “I think it’s time that this becomes part of our ordinary vernacular.”
Democratic Sen. Liz Larson thought the same, saying the resolution “seems like a very profound change.” Larson likewise commended the governor’s office and Sen. Tobin. “I think it’s a great thing,” Larson said.
The Senate agreed, voting 35-0 to advance the resolution to the House of Representatives for consideration. It rolled through the House committee hearing and was placed on the consent calendar so there would be no debate. But on the House floor, suddenly opposition surfaced.
Republican Rep. Bethany Soye asked for the resolution to be moved to the regular calendar so there could be debate. When the House took it up, Republican Rep. Liz May asked about the cost of putting the question on the ballot. Rep. Olson replied, “We’re already printing ballots for the general, It will simply be a question on the ballot.”
“Well obviously from the testimony it doesn’t seem women in our state have had much trouble getting elected to office,” May commented. “So I understand the desire to want to do this, I just don’t think it’s necessary. So I’m not going to support it.”
Republican Rep. Becky Drury rose to speak in favor. “What is the cost to disenfranchise half of our population? That’s what it is. If there’s a little girl reading the constitution of the state of South Dakota and every reference in there is to a male, does that really give her the thought or the capability in her mind to think that she can run for that office?”
Soye then spoke against putting the resolution on the ballot. She said the constitution is equally applied to men and women. “I think this is a frivolous change — and that clearly women can already run for the highest positions of authority,” she said.
The House vote was 58-12 — more than enough to put the question on the ballot, but clearly reflecting a split among Republicans about whether voters should even be asked.
History of women in South Dakota politics
So what has been the history of women in South Dakota state elections?
Currently women hold 22 seats in the House and seven seats in the Senate. That’s 29 of 105 total. Women have never held a majority of seats in either legislative chamber. The 22 currently in the House is a record number for that chamber. The Senate record of 11 was set in 1991-1992.
Republican Jean Hunhoff at 24 years ranks as the longest-serving female member of the Legislature of all time. By comparison, 15 men have served at least that long, including five with 30 years. Her streak will soon end, following a loss in the June primary.
One woman has served as House speaker, a post that’s selected every two years. She was Republican Debra Anderson, who presided over the House 1987 and 1988. One woman has served as Senate president pro tem. She was Republican Mary McClure, chosen by other senators as their chamber’s leader from 1979 until her resignation from the Legislature on April 10, 1989. That spring, Anderson and McClure went to Washington, D.C., where they served in the administration of President George H.W. Bush; Anderson was White House director of intergovernmental affairs and McClure was special assistant for intergovernmental affairs.
The first woman to serve in the Legislature was Gladys Pyle, a Republican from Huron, who was elected to the House of Representatives in 1922 and re-elected in 1924. Pyle became the first woman elected as South Dakota secretary of state in 1926 and was re-elected in 1928. She ran for the Republican governor nomination in 1930 and finished first of the five candidates, but because she didn’t secure 35% of the votes cast, the nomination was ultimately decided at the convention. (That process changed in 1985, when the Legislature passed a runoff election law.) At the convention, the Republican primary’s fifth-place finisher, Warren E. Green, was nominated, and he went on to win the 1930 general election. (Green lost his re-election bid in 1932 to Democrat Tom Berry.)
Pyle remained active in Republican politics and in 1938 she became the first woman from South Dakota elected to the U.S. Senate, serving for the two months remaining of the term of the late U.S. Sen. Peter Norbeck. Pyle remains the only woman to have won election as a U.S. senator from South Dakota.
The first woman elected to the South Dakota Senate was Democrat Jessie Sanders in 1936. She served one term and had previously served two terms in the South Dakota House.
South Dakota has elected two women to the U.S. House of Representatives. Stephanie Herseth, a Democrat, was elected in the June 2004 special election, following the resignation of Republican Bill Janklow. Herseth won re-election to a full term in November 2004, won again in 2006, married Max Sandlin in 2007, and won re-election in 2008. In 2010, Herseth Sandlin lost to Republican Kristi Noem, a state legislator at the time. Noem won re-election to the U.S. House in 2012, 2014 and 2016.
In 2018, Noem followed the path broken by Pyle 88 years earlier and placed first in the Republican primary for governor. Unlike Pyle, however, Noem won the nomination outright. She went on to win election to the office of governor that November and become the first woman to serve as state government’s chief executive. Noem won re-election as governor in 2022.
Starting in 1974, a political party’s candidates for governor and lieutenant governor began running as a team on the same ticket. Prior to that, candidates for governor and lieutenant governor ran in separate races. Since statehood in 1889, one woman has served as lieutenant governor: Carol Hillard, who was on the Republican ticket with Governor Janklow in 1994 and 1998.
Woman have seen more success in seeking election to some of the other statewide constitutional offices. Starting with Pyle in 1926, 15 different women were elected and served as secretary of state through 2002, including Republican Joyce Hazeltine, whose 16 years starting in 1987 set a state record for time in that office. Since then, two more women have been elected as secretary of state, including the current one, Republican Monae Johnson.
Three women have been elected as state auditor. The first was Democrat Harriet Horning of Watertown in 1958. She lost her bid for re-election in 1960 to Republican Betty Lou Larson of Gettysburg. The third woman elected auditor was Republican Alice Kundert of Mound City, who in 1968 won the first of four terms in the office.
Kundert later went on to win two terms as secretary of state in 1978 and 1982. In 1986 she ran for the Republican nomination for governor and placed fourth; her 13.8% of the vote came largely from rural areas and was seen by some as helping tip a close contest to George S. Mickelson, a Brookings lawyer, by cutting into the strength of former U.S. Rep. Clint Roberts, a Presho rancher.
Kundert ran for election to the state House in 1990 and won, then ran for re-election in1992 and won again. Including those two terms as a lawmaker, she served a combined 22 years in state-level elected offices.
No woman has been elected as state treasurer, but one has served. The Republican incumbent, E.V. Youngquist, won re-election in 1944 but died on July 8, 1945 during his second term. That opened the way for Governor M.Q. Sharpe to appoint deputy treasurer Hazel Dean of Wessington Springs. Dean sought the 1946 Republican nomination but lost to Clarence Buehler.
No woman has been elected as South Dakota attorney general or state commissioner of school and public lands.
Five women have been elected to a seat on the state Public Utilities Commission. While not a constitutional office, the three-member commission oversees utility regulation in South Dakota. The first was Democrat Norma Klinkel of Brookings, who won a single six-year term in 1974. She was followed by Republican Char Fischer of Bath, who won a single term in 1976. Republican Laska Schoenfelder of Mount Vernon won election in 1988, was re-elected in 1994 and 2000, and died in office on March 21, 2001. Democrat Pam Nelson of Sioux Falls won election in 1996 and lost her re-election bid in 2002 to Republican Gary Hanson of Sioux Falls.
Republican Kristie Fiegen of Sioux Falls was appointed to the commission on August 9, 2011, by Governor Dennis Daugaard, filling the vacancy left by the resignation of then-Democrat Steve Kolbeck. Fiegen was elected to the commission in 2012, re-elected in 2018 and is a candidate again this year.
In the judiciary branch, Mildred Ramynke became South Dakota’s first county judge when she won an election in 1958. After South Dakota voters created the current system, Ramynke won election as a Fifth Circuit judge in 1974. Currently women hold 19 of 46 circuit judgeships statewide, including all four judgeships in the Sixth Circuit.
Judith Meierhenry was the first woman appointed to the South Dakota Supreme Court. Governor Janklow chose her in 2002. Three other women have been on the state’s highest court. Governor Daugaard appointed Lori Wilbur in 2011 and Janine Kern in 2014. Governor Noem appointed Patricia DeVaney in 2019. Kern and DeVaney continue to serve on the five-justice court.
No woman has been chosen as the court’s chief justice.
