Incumbent Republican legislators suffer losses as pipelines and property rights surge to the fore

Signs point the way to a polling place at the Sioux Falls downtown library during the primary election on June 4, 2024. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)

At least 14 Republican legislators lost their races against fellow Republicans on Tuesday in the 2024 primary election, with a controversial carbon dioxide pipeline among the top wedge issues to emerge.

Voters also ousted two of the state’s Native American lawmakers (a mother and son), and brought back a Republican who served as speaker of the House until two years ago.

Some of the victors leaned heavily on their opposition to Summit Carbon Solutions’ carbon capture pipeline, a multibillion-dollar project that would collect CO2 from ethanol producers in South Dakota and other states and move it through an underground pipeline for sequestration in North Dakota.

The project has caused more than two years of legal and legislative wrangling over landowner rights and eminent domain, the legal maneuver through which a company can seize property for projects in the public interest.

Some of the losing incumbents endorsed Senate Bill 201 ’s “Landowner Bill of Rights,” a compromise bill adopted last winter that’s aimed at boosting landowner protections while maintaining a path for the pipeline project. Ethanol boosters have argued that carbon sequestration – and the tax incentives that would make it profitable – is critical to the corn-based fuel’s future in South Dakota. Project opponents are seeking to refer the new law to a public vote in November.

There were 44 Republican legislative primary races Tuesday and only one Democratic primary race. Winners advance to the Nov. 5 general election. One top finisher from each party advances in Senate primaries, and two top finishers from each party advance in House primaries (except for “split” House districts, where only one from each party advances). Residents of each district are ultimately served by two representatives and one senator.

Statewide voter turnout was 17%, according to the Secretary of State’s Office, which ranks low compared to past primary elections.

Current legislators who lost

The current legislators who lost their races, according to unofficial results from the Secretary of State’s Office :

• Sen. Erin Tobin, R-Winner, fell by 48 votes (which is within the possible recount margin) to a political newcomer from Bonesteel named Mykala Voita, who campaigned on the primacy of landowner rights.
• Sen. Jean Hunhoff, R-Yankton, who’s served more than two decades between stints in the House and Senate, lost her latest bid for reelection to newcomer Lauren Nelson, 52% to 48%.
• Rep. Byron Callies, R-Watertown, lost by 21 votes (pending a possible recount) to a Hayti doctor named Josephine Garcia, who spoke out against carbon pipelines and the Landowner Bill of Rights. Also winning a seat in the district was the top vote-getter, former Watertown City Attorney Matt Roby.
• Rep. Tyler Tordsen, R-Sioux Falls, a Native American member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, lost his race by coming in third with 26% of the votes behind the second-place finisher, Sioux Falls businessman and prominent member of the Catholic community Tony Kayser (35%), and first-place finisher Rep. Taylor Rehfeldt, R-Sioux Falls (39%).
• Tordsen’s mother and fellow Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate member, Tamara St. John, R-Sisseton, also came in third place in her race with 28% of the vote, losing to Logan Manhart (38%) and Christopher Reder (34%) in northeastern South Dakota’s District 1.
• Rep. James Wangsness, R-Miller, the House majority whip, earned 21% of the votes in his race and fell to former Speaker of the House Spencer Gosch of Glenham (37%) and incumbent Rep. Scott Moore (42%).
• Rep. Fred Deutsch, R-Florence, came up short against Rep. Stephanie Sauder of Bryant as each representative vied for an open state Senate seat; the 51% to 49% result could be subjected to a recount.
• Sen. Ryan Maher, R-Isabel, lost by 12 points to Dupree rancher Jana Hunt in his attempt to switch to the House.
• Republican Rep. Becky Drury came in third in her race with 28% of the vote, behind challenger Heather Baxter (35%) and the top vote-getter, Rep. Mike Derby (37%), all of Rapid City.
• Sen. Mike Walsh, R-Rapid City, was appointed to an empty seat last winter but won’t be headed back to Pierre after a 16-point loss to Greg Blanc, also of Rapid City (another candidate, Curtis Nupen, finished in a distant third).
• Sen. David Johnson, R-Rapid City, lost to challenger Curt Voight 56% to 44%.
• Rep. Gary Cammack, R-Union Center, received 28% of the vote and lost to challengers Terri Jorgenson and Kathy Rice.
• Rep. Kirk Chaffee, R-Whitewood, lost by 18 points in his attempt to switch to the Senate against challenger John Carley.
• Sen. Julie Frye-Mueller, R-Rapid City, lost to challenger Amber Hulse by four points.

All results from Tuesday’s primary are unofficial until the election is canvassed.

Callies pondering recount

Callies’ narrow loss could end up in a recount should he choose to ask for one, but he said Tuesday night that he hadn’t made up his mind.

“Typically, the counting machines are pretty accurate,” said Callies, who was targeted by mailers in recent weeks over his votes on education funding and the Landowner Bill of Rights. “If the voters have spoken the way it’s indicated so far, I was pleased and proud to serve South Dakota.”

Roby said he escaped being targeted by the kind of attack mailers used against Callies because Roby hasn’t cast any legislative votes. He supports the Landowner Bill of Rights and said he values compromise.

“I managed to steer clear of that shrapnel,” Roby said. “Hopefully that’s not evidence that that stuff works.”

