Democratic candidate for District 12 Senate Joe Zweifel misses an opportunity for free press and leaves his opponent’s fluffy nonsense unchallenged on South Dakota’s biggest TV news page:
We interviewed one of the candidates running for the District 12 Senate seat. Two candidates are running for this seat: Republican Kari Shanard-Koenders and Democrat Joe Zweifel.
…We reached out to each of the candidates for an interview. Koenders responded, but Zweifel did not. Here are Koender’s answers to the questions asked [Quinn Gienapp, “Koenders Weighs in for District 12 Senate Seat,” KELO-TV, 2026.10.21].
Zweifel could sure use some free publicity, since he apparently can barely afford to buy any. His pre-general campaign finance report shows he’s raised only $3,531 ($1,500 of that from the Lake County Democrats—thank you, friends!) and spent only $968.69 on printing, postage, and advertising. His Republican opponent has raised $25,185 and spent $23,054.86 to sell voters on her candidacy. When you’re getting outspent by a factor of 24 (heck, even when you can compete on campaign finance), you take every call you get from a reporter who will put you on the air.
And Shanard-Koenders set herself up for easy rebuttal. Consider her namby-pamb about civility and common-sense:
“I feel it’s gotten a little stickier these days and maybe not so kind and not so common-sense,” Koenders said. “I just thought I could inject some common sense and some civility into the process, and thought the legislature could use some of my leadership skills as well as the medical side of things” [Gienapp, 2026.10.21].
“Not so kind and not so common-sense”? Gee, Kari, that sounds like the guy your party put in the White House. Will your injection of civility include telling people that Donald Trump is a mean old man who ought to show more respect to lawmakers, reporters, and allies?
Amidst her mostly useless fluff and professions of ignorance, Shanard-Koenders took only one clear policy position, showing she’ll flack for Big Tech billionaires:
Koenders said that the guardrails in place are helpful for controlling data centers locally. She expressed that moratoriums should not be put in place, instead seeing how the state can use the centers, while also ensuring there are no negative impacts on citizens.
“I don’t believe in moratoriums. I think we kicked the can down the road too much with the moratorium,” Koenders said. “I would like to see us do what we can. First of all, we need data centers in this nation, and we need them in South Dakota to hold our data. It’s a big concept to consider all of what goes into a big building and data center and what comes out of it. I think the noise reduction, making sure there’s no noise, making sure there’s no overuse of the water, and making sure there’s no overuse of the electricity so that residents get charged” [Gienapp, 2026.10.21].
Oh! Shanard-Koenders gave Zweifel the perfect set-up to talk about his alliance with a coalition of Democratic legislators who will take a much firmer stand against data centers and defend local governments’ right to ban them. But Zweifel didn’t answer the reporter’s call, so he leaves the floor and the headline all to his opponent.
Running for office would be difficult. I wouldn’t blame someone for stepping up, but finding it difficult to do everything it takes to win. However, this Zweifel guy and that Beaudoin dude, didn’t even seem to make a good faith effort. Better to leave the seat unchallenged than to put out these embarrassing “efforts”.