I want to give Taffy Howard some credit. I appreciate South Dakota Republicans (and anyone else) who are willing to stand up to the powers that be, as Representative Howard did last winter when she sponsored House Bill 1089 to tweak Governor Kristi Noem for hauling South Dakota Highway Patrol officers around the country as her personal bodyguards during campaign trips. That sensible bill and crafty poolitical move tricked Noem into attacking her fellow Republican, an unforced error showing Noem’s brittleness and boosting Howard’s cred.
But then instead of challenging Noem in the primary, Howard goes and runs for Congress against Dusty Johnson and says this stupid and dangerous thing:
Howard echoed Trump’s discredited claims of widespread voter fraud and has criticized Johnson for voting to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. She said she would like each state to conduct a thorough review of the election that goes beyond just a recount.
“I believe there was fraud in the last election that needs to be investigated,” Howard said. “Our current congressman is not willing to admit that there was an issue” [Stephen Groves, “South Dakota Lawmaker to Challenge Johnson’s US House Seat,” AP, 2021.10.12].
Congressman Dusty Johnson can’t admit there was an issue when there was no issue. Dusty recognizes that the real problem is that domestic terrorists used Trump’s and now Howard’s lie to justify a violent assault on the United States Capitol. By advancing false claims about the 2020 general election, claims for which no one has produced any evidence, Howard participates in the fascist movement to undermine American elections and the rule of law.
Howard could do a lot more good focusing on Noem’s real corruption and removing our Snow Queen from office. Instead, Howard parrots Trump’s lies about imaginary election corruption and imperils our democracy. Dang.
Democrats, this is serious. Howard is unfit for office and a menace to the Constitution. Be prepared to register en masse as Republicans next spring and vote en masse for Dusty in the primary to prevent another insurrectionist from going to Congress.
Time to pull taffy, eh?
Dusty is in no danger of losing to Laffy Taffy Howard. At the Mitchell Farm Fest show in August she had a big banner at her booth with a three item platform, included in the platform was “Fix elections.” I resisted the urge to tell her that fixing elections might not mean what she thinks it does. If she and her ilk run the country the “fix” will certainly be in.
Again Cory, your call to action comes close to, but short of, the biggest solution to SD politics I can see: EVERYONE register as a Republican. In a state with one party, there will be no party. If every candidate has to appeal to every voter, some “democrat” influence will finally be felt in elections. Democrats in SD have labeled themselves (and their candidates) into irrelevancy. If we let cooky Republicans choose the GOP candidates, and let GOP candidates nearly automatically win, we are perpetuating a dysfunctional system.
She immediately disqualified herself with that statement. If there was fraud in the balloting in 2020, she was elected in a fraudulent election as well. If she believed her lies, she would resign. I would. No one with any morals whatsoever would want to wield power they got from a fraudulent election. That ain’t going to happen, because she’s simply posing. She’s as fake as a Trump steak.
I don’t think Dusty has showed much courage in addressing the problem, but he clearly knows what the problem is. He cares more about his power and position than he does about the state of democracy in his party and his country. That is what his opponent needs to critique,
By parroting an election fraud lie found by multiple courts, conservative and otherwise, to be essentially frivolous or without and credible evidentiary support, Taffy Howard now apparently seeks to convince the public that she is crazy, a con artist, or a cheap opportunist. Whichever might apply, it further the observation that SD Trumpist/Republican politics continue efforts to drag the state to the bottom of a giant garbage pile.
My question for Howard is simple. Do you have proof of election fraud? Trump or is moronic followers haven’t provided it yet.
Just saying it doesn’t mean it’s so.
Dirty Johnson is buttering up his hands for this taffy pull. Not much of a contender either of them. I think taffy will be lucky to break 15% of the vote. Dirty by 85% over taffy. Primary will cost Dirty under $10,000.00, but will claim 10 times that much.
A Democrat has yet to announce but with some luck another principled conservative will get on the general election ballot while Taffy Howard makes Johnson burn off some of his funding stack.
trump was going to have to find someone to primary thune too.
I have heard it said that young Ms. Taffy is not susceptible to buttering, and I am not sure Mr. Johnson will have his hands full with this one.
Well, this is OK, the absolute stupidity of the trumpies will defeat them, maybe not in South Dakota but in any of the swing states they will lose. Just ad women in more states losing control of their bodies its going to make a very interesting election. Democrats and Independents will turn out to defeat the angry trumpie base. I’ll just smile when I vote it will be fun. Trump is killing the idea of the Republican party and they can’t help themselves.
Her (new?) position on this makes sense.
“But then instead of challenging Noem in the primary, Howard goes and runs for Congress against Dusty Johnson…”
Hitching her wagon to COVIDKristi’s national exposure and gravy train seems like the best thing Howard could do for a congressional campaign. A super pac, or 10, makes it all murky, untraceable and possible.
COVIDKristi doesn’t appear to be loyal to anyone except Trump and her nepotistic children. So far the 2022 campaign is Trump v Every Candidate on the Ballot, Everywhere and right now, today, he/his candidates are going to win South Dakota.
Is there any real reference to COVIDKristi supporting Johnson these days?
Aside: do South Dakota candidate and issue campaigns really only file campaign finance reports once a year? I was curious what KN’s recent donations were but don’t seem to find any at your SOS’s website. If so, how brutal.
Oh, TGA, I would love to see Noem’s Trumpoholism cause her to turn on Dusty and back Howard. I think she’s too personally petty to do that—Howard torqued her off with the openness bill about Noem’s use of SDHP as personal bodyguards on campaign trips out of state—but if Noem aligned with Howard, the SDGOP establishment would wage jihad on her in the primary.
Interesting. So KN is not as aligned with, or loyal to, Trump as I believed? Or maybe it’s loyalty for national attention but different at home?
So Taffy, how would you like to become the next representative from the great state of South Dakota in the US House? It would take money, much more money than you received from the Governor for your state rep campaign but we have friends that would be interested (very interested) in helping you out. In the meantime, we’ll just forget about this little old state plane and SDHP thing, OK? I mean, if everyone is saying that the presidential election was fraudulent, then it must be true…right?
I see now Republicans in Buffalo NY are backing the more moderate Democrat who lost the primary to a more progressive Democrat. In lieu of running a Republican candidate against the progressive in the general election, the GOP instead are choosing to put their backing behind a write-in ballot for the more conservative Democrat (who lost the primary).
As I have said before, . . . join ’em. If there is only one party, there are no partisanship. Voters will be forced to look at candidates and not simply check R to D boxes.
Yeah, sure…no fraud in the election. That’s why the dems fight so hard to keep anyone from conducting REAL, FORENSIC recounts/investigations. Cuz they have nothing to hide, right? I DARE you to watch the many, many hours of testimony in front of states’ legislatures (sworn to under threat of perjury) from witnesses and all kinds of forensic, statistical, IT, and cybersecurity experts of all stripes.
I also dare you to watch the new movie, “2000 Mules,” the most successful documentary in the last 10 years. Again, I dare you.
Dares will not induce me to watch complete lies. Dinesh D’Souza is doing the same thing as Trump, Lindell, and all the other Big Liars: tossing around complete lies and no real evidence. Republicans are the real election fraudsters.
Debunking of 2000 Mules is abundant:
https://www.politifact.com/article/2022/may/04/faulty-premise-2000-mules-trailer-about-voting-mai/
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1098787088
https://www.azmirror.com/2022/05/19/the-yuma-sheriff-isnt-investigating-election-fraud-because-of-2000-mules/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/19/even-geolocation-maps-2000-mules-are-misleading/
https://denvergazette.com/ap/business/what-2000-mules-leaves-out-of-ballot-harvesting-claims/article_a7d82b5b-f469-57b4-b8aa-68b1b55df15a.html
2000 Mules proves nothing other than the fact that people like Linda are willing to lie in order to support the Trump party’s effort to steal the next election and destroy democracy in favor of their authoritarian rule.
No evidence documentaries.
Leave it to us. We can think of ways to make democracy ever more universal and all inclusive.
Elections every week will really invigorate democracy.