PIERRE, S.D. (South Dakota Searchlight) – After a whirlwind three elections in five months, South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden has won his own four-year term.
The Republican was leading Democratic challenger Dan Ahlers 64% to 36% on Tuesday when The Associated Press called the race at about 10:45 p.m. Central time with 52% of the votes counted statewide.
Rhoden’s win caps a political rise that began with his elevation from lieutenant governor when then-Gov. Kristi Noem resigned in January 2025. Noem joined President Donald Trump’s administration, leaving Rhoden to serve the final two years of her second term.
When Rhoden launched a campaign last November to keep the job, poll results showed him as an underdog to U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, who chose to run for governor instead of reelection to Congress.
Yet it was a political newcomer, Aberdeen businessman Toby Doeden, who swooped in to finish first in the June 2 Republican primary while spending $5 million of his own money on his campaign. Rhoden advanced to a top-two runoff by finishing second while Johnson fell to third, and state Speaker of the House Jon Hansen finished fourth.
Rhoden turned the tables on Doeden in the July 28 runoff, trouncing him by 42 points.
There was little suspense after that for Rhoden in a state where Republicans outnumber Democrats 2-to-1. Ahlers, a 52-year-old businessman and former legislator from Dell Rapids, struggled to gain a statewide foothold as his campaign’s minimal fundraising allowed him to spend only $164,000 by the Oct. 19 reporting deadline. Rhoden’s fundraising committee spent more than $3 million throughout the campaign.
The defeat for Ahlers and his running mate, former legislator Steven McCleerey, extends a long losing streak for their party. The last time the state elected a Democratic governor was 52 years ago in 1974.
Rhoden is a 67-year-old rancher, custom welder and former legislator from rural Union Center who ran on his record from nearly two years as governor, including his work with legislators and his lieutenant governor, Tony Venhuizen, to sign several major bills into law.
Those include laws capturing revenue from sales tax increases to reduce homeowner property taxes, a law banning the use of a legal procedure known as eminent domain to gain land access for carbon capture pipelines, and a law funding construction of a $650 million replacement for the oldest parts of the state’s 145-year-old penitentiary.
“Good policy makes good politics,” Rhoden said while launching his campaign.
Rhoden could choose to run again four years from now for what would amount to a third term. Term limits in the state constitution say “no person shall be elected to more than two consecutive terms as governor,” but Rhoden served his first two years through the line of succession rather than direct election to the job.
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