A sampling of campaign postcards mailed to Republican voters during the 2026 South Dakota primary election campaign. (Photo by Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight)
PIERRE, S.D. (South Dakota Searchlight) – Tuesday is Primary Election Day in South Dakota, the first of what could be two elections needed to select the Republican Party’s nominee for governor.
If no candidate in the four-way race reaches 35%, the top two will advance to a runoff on July 28.
State law requires a runoff when nobody reaches the 35% threshold in a primary with three or more candidates for governor, U.S. House or U.S. Senate. No race has gone to a runoff since the passage of the law in 1985. There were six occasions before 1985 when such races failed to produce a 35% winner, and the nominees were decided by delegates at state party conventions.
In this year’s Republican governor primary campaign, none of the four candidates reached 35% support in five independently commissioned polls released publicly since last year. There was plenty of opportunity to gain support, with 14% or more of the respondents in each poll undecided.
The candidate who wins the Republican nomination will advance to the Nov. 3 general election to face former legislator Dan Ahlers, who is uncontested for the Democratic nomination.
The Republican candidates are Gov. Larry Rhoden, U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, state House Speaker Jon Hansen and businessman Toby Doeden.
Former Gov. Kristi Noem opened the door for a primary race when she resigned in January 2025 to accept a job in President Donald Trump’s administration. Noem’s departure elevated Rhoden from lieutenant governor to serve the remainder of Noem’s second term, which ends in January.
The rest of the ballot
Republican voters are also selecting a nominee to run for Johnson’s U.S. House seat. Republican state Attorney General Marty Jackley faces James Bialota in that race.
In a Republican U.S. Senate primary, incumbent Mike Rounds faces challenger Justin McNeal.
There are 49 Republican legislative primary races in districts across the state, and one Democratic legislative primary. There are no Democratic primaries for statewide offices.
Voters may also have primaries for county offices, races for city government and school board positions, and other local races or questions on their ballots.
Republican primary contests are only open to voters registered as Republicans. But Samantha Chapman, advocacy manager for the American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota, told South Dakota Searchlight recently that other voters should not assume there’s nothing on their ballot.
“That is a message we’ve been trying to get out desperately, which is that if you are registered to vote, chances are you still have a lot to vote for, even if you are not a registered Republican,” Chapman said.
Factors influencing turnout
Voter turnout for modern South Dakota primary elections has ranged from less than 20% to more than 50%, influenced by the number and types of races on the ballot. Turnout this year was expected to receive a boost from the Republican governor primary and a new state law requiring local elections to be combined with either the primary or the November general election.
But turnout in advance voting is not significantly ahead of the pace from the last primary election in 2024. The final turnout number that year was 17%, including 26% among Republicans and 7% among Democrats.
By last Tuesday, 16,674 ballots had been cast in advance, either in person or by mail. That compares to 16,394 ballots received by the week before the 2024 primary.
A late start to advance voting may have affected early turnout. Voting was supposed to begin April 17 but was delayed by several days in counties across the state due in part to a calendar quirk: There were five Tuesdays in March.
That created an unusually small window between a filing deadline for candidate nominating petitions on the last Tuesday in March — which was March 31 this year — and the start of ballot printing and advance voting. Ballot printing was delayed as county auditors waited for the state to certify candidates.
Earlier this year, state lawmakers declined to apply a fix sought by county auditors, which would have moved the filing deadline for candidate nominating petitions earlier. Some legislators expressed concerns about changing the laws governing a process that was already underway, since prospective candidates were in the process of gathering signatures from registered voters to earn a spot on the ballot. Lawmakers ultimately changed the deadline for future elections, but not for this year’s primary.
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