In the latest petition certification, Secretary of State Monae Johnson has added independent candidate Evangeline Poor Bear to the November ballot for District 27 House. Voters in Oglala Lakota, Bennett, Jackson, and eastern Pennington counties will thus have five candidates from whom to choose their two Representatives:
- Evangeline Poor Bear (ind—Pine Ridge)
- Elizabeth Lone Eagle (Dem running ind—Kyle)
- Jay Yohner (ind—Martin)
- Joe Flood (ind—Manderson)
- Rep. Liz May (GOP—Kyle, has served six terms in House from 2013 through 2018 and 2021 through 2026)
With four I’s and one R on the ballot, District 27 will elect at least one independent to the House. Bob mercer notes the last time we had an independent in the Legislature was 2010:
The most recent lawmaker elected as an independent was Jenna Haggar Netherton of Sioux Falls. In 2010, she won one of then-District 10’s two House seats, taking out Democratic incumbent Martha Vanderlinde.
In 2012, she and her father, Don Haggar, ran as Republicans and won the district’s two House seats. In 2014, she ran as a Republican for a state Senate seat and won, while he ran as a Republican for a House seat and won. Both won re-election in 2016. He resigned from the House on June 27, 2017. She resigned from the Senate on April 9, 2018.
Altogether, 58 independents have won election and served in the Legislature. Most were in the early decades of statehood. Among independents who served more recently were William Bartling of Hutchinson County and Alfred Burke of Butte County [Bob Mercer, “Capitol Memo: A House Seat Will Go to an Independent,” KELO-TV, 2026.05.11].
South Dakota now has ten candidates for Legislature—nine for House, one for Senate—filed as independents, one Libertarian, 45 Democrats, and 169 Republicans.