Now that Emerson College Polling indicates that Governor Larry Rhoden holds a commanding lead in the July 28 runoff, car-and-booze loudmouth Toby Doeden really wants you to ignore his self-contradiction and believe that Emerson College Polling is bogus.
But here’s another sign that Emerson College’s July 12–13 poll of likely Republican runoff voters is statistically valid: when they asked their 500 respondents who they voted in the June 2 primary, they got responses that were within 0.2 to 0.3 percentage points of the actual primary results for each of the four candidates.
| Who did you vote for in the 2026 Primary Election for Governor? | |||
| Frequency | Valid Percent | Actual Primary Percent | |
| Larry Rhoden | 125 | 25.0 | 25.2 |
| Dusty Johnson | 116 | 23.2 | 23.4 |
| Jon Hansen | 103 | 20.6 | 20.8 |
| Toby Doeden | 151 | 30.3 | 30.6 |
| Did not vote | 5 | 1.0 | |
| Total | 500 | 100 | |
Only 1% of this poll’s respondents did not vote in the primary. The July 12–13 Emerson College poll thus reflects changes in voting inclination among a sample of primary voters that strongly represents the actual distribution of votes for the four primary candidates.
Since the maga boys left Dusty in the dust who cares? Another four years of Mud Butteism for South Dakota. Meditate on that.