Garcia had the support of South Dakota Right to Life PAC and Liberty Tree PAC, both of which backed anti-pipeline candidates. Garcia said she ran a positive campaign. The only mailers she authorized were the ones from her own campaign, which reported less than $9,000 in income in the pre-primary campaign finance disclosure. She said she wasn’t involved in mailers decrying Callies’ pipeline vote.

“I ran a poverty campaign,” Garcia said. “I had very minimal funding over the past six to eight weeks. I had not been preparing, like the others, for over a year. It wasn’t about the money. It was about the people.”

When asked how important the pipeline debate was in the District 5 race, she said “tremendously important.”

If Callies chooses not to do a recount, Roby and Garcia will face Democrats Amy D. Rambow and Diane M. Drake in the general election.

Hunhoff loss

Sen. Hunhoff sounded a positive note shortly after her race for state Senate was called Tuesday night.

“I’m doing fine,” Hunhoff said. “I congratulate Lauren for her win, and now I’ll go gracefully into retirement.”

Hunhoff lost to Nelson by 96 votes, with a final tally of 1,235-1,139.

After so many years as a lawmaker, she’s looking forward to finding new ways to contribute to her community.

“Now I’m moving on to another aspect of my life, and hoping that I can fill it with something other than the Legislature,” she said.

Nelson, who did not return a call from South Dakota Searchlight seeking comment, will face Democrat Dennis Menke in November.

Mother, son out

Kayser, who bested Tordsen by 286 votes, said he hadn’t planned on running until this year. He had planned to go to Spain to participate in the Camino de Santiago, or the Way of St. James, which is a 500-mile walk across the country to the saint’s grave. He walked the final 12 miles in 2023, but a neuropathy diagnosis put the 500-mile trek out of reach.

It wasn’t long after the diagnosis that Kayser got a call from Rep. Jon Hansen, who is affiliated with the Right to Life PAC that would ultimately contribute to Kayser.

“I closed the door on my plan A, which was all about me, and two hours later Jon Hansen texted me and asked if I wanted to run for House of Representatives in my district,” he said.

Opposition to the carbon pipeline was the most common and salient issue for the voters he met while knocking on doors, Kayser said.

“People know that a private company, with maybe foreign interests, doing something that doesn’t necessarily need to be done on the whole Green New Deal, it was out of place. It was not put in a way that gave the farmers and the landowners the rights they need,” Kayser said.

Kayser and Rehfeldt will be on the general election ballot with Democrats B.J. Motley and Keith Block.

Tordsen and his mother, St. John, did not respond to calls for comment Tuesday. Both voted for SB 201.

Shortly before midnight, Tordsen posted a statement to his candidate Facebook page thanking his family and voters and decrying the influence of “D.C.-style politics” in state races.

“I squeezed the work of multiple terms into one, and I’m able to keep my head high knowing I was honest with you all in my communication and actions every day — even through false and negative campaigning directed my way,” he wrote.

Crabtree crushes Weible

Not every attempt to oust incumbents who backed pipeline-friendly legislation was successful. Senate Majority Leader Casey Crabtree, of Madison, defeated election skeptic Rick Weible in a landslide victory, 2,057 to 799.

Weible, a former mayor from Minnesota turned South Dakota resident, has become a prominent figure in the fight for hand-counting ballots . He has leveraged his background in computer consulting to scrutinize and challenge the security of machine voting systems.

Crabtree is unopposed in the November election.

Gosch succeeds in comeback

Former speaker of the House of Representatives, Spencer Gosch, served in the chamber from 2017 until 2022. He held the speaker position from 2021 to 2022.

Gosch beat current House Majority Whip James Wangsness, who said his support of the Landowner Bill of Rights likely made the difference.

“That 201 and eminent domain issue was a big deal,” Wangsness said. “I knew it would be a big battle, but not this big. Those people are animated, and they showed up.”

Gosch and incumbent Rep. Scott Moore are unopposed in the November general election.

Pischke wins big despite being banned from House

Incumbent Sen. Tom Pischke, R-Dell Rapids, beat challenger and former legislator Jordan Youngberg 1,369 to 654 for District 25’s Republican Senate nomination.

Pischke was banned from the House of Representatives floor and lobby during the final days of the 2024 legislative session for a breach of decorum.

The ban was imposed after Pischke placed a bottle of syrup on the desk of a representative who had moved to defeat a commemoration for the late Nancy Green, whose likeness was used for Aunt Jemima syrup advertising. Aunt Jemima branding was discontinued in 2021, causing Pischke and other supporters of the commemoration to claim Green’s story was “sadly erased by politics.”

Pischke will face Democrat Brian Wirth in November.

Schoenbeck’s son flops

There won’t be a Schoenbeck in the Legislature next year.

Longtime legislator and current Senate President Pro Tempore Lee Schoenbeck, R-Watertown, is not seeking reelection. His son, Jake Schoenbeck, of Sioux Falls, lost the District 2 Republican House primary to incumbents John Sjaarda, of Valley Springs, and David Kull, of Brandon. Schoenbeck pulled 475 votes compared to Sjaarda’s 1,410 and Kull’s 1,168.

Sjaarda and Kull are unopposed in November.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was updated several times since its original publication with new results as they became available.

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