A new scene faces Republicans in South Dakota after a political earthquake shook the incumbents. • South Dakota Scout

A 3.7-magnitude earthquake shook the state Capitol in Pierre last week. State Rep. Scott Odenbach, R-Spearfish, said a political earthquake shook the Capitol Tuesday night.

“People are waking up,” Odenbach said.

He and others within a faction of the South Dakota Republican Party say the party is run by politicians who are not as conservative as the party's base of supporters. Their efforts for change contributed to the loss of 14 incumbent Republican legislators in Tuesday's primaries. Odenbach's political action committee spent $58,000 before the primary to support some of the winning candidates.

Current House Majority Leader Will Mortenson, R-Fort Pierre — who is unopposed for re-election — said new lawmakers are always welcome, but losing 14 incumbents comes at a cost.

“It's an opportunity for new ideas, but it means we've lost a lot of institutional knowledge,” he said.

Those losses include Sen. Jean Honhoff, R-Yankton, who served 24 years in the Legislature, and Sen. Ryan Maher, R-Isabelle, who served 16 years, among others.

House Majority Leader Will Mortenson, R-Fort Pierre, speaks on the House floor in January 2024. (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight)

Mortenson's political action committee spent $48,271 to help some of the incumbents and other candidates Odenbach opposed.

Mortenson blamed most of the current losses on a historically low voter turnout of 17%, which he said creates an environment in which an enthusiastic faction can turn out enough voters to change a primary race.

Pipelines and property taxes

Odenbach said competitors won because of quality candidate recruitment, good ground game and the right messaging.

Much of that messaging, especially in eastern South Dakota, benefited from opposition to Summit Carbon Solutions' proposed multibillion-dollar pipeline project. It is scheduled to collect carbon dioxide produced by ethanol plants in South Dakota and other states and transport it through an underground pipeline to sequester it in North Dakota, passing through farms, pastures and other private property along the way.

Current Republican lawmakers are suffering losses as pipelines and property rights rise to the fore

The project has caused more than two years of legal and legislative controversy over landowners' rights and eminent domain, the legal maneuver through which a company can seize property for projects of public benefit.

“A lot of candidates have said South Dakota is open for business, but not for sale, and that was proven last night,” Odenbach said.

Mortenson and some other Republican leaders passed a bill during the last legislative session to keep the pipeline's regulatory path forward while ensuring landowners receive additional protections. This puts them at odds with some in their party who have sought tougher measures such as a ban on eminent domain for carbon pipes. Some members of this faction are collecting signatures on the petition to refer the bill passed last session to a public vote in November.

Odenbach said the pipeline debate is far from over.

“We will come back in the next session to better define public use and who can use eminent domain in South Dakota, as I tried to do during the last session,” he said.

Incumbent Rep. Aaron Aylward, R-Harrisburg, won the primary. He's the president of the South Dakota Freedom Caucus, which has clashed with Republican leadership. On the issue of pipelines, he said: “It doesn't look good for carbon pipelines, that's for sure.”

Aylward said the incumbents lost on Tuesday because “people are tired of the same kind of bureaucratic garbage they've been fed for the past several years.”

Meanwhile, in the Black Hills, higher property taxes galvanized many Republican voters. Former legislator Tim Goodwin, of Rapid City, secured one of two District 30 Republican nominations for the House of Representatives on Tuesday. He and incumbent Rep. Trish Ladner, of Hot Springs, will face one Democrat in the November race for two House seats.

“Here, equity is not even on the radar,” Goodwin said. “It's property taxes.”

Grease the wheels of open primaries

Some Republicans believe that internal friction within the party leads to self-defeat. Pat Powers, a political blog writer at the Dakota War College, said the initial results announced Tuesday offer Democrats a chance to win some general election races if they run in the middle of the political spectrum. Democrats currently hold only 11 of the Legislature's 105 seats.

“This could represent a shift in the fortunes of the Republican Party,” Powers said.

Powers said Republican infighting also gives the open primary ballot measure a better chance of passing during the general election in November. The measure would change some primaries to include all candidates for an office, rather than dividing candidates into party-specific primaries.

Powers said Tuesday's low turnout and poor performance by incumbents gave ammunition to supporters of the open primary.

“They can say, ‘Look what happens when we don’t have open primaries,’ and they have the money to get the message across.”

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Participate

Dre Samuelson, who served for many years as chief of staff to former Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson, is participating in the open primary effort. He has already made this argument.

“A closed platform doesn't work well. It nominates people who are outliers in the parties,” Samuelson said. “We can look at these preliminary results to see that.”

Samuelson said turnout could have been better if Democrats and independents had more to vote on than in the Democratic presidential primary, in which President Joe Biden was already guaranteed victory. There was only one Democratic legislative primary Tuesday in South Dakota, and 44 Republican legislative primaries.

Searching for change for the “ordinary person”

Joey Hohn, an outspoken opponent of eminent domain for carbon dioxide pipelines, beat out former legislator Mark Wildsen for the GOP nomination for Sioux Falls Senate District 9. There is no Democratic or independent candidate running in the general election.

Hone received a donation from the Odenbach Political Action Committee.

“I think the citizens of South Dakota recognize the need for a greater focus on ‘We the People,’” Hoehn said. “We don't really need this pipeline.”

Hoon said the election results move the country in the right direction, “toward true conservative values ​​and the founding principles of our country.”

Republican factions are vying for control of the party in Tuesday's primary elections

Incumbent Senator Erin Tobin, the GOP winner, fell by 48 votes (within the margin of a potential recount) to a political newcomer from Bonestel named Mikala Vojta, who also campaigned on the primacy of landowner rights.

“The people of South Dakota have drawn a line as they speak,” Vojta said. “I think people are sending a clear message that we don't want to get run over, and if they're going to come to our state, they're going to play by our rules.”

In the four-way District 13 House primary, Republican incumbent Tony Veenhuizen, of Sioux Falls, advanced to the general election as one of the top two finishers. But he received fewer votes than newcomer John Hughes. There is no Democrat or Independent on the ballot in November.

Hughes plans to push for change.

“Government is not working for the average person in South Dakota, especially when it comes to economic development,” Hughes said. “It helps big corporate interests that don't pay their fair share when they come to South Dakota and take advantage of our business climate, and that's at taxpayer expense.”

Ousted Republican lawmakers

Republican lawmakers who lost their primary races on Tuesday, according to unofficial results released by the Secretary of State's Office (results are not official until election votes are counted):

Republican Sen. Erin Tobin, Republican Rep. Jan Honhof, Republican Rep. Byron Callies, R-Yankton, Rep. Tyler Tordsen, R-Watertown, R-Sioux Falls, Rep. Tamara St. Florence Ryan Maher, R-Rapid City Becky Drury, R-Rapid City Sen. Mike Walsh, R-Rapid City Sen. David Johnson, R-Rapid City Rep. Gary Cammack, R-Union Center Rep. Kirk Chafee, R-R-Union Center, R-Whitewood Jolly Frey Mueller, Republican Representative from Rapid City

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