Bucking the national trend, S.D. Democrats continue to flounder
While Democrats swept the Midterm elections nationally, with a "tsunami" that reached Texas, Kansas, South Carolina and possibly Mississippi, in South Dakota the Republicans scored yet another sweep, winning all the statewide races by somewhere between 58% (Heather Baxter for Secretary of State) and 64% (Marty Jackley for Congress) of the total vote.
South Dakota Democrats did gain legislative seats, moving from just 8 out of 105 legislators all the way up to 12 out of 105 legislators, but these gains were entirely in the Sioux Falls area. Even the districts representing our nine Native American reservations, which were designed for Democratic wins, were swept by Republican candidates, with the lone exception of Eric Emery, who will continue to represent the Rosebud reservation.
Why did South Dakota buck the national trend and go solidly Republican at a time when Donald Trump inspired so many Democratic victories? Have South Dakota Democrats been down so long that we can no longer pick ourselves up?
It's a fact that no South Dakota Democrat has won a statewide race since 2008, when Sen. Tim Johnson and Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin both won landslide re-elections. That was also the year that Barack Obama won the Presidency, earning almost 45% of the vote in South Dakota and carrying 14 of our 66 counties, including Minnehaha and Brown.
In the years that followed, rural America turned sharply away from Obama and the Democrats and helped elect Donald Trump at the end of Obama's Presidency. As America has become totally polarized between the major urban areas, which are increasingly Democratic, and the small cities and rural areas which are heavily Republican, South Dakota has clearly identified as a red state. While Kansas just elected its first Democratic Senator since 1932, South Dakota has not elected a Democratic Governor since 1974.
We used to pride ourselves on having some of the highest voter turnouts in America. This month, only 49% of South Dakota voters bothered to go to the polls. As many voters perceived that none of our major races were actually competitive, the low turnout became a self-fulfilling prophecy. One party dominance is not good for democracy.
As we move toward 2028, when America will elect a new President, what can we do to start to rebuild a genuine two-party system in South Dakota? This state was very competitive politically from the late 1950's into the early 2000's.
Many of our rural communities actually leaned Democratic in those years. George McGovern single-handedly built a strong, competitive Democratic Party, which elected Jim Abourezk, Dick Kneip, Tom Daschle, Tim Johnson and McGovern himself. As the Trump Presidency continues to flounder, South Dakota Democrats need to return to serious grassroots organizing.
This needs to expand beyond the Sioux Falls metro area to our small cities, small towns and rural areas. South Dakotans need to be convinced that their votes really might make a difference. Then we may be able to get out of our one-party rut.
Jay Davis is a retired Rapid City attorney
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