Any Demcorats still harboring moral qualms about all that primary/runoff party-switching should put those qualms to rest. Longtime South Dakota Democratic Party activist Sharon Stroschein says re-registering to vote in Republican primaries is o.k.:
“I am very supportive of open primaries, and then we would have never had to do this, but because of that, I had to go to the courthouse, reregister ahead of time,” Stroschein said Wednesday.
In South Dakota, only Republicans can vote in Republican primary contests. Stroschein was a lifelong Democrat before she switched to become a Republican before the July 13 voter registration deadline ahead of the July 28 GOP gubernatorial primary runoff election. She voted in that runoff and is already, again, a registered Democrat.
“I did the only thing I could legally, and it was to switch,” Stroschein said [Dan Santella, “SD GOP, Dem Chairs Not Thrilled with Party Switching,” KELO-TV, 2026.07.29].
Among the things I learned from my six years as a Brown County Democrat: If Sharon says it’s a good idea, it’s a good idea. If the Democrats aren’t offering primary candidates and the Republicans are, switch you registration to Republican, vote for the least bad elephants, then switch right back to Democratic so you can support the better donkeys come November.
Monkey wrenching South Dakota politics is hardly a new idea. We talked about this when Mount Blogmore was still a thing in the earliest days of blogging.