Former Republican legislator Jean Hunhoff of Yankton, who is running to return to the Senate in 2027, says Governor Larry Rhoden’s flat budget proposal doesn’t invest enough in the state services South Dakotans depend on:
The governor recently presented what he called “a limited budget” and encouraged lawmakers to see those limits as an opportunity. There is value in looking for opportunity, but responsible budgeting also requires honesty about what tight dollars mean for the families, schools, and providers who rely on state services every day.
…What does a 0.0% increase mean? When faced with expenses like utilities, insurance, transportation, food service, and staffing that continue to rise, that’s not holding the line. That’s forgetting to set the emergency brake on an icy hill. And just like that slippery slope, we’ll find ourselves going backwards.
…True fiscal conservatism is not only about limiting spending. It is also about protecting the essential services that allow families and communities to thrive. Strong rural schools are part of the foundation that keeps people living, working, and building their futures in South Dakota. If we want our young people to stay here, we must make sure they have access to quality education close to home [Jean Hunhoff, “Testing Our Limits with a Limited Budget,” South Dakota War College, 2025.12.09].
Hunhoff also questions Rhoden’s fiscal discipline:
The governor also left $14 million in one-time funding for legislative consideration. In a year that is described as a tight budget, that amount sends a mixed signal about the level of real budget discipline required [Hunhoff, 2025.12.09].
Todd Epp’s election robot says Hunhoff’s critique could undermine Rhoden’s reëlection campaign:
Former Sen. Jean Hunhoff’s critique of Gov. Larry Rhoden’s “limited budget” landed with people who understand state government’s plumbing. She pointed to Medicaid surpassing K–12 for the first time and highlighted the governor’s 0.0 percent increases for schools, Medicaid providers, and state employees.
Those comments now circulate among superintendents, health-care leaders, and appropriations veterans. It hasn’t shifted the average GOP primary voter yet, but it sharpened elite skepticism about the administration’s numbers [Todd Epp, “Race Lab Signals: What’s Moving Beneath the Governor’s Race—And What Isn’t,” Northern Plains News, 2025.12.10].
I don’t have a robot, but I do have appreciation for any Republican who can criticize a Republican Governor for insufficient conservatism on sensible fiscal policy grounds, without invoking any of the faux-conservative culture-war dog whistles. We need a serious debate about how to balance budget restraint with the need for effective government services, not frivolous fracases about who can join the women’s swim team or who can deregulate silencers fastest.
I’m not sure I’m ready to concede the good Senator’s premise that “true conservatives” care about investing in services like schools and the larger social safety net. Starve the beast (and keep those tax funds in the taxpayer’s pockets) really seems the true conservative proposition — especially since Reagan.
Instead, I see these remarks (in line with so called Social/Socialist-Democrats) as a reassigning of political affiliation. Politicians have to more now ask WHO they represent. The battle lines of the economy now divide the investor class and the worker class (I for the moment remove MAGA who represent the Cult of Trump). We have consciously and through legislative act decided to distribute wealth to the investors from the workers. Godspeed to any candidate who can realign worker values into the GOP. (I’m not convinced even the Democrat establishment is ready for that full embrace.)
I’d like to see who’s on the girls swim team. Our king used to pop in all his girls beauty pageants, especially the one in Moscow. He’s always liked those eastern European girls.
Yes, O, Hunhoff’s use of the term “true fiscal conservatism” seems to be an “ought”, not an “is”. She seems to be talking about a classic conservatism that hasn’t really described the malicious and short-sighted intent of self-identifying “conservatives” since Grover Norquist set them all off on the mission to shrink government until they could drown it in a bathtub. If Hunhoff is seriously philosophizing, she seems to be trying to turn her party back into Adam Smith conservatives who recognize the need for a robust government carrying out its proper roles (repelling invaders, catching bad guys, doing necessary things the free market can’t or won’t) to maintain conditions in which capitalism can work.
But maybe she’s not philosophizing. Maybe she’s not making a play for the votes of workers or anyone else whom she seeks to represent again in District 18 (although I can see an argument that she’s trying to distinguish herself from the dodo-bird mugwump Lauren Nelson she’s campaigning to replace). The most important thing Hunhoff’s critique does is not maybe change voters’ minds amidst future policy discussions (as Epp’s robot suggests) but signal the state of the primary electorate and the Republican machine right now. She’s a respected mainstream Republican campaigning to return to the Legislature. Normally, a Republican in that situation would play nicely, not say cross words about the sitting Governor, and curry the incumbent’s favor. Instead, she’s reminding us that she’s among the 112 current and past legislators who are backing Dusty Johnson for Governor. Those mainstreamers are ready to move past Rhoden and Noem and get back to electing real policy wonks to the big chair.
Watching the SDGOP evacuating the offal from one another is extraordinaryly therapeutic!
extraordinarily rather….
Cory, if I knew that Dusty Johnson represented a shift back to sanity, I’d be on board with the hope of a GOP revolution (M GOP G A?). Each week I read Dusty’s newsletter, and every week there is news of red meat for the MAGA crowd. In the same document, often a celebration of some Trumpist victory paired with how he continues to work on improving the lot of those he just undercut backing the President (read veterans most often here).
I do not trust the deprogramming vow of any who bent the knee, drank the KoolAid, and joined the cult. I see the GOP as a house that needs cleaning from outside — not within (but to be fair, I would say much the same of the Democrats).