The fall and (potential) rise of the South Dakota Democratic Party
Author’s note: The South Dakota Democratic Party has had a terrible 18 years since the loss of Tom Daschle and Stephanie Herseth Sanders and the eventual retirement of Tim Johnson. As of the general election of 2008, the South Dakota Democratic Party (SDDP)had 204,413 voters or 38.5% of registered voters, and the South Dakota Republican Party (SDRP) had 241.528 voters or 44.5% of the registered voters in South Dakota. By September 2026, the Democratic position had dropped by more than a third to 134,453 voters or 21.5% of registered voters while republicans increased by more than a third to 330,399 registered voters or 52.8%. Independent/No Party increased 87.6% from 83,147 to 156,019 registered voters or 25%.
The purpose of this article is to present a possible reason for the decline in SDDP registrations and propose ways of reversing it.
The Fall
No one knows for certain why voters chose not to register as Democrats and instead chose to register as IND/NPA or Republican. It is undoubtedly a variety of reasons. But what is clear is that beginning in 2009, the SDDP began to lose connection to and resonance with voters in South Dakota. In addition to the loss of voters, participation in the South Dakota legislature dropped from 34 members to nine. Nationally, our federal delegation dropped from three to zero. Several weaknesses have contributed to the decline:
Powerful and effective Opposition. The South Dakota Republican Party (SDRP) has been well organized, well funded and employed good strategy painting the SDDP as the party of high taxes, and minority groups.
Poor national perception The perception is not only attributable to the SDRP, the national Democratic Party’s lack of strategy has allowed this perception whereby the Republicans define us by issues rather than values.
Leadership. SDDP leadership selection is based on popularity only. No qualifications—knowledge, education experience, skills or abilities are required in order to lead the SDDP. This may be because of a lack of interested successful Democratic business and professional leaders. The SDRP, on the other hand has a large pool of business and professional leaders to call on to run their party and can select the one that they believe has the best skills to lead the party. Leadership will continue to be achallenge for the SDDP.
The Old Method of Growing the Party
Until recently, the SDDP had no real plan of action. Its efforts were focused on four areas:
Voter registration drives. The problem is that only one in five voters choose to register Democrat. The voter registration efforts were aimed at individually talking to potential voters and asking them to register as democrats. To the extent it occurred, it likely had positive effects and may have produced several thousand registered voters. At the same time thousands of registered democrats died or moved. And tens of thousands moved in with a net increase of nearly 100,000 voters. The personal contact technique is effective in registering a few voters, but not effective on a large scale.
To be successful, the first step in registering democratic voters is to convince them that the Democratic Party is the right choice. That requires “selling” the party to prospective voters BEFORE the second step of asking them to register.
Candidates. The second part of the existing plan is to get candidates that will grow the party. This is flawed, but based on experience. It has been candidates, not the leadership of the party that made it successful. Tom Daschle, and before him George McGovern, had the organization, management and marketing skills to develop a popular message and sell it to the public and create an organization to win voters and the election. However this is an unfair strategy and a losing one.
The party had its best, most popular, candidate in the last 15 years in Billie Sutton. Billie got approximately 50,000 independent and republican voters tovote for him. But they didn’t vote Democrat. Down ballot they voted Republican. And it wasn’t Bilie’s job to get people to vote Democrat. His only job was to get them to vote Sutton. It is the job of the SDDP to convince people to register and vote Democrat. They can’t require or expect candidates to do their job for them.
Support the Candidates. The party works with candidates to raise time and money, for their campaigns.
Get Out the Vote (GOTV). The party assists candidates in getting sympathetic voters out to vote. The problem is that if the marketing effort to create a solid base of sympathetic voters, there aren’t enough Democratic votes to get out to be successful.
All these activities are necessary. But they aren’t sufficient. Because they aren’t sufficient, the party has fallen on very hard times. The party needs to do more different things “work smarter”.
In recent years the party has developed some new ideas that form the basis of an informal plan. The success is yet to be determined. But there is reason to believe that the SDDP could rise to become more influential in South Dakota Public Policy.
The Rise
For the SDDP to rise again, several things must happen.
