SIOUX FALLS, SD ( Associated Press) — South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, who has risen to her national prominence through a hands-off approach to pandemic restrictions, won the Republican primary on Tuesday against a former legislative leader who won her election. was accused of using the office. Mount the 2024 White House bid.
Follow Live: 2022 South Dakota primary election results
His first-ever gubernatorial primary victory against former South Dakota House Speaker Steve Hougaard gives him a commanding advantage as he seeks another term in November against Democratic state Representative Jamie Smith, who did not face a primary challenger.
Noem has used this election fundraising cycle to collect a record amount for the South Dakota gubernatorial candidate — bringing in more than $15 million from a series of fundraisers across the country.
“She was one of the only governors determined not to use the pandemic to increase government infiltration in our lives,” said Keri Larson, a Republican voter from Sioux Falls. “It says a lot about her and how she will rule under pressure.”
But Noem has sometimes struggled to manage statehouse politics, publicly clashing with Republican legislators with whom he disagrees.
Haugaard had attempted to reverse Noam’s 2018 campaign promise to increase transparency in the government. He has pointed to ethical complaints about using state-owned airplanes to participate in political events and playing a practical role in a state agency while it is evaluating his daughter’s application for a real estate appraiser license. Was getting it done.
Sioux Falls Republican Kevin Nelson said he voted for Haugard on Tuesday because “Christie is a little too tall and powerful in her office. She does things she shouldn’t.”
2 Republican in the chamber, US Sen. John Thune also won his primary against two challengers who had joined the race after Thune’s angered former President Donald Trump. Trump speculated that the senator’s career was “over” after making a public statement dismissing the former president’s lies about widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.
One candidate, Mark Mowry, was among the crowd demonstrating near the US Capitol on January 6. The other opponent, Bruce Whelan, ran for Congress in 2006, but lost the general election in a landslide.
None of the challengers were well-funded or well-known in the state, and in a sign that Thune was positioned for victory, Trump has steered clear of South Dakota.
Thune is a longtime fixture as the state GOP’s elder statesman, and if he wins re-election for a fourth term, he is likely to succeed Mitch McConnell as Senate Republican leader. He will face Democrat Brian Bengs, an Air Force veteran and college professor, in November’s general election.
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Thune’s position in Washington factored in Republican Sandra Pay’s vote, saying it would be “crazy” to vote for someone who ranked No. 2 among Senate Republicans.
“He has power,” she said.
Republican US Rep. Dusty Johnson is facing a primary challenge from state lawmaker Taffy Howard for the state’s lone House spot. The $300,000 raised by his campaign has been reduced by Johnson’s $1.8 million.
The Congressman has taken a measured approach to most issues and deferred his work with a bipartisan group of lawmakers called the Problem Solving Caucus. Howard tried to challenge him from the right, creating a primary race that would show just how strong the more extreme wing of the Republican Party has become in South Dakota.
That intrapartisan conflict has been fought in a slate of legislative primary races where Republicans have launched assault ads against each other. Anti-establishment Republicans are trying to oust a group of lawmakers who have given more authority to the legislature.
However, Republican voter Kim McCoy said Tuesday that she had one thing on her mind when she cast her vote: “The economy, the economy, the economy.”
He voted mostly against those in power.
“I listen to these people and I’m like, ‘Do you care that people are struggling?’ I don’t think they do,” she said. “I think they care about their reasons and they have lost their minds.”
Primary voters will also decide on amendments to the state constitution proposed by Republican lawmakers that would make it more difficult to pass ballot initiatives that raise taxes or cost public money. The proposal would set a 60 percent vote limit on ballot measures to raise taxes or spend more than $10 million within five years of enactment.
Democrat Joshua Matzner said he voted against the proposal because it would end citizens’ power to change laws through voting.
“We in our government like to be able to really make decisions,” he said.
