SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – Now that the 2024 General Election has wrapped up, lawmakers are looking ahead to what comes next. In the South Dakota legislature, there have been some changes in terms of who is leading each party’s caucus.
Democratic Representative Erin Healy of Sioux Falls and Republican Senator Jim Mehlhaff of Pierre aren’t new to the South Dakota Legislature but are new to their executive leadership roles.
Healy is the new Minority Leader in the House.
“As a small caucus, we’re really resilient,” Healy said. “We work really hard for the people of South Dakota and we do always do what’s right. I’m excited to continue that.”
Mehlhaff is the new Majority Leader in the Senate. He says that role is his primary focus right now.
“To try to create some sense of unity,” Mehlhaff said. “It’s a very divided caucus, there’s kind of two schools of thought in there and I get along with both sides. My goal is to create a functioning caucus on the stuff that we agree on.”
Healy says some of the topics she’s looking forward to discussing in the upcoming session include child care and funding public education.
“Just in the past few years we’ve seen a lot of bills that have advocated on behalf of private education and homeschooling,” Healy said. “I think that is sometimes detrimental to public schools and I’m looking forward to being a champion for them.”
Mehlhaff says he isn’t focused on a specific issue yet, but he says revenue will drive a lot of what gets on the 2025 agenda.
“We’ll have to set priorities and not everything is going to make the cut because there will be limited resources this year as compared to the last two years,” Mehlhaff said.
If you’d like to hear from more of South Dakota’s incoming legislative leaders, join us for this weekend’s Inside KELOLAND. We’ll talk about the session and the possibility of a new governor.