A solid plan that the SDDP adopts and follows the progress at every meeting — a process for selecting leaders that have the knowledge, skills, abilities and experience to successfully manage the party and implement the plan
The Plan
No large organization has been successful without a good plan. It has several names — Business Plan, Strategic Plan, Operations Plan, etc. — but a good plan has several items:
1. Values
These are the things that define the party. People with these values should be Democrats. They should be easily learned by everyone. Only two to five values with fewer than five words per value. Republicans have done an excellent job. Everyone knows the values that make a Republican. Republicans can differ on issues like data centers, pipelines etc., but on four critical areas they all have the same values. Even non- Republicans can easily define the values of a republican: Second amendment, right to life, small government, low taxes.
They are short. simple and easy to understand. They have other, hidden, values as well: rich people/money, white people, unrestricted business, etc. Those are not articulated, but reside in the background.
For Democrats, the definition is not so simple. The reason is that Democrats circle around issues, and republicans exploit that. They have been successful in defining a Democrat as a person that believes in (values) gays, trans, abortion, women, minorities, the “Green New Deal” etc. None of these are values. They are issues. Democrats need to define a short list of the values that define a democrat while they can disagree on specific issues. This is the “big tent” theory. The tent walls are the values anyone with those values is a Democrat. Issues are corners inside the tent. I suggest:
Value 1: People We value everyone, not just gays, trans, women, etc. But People. Anyone who values people should be a Democrat. That needs to be juxtaposed against the Republican value of money. If you think government should prioritize people over money, then you should be a Democrat. That idea needs to be sold.
Value 2: Good government We value government that is open, transparent, ethical and effective. Not necessarily cheap government—and that has been held against Democrats. But it should be efficient government.
Value 3. The environment. We value the world we live in. This would include everything from forest management to global warming. It could logically be included in good government or be stand alone.
I believe that most of the things that any Democrat values are subsumed in those values. Easy to define; easy to sell.
Vision: The vision is the outcome that the party is attempting to achieve. “The South Dakota Democratic Party envisions a state where…”
Mission. This is the primary reason for being and describes the method of making the vision come true.
Goals. A plan must have things it is working toward. Increased numbers of elected officials; improved funding; efficient administration are examples. As explained above, the party must market “sell” itself—its values. A strong marketing plan to reach all independents and “soft” republicans is necessary.
Objectives. These are measurable activities. They are certain things to be accomplished by an individual or group, by a certain date.
For a plan to be effective, it must be followed. Each quarterly SDDP agenda should include in addition to a consent agenda (reports, etc—things that need not discussion)
1. Old business:
a. What were we supposed to accomplish in the last quarter? What did we actually accomplish.
b. What were the successes and can be removed from the plan.
c. What were the failures and these added to new business.
2. New Business.
a. What things does the plan have us accomplish in the next quarter? Is that still realistic?
b. Should the plan be amended to include things left over?
3. Are there new issues that need to be added to the plan. Those apply to not for profit organizations as well as business organizations.
SUMMARY
The South Dakota Democratic Party must do two things in order to reverse the downward trend of the past two decades:
1. Develop a workable plan with goals and solid, measurable objectives. The plan must have clear values that define who is a Democrat. They must be as inclusive as possible. A small uniform party is comfortable, but ineffective. The party must believe in diversity for itself as well as for the nation. It cannot be a party of clones.
2. The party must develop a procedure for selecting leaders with a proven record of successful leadership of a large organization. “Learn on the job” is a recipe for failure, as our history shows. Learning from one’s mistakes is important. But it is best if those mistakes were made BEFORE becoming a SDDP leader. Learn at someone else’s expense, not ours.
John Cunningham of Sioux Falls has a Master of Public Administration degree. He has spent his career in local government finance, including in Fulton County, Ga., and Atlanta and has done consultant work in five foreign countries.
The South Dakota Standard is offered freely and is supported by our readers. We have no political or commercial sponsorship. If you'd like to help us continue our mission to advance independent political and social commentary, you can do so by clicking on the "Donate" button that's on the sidebar to your right.
