At this point before the last U.S. Senate campaign, in our fair state, Democrats were still struggling to recruit one person to challenge incumbent John Thune. (Thune’s eventual challenger, Jay Williams, didn’t announce until February 19, 2016.) This time, twelve months before we get the chance to replace do-nothing Republican Senator Mike Rounds, South Dakota Democrats have two Senate candidates.
Clara Hart of Sioux Falls is challenging Dan Ahlers of Dell Rapids for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate:
Clara Hart says the person who currently holds the seat, Sen. Mike Rounds, hasn’t shown enough sympathy for struggling farmers in a state that relies on its agriculture industry.
…Hart is from Mozambique and became a U.S. citizen in 1993. She works as a liaison for refugee families in the Sioux Falls School District and is chairwoman of the Refugee Congress [“Hart Running for US Senate,” AP via Rapid City Journal, 2019.11.11].
Hart came to America as a refugee from Mozambique via Tanzania and Kenya in 1988. She’s the kind of person Senator Rounds’s Dear Leader wants to ban from our country. (Rounds’s Trumpistan allowed zero refugees to enter the country in October.)
In addition to working to help new Americans find their footing in our great country, Hart has run for public office three times. She’s never won, but she continues to offer herself as a public servant.
If everyone who has declared this year files petitions next year, Democrats will have two big primaries: Hart versus Ahlers for Senate and Brian Wirth versus Whitney Raver for House. Both contests offer a white guy from Dell Rapids versus a minority woman.
As with the Presidential primary, I’m not endorsing anyone yet, not even my friend Clara. I look forward to seeing which of these candidates can mobilize the strongest statewide team of volunteers, raise the most cash, and most effectively broadcast and one-at-a-time-cast positive Democratic messages that will bring voters to the polls in June.
Related Runnings: KELO-TV’s new election page says Iowa has four Democrats and one independent filed to run against Republican Senator Joni Ernst, while Minnesota has three filed Republicans challenging Democratic-Farmer-Labor Senator Tina Smith.
Thank you Clara! Best of luck!!
Clara Hart is a superstar. Pat Powers is an adolescent of negativity with no accomplishments to his credit.
Is Senator Rounds even going to run again? I think he would have anounced by now. He has plenty of money and might just retire and go home. That’s just my personal opinion though.
Dan Alhers would be a great Senator.
Best of luck to all 4 candidates.
2 great candidates. It’ll be a tough choice.
Any one here know what slick Mikes pension would be from the Govt, if he retires after a six year term.
Moses, according to this CRS explanation of retirement benefits for members of Congress, if Rounds does not return for a second term, he qualifies under the Federal Employees’ Retirement System for an annual pension of $10,440. (I’m not a financial planner, so I invite other readers to check my interpretation of the formulas.) If he stays for a second term, and if Congressional salaries remain unchanged at $174K, he’d qualify for twice that annual amount by 2027.
Rounds will be 66 by January 2021. I don’t mind if he takes retirement now.
Good luck, Ms Hart! Go get ’em.