Well, I guess South Dakota Republicans are that stupid. In yesterday’s primary, more than three quarters of Republican voters said Congressman Dusty Johnson, the smartest policymaker and most dedicated and energetic party builder running for Governor this year, said someone else would do a better job of running South Dakota:
With all but one precinct counted, stinking rich car salesman and booze peddler Toby Doeden has 31% of the Republican vote, followed by plodding incumbent Larry Rhoden at 25%. Johnson is coming in third at 23%, only slightly more popular among the Republicans he has so loyally and ably served than bumbling theocrat Speaker Jon Hansen at 21%.
Interestingly, self-funding millionaire Doeden’s win actually signals that money isn’t everything. As of the pre-primary reports two weeks ago, Johnson had raised almost twice as much campaign cash as Doeden and more than six times as much as Rhoden, yet Doeden and Rhoden both won more votes than the biggest spender. Hansen raised less than a tenth of what Johnson did but still won nearly 90% as many votes as Johnson.
Republicans do have the chance to redeem themselves from picking their worst gubernatorial nominee since… well, since Kristi Noem. (Yeah, this is the same party that elevated a petty, made-up cowgirl over qualified Republicans like Marty Jackley and Chris Nelson, and the same party that picked Jason Ravnsborg for Attorney General, so why am I surprised at the SDGOP’s continued kakistocracy?) Doeden has fallen short of the 35% necessary to clinch the nomination and thus must face Larry Rhoden in a runoff eight weeks from now, on Tuesday, July 28. The Republican establishment thus has a chance to rally around Rhoden, who at least has experience getting hard things done in Pierre and won’t blow up state government in a fit of Trumpist pique.
On the bright side, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dan Ahlers can watch with glee as Doeden and Rhoden spend another two months necessarily ignoring him and burning their cash slagging each other. On the dim side, the media and voters will also spend the next two months ignoring Ahlers, focusing instead on this first-ever statewide runoff election and leaving Ahlers as the final-line asterisk in every campaign story—”The winner of the runoff will face Democratic nominee Dan Ahlers in November.”
On the lighter side, this historic runoff has great headline branding: “Doeden/Rhoden Runoff”—it rhymes! It alliterates! It sounds great to the tune of “Hungry Hungry Hippos!”
But the overarching grim reality is that South Dakota Republicans have passed up the chance to nominate a Governor of Daugaardian intellect, Mickelsonian decency, and Kneipian youth and enthusiasm. Instead they’ve chosen an inexperienced blowhard and a boring old cowboy.
Dusty’s career is a cautionary tale.
There are over 21,000 registered voters in LawCo but only a little over 6,000 voted and only half of Earth haters turned out to vote for morbidly obese Randy Deibert.
Doeden is running away with the Polymarket race: 68-28.
Trump taints everything he touches. Dusty was the only candidate with the power to do anything as Trump destroyed our country, and he stood by and fecklessly watched, hoping voters wouldn’t pay attention before he tried to get out of D.C. That made it very hard to vote for him. He almost certainly would have lost the primary race by more if he had taken any stands against Trump, but at least he could have gone back home with some of his integrity intact.
With about 27.5% of registered voters turning out for the governor primary, all it took was 10% of the population to make Doeden the front runner. Maybe Dems should get their crap together and support primary reform.
Yep, the minority rules.
I used to respect Dustbowl.
Then he tried to be a Trumper, scolded local people for fighting “economic development” and launched a bunch of corny ads.
He sold soul but couldn’t quite go through with the transaction.
No Dusty, too bad, Larry will win, the Stompruds will have to wait for his retirement.
Not surprising. South Dakotans probably thought his head was too big. It goes way way back.
Actually, I haven’t had any use for Dusty ever since 2015, when he brought Maria Butina to the Teenage Republicans Camp out in the Black Hills and raved online about how the “kids loved her stories of working for freedom in Russia… And then took her on to the NRA. A little Red Sparrow, and he couldn’t figure it out? He’s not that bright.
Good one, Eve.