The Republican rampage that propelled Donald Trump to the White House with majorities in the U.S. Senate and possibly the U.S. House of Representatives was felt strongly in conservative South Dakota.

Not just in candidate races, where GOP establishment favorites Rep. Dusty Johnson and Kristie Fiegen easily won re-election to Congress and South Dakota Public Utilities Commission, respectively.

But also on ballot measures, where progressive priorities such as abortion rights, grocery tax repeal and legalized recreational marijuana all went down to defeat, as did open primaries and even an attempt to get rid of male-only references in the state constitution, which fell prey to the uproar over pronouns.

The only winning ballot initiative efforts involved the core conservative principle of work requirements for Medicaid expansion and the populist rancor over carbon pipelines, which led to Referred Law 21 going down in flames.

In state legislative races, delayed in some cases by the glacial pace of vote counting in Minnehaha County, South Dakota Republicans increased their super majority to 32-3 in the Senate and 64-6 in the House, setting up intraparty battles for leadership between establishment and populist factions.

Johnson, taking the stage at the Holiday Inn City Centre in Sioux Falls after being lauded by U.S. Sen. John Thune and Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken, talked about fighting back against inflation, illegal immigration, crime and government spending under a Trump administration and possible Republican trifecta.

“I’m here to tell you that’s not easy work, but it’s going to get a whole lot easier to get done after what we’ve seen tonight,” Johnson said to cheers from the party faithful on a night that seemed like an endless stream of positive news for the GOP and soul-searching for everyone else.

Here are a few other main takeaways from South Dakota’s 2024 election.

Trump ended up with 65% of the statewide vote in South Dakota, a slight improvement of his 62% showings in 2016 and 2020.

The general perception was that the former president’s resounding triumph nationally set the stage for what happened in South Dakota, from ballot amendments tanking to Republicans securing convincing legislative wins in vulnerable districts.

Inflation and the rising cost of living during the Biden Administration were big factors that led Monte Sandal of New Underwood to vote for Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris. Sandal, 55, owns a restaurant in New Underwood and a hot-tub servicing business in the Black Hills and has about 25 employees overall.

Sandal said inflation has made it difficult to afford food products at his restaurant and the chemicals needed to service about 600 hot tubs he has under contract.

“This election will dictate if my prices will increase because I’ve been eating a lot of costs the past few years,” he said.

Sandal said Trump’s demeanor has given him some pause but that, overall, he wants a business-focused president in the White House.

“I don’t know if I’d want to sit down and have a beer with the guy,” he said. “But you can’t argue with his policies because he’s a businessman and I like a business way of thinking.”

One of the main questions entering the election was whether South Dakota Democrats could improve their strikingly low representation in Pierre, where Republicans outnumbered the junior party 94-11 the past two years, including 63-7 in the House and 31-4 in the Senate.

The short answer is no.

Republicans actually gained a Senate seat to make it 32-3, with Tamara Grove knocking off Democratic incumbent Shawn Bordeaux in District 26, which includes the Rosebud Indian Reservation and the West River I-90 corridor of Chamberlain, Presho and Murdo.

Former gubernatorial candidate Jamie Smith won District 15 in north-central Sioux Falls, holding the seat previously held by fellow Democrat Reynold Nesiba.

But other Democratic Senate hopefuls in Sioux Falls such as Clay Hoffman (District 12) and Sandra Henry (District 14) fell short. So did Sarah Carda, the Yankton School Board president who was seen as a strong candidate against Republican Lauren Nelson in District 18, which includes Yankton and Clay counties.

Nelson, who ran to Jean Hunhoff’s right in the primary on a platform of limited government, property rights and Second Amendment protections, rode the Republican wave on Tuesday night to a comfortable victory with 57% of the vote.

Republicans also picked up a seat in the House to increase their advantage to 64-6, a low-water mark for the Democrats over the past two decades.

In District 26A, Republicans prevailed as populist Jana Hunt handily defeated Democrat Carl Peterson to take the seat formerly held by House Minority Leader Oren Lesmeister