The South Dakota Democratic Party announced last week that it has fielded candidates in 83% of South Dakota’s Legislative districts. 83% of 35 districts is 29.
The holes in that map are Districts 4, 8, 20, 21, 23, and 24. (District 8?! That’s Madison! Come on, Lake County friends—you have two open seats in the House, since incumbents Reisch and Walburg aren’t running! Now is your time!)
Of course, as of this morning, the Dems don’t really have candidates in 83% of Legislative districts. The official candidate list from the Secretary of State shows Democratic nominating petitions filed in 14 districts, 40%. So over half of the Legislative candidates Democrats say they have still need to file the petitions. The petition deadline is next Tuesday, March 31 (5 p.m. Central, Secretary of State’s office!).
Worth noting: If the Legislature had passed House Bill 1095 with its emergency clause, the petition deadline would have been March 17 instead of March 31. That would have knocked out four Democratic Legislative candidates who have filed since last Tuesday, reducing the map of where Dems are officially competing to 11 districts, 31%. And Democratic legislators Liz Larson, Jamie Smith, Eric Emery, Erin Healy, Eric Muckey, Nicole Uhre-Balk, and Kadyn Wittman voted for this anti-democratic HB 1095.
Governor Larry Rhoden has not signed HB 1095 yet, but if he does, Democrats will have to scramble even harder in 2028 to recruit Legislative candidates. (Come on, Larry! Surprise us with a veto, for the sake of competition!)
If all those Democratic prospects do file their petitions by next Tuesday, covering 83% of districts would improve on 2024, when Democratic candidates appeared on the ballot in 25 out of 35 Legislative districts, 71%
But citing percentage of districts clouds a more meaningful number: number of seats for which candidates compete. In 2024, a majority of districts had Democratic candidates, but Democrats were competing for only 16 out of 35 Senate seats and 31 out of 70 House seats. Even if every 2024 Democrat had won (and the actual win rates for Democrats were 19% in the Senate and 16% in the House), Republicans still would have controlled both chambers.
In 2024, the Democratic Party fielded full Legislative slates—one candidate for Senate, two for House—in just 8 districts. Democrats ran two candidates in 6 districts, one candidate in 11 districts, and nobody in 10 districts.
Republicans in 2024 had candidates for every seat in the Legislature but three: they failed to compete for District 10 Senate, one District 10 House seat, and one District 27 House seat. 100% of districts covered, 97% of Senate seats, and 97% of House seats.
As of this morning, March 24, Democratic candidates have filed petitions for 6 Senate seats (17%) and 16 House seats (23%). Republican candidates have filed petitions for 31 Senate seats (89%) and 62 House seats (89%), covering every district but District 15 in the liberal heart of Sioux Falls.
(Republican Governor Rhoden is going to look at those percentages and sign HB 1095 with a diabolical chuckle.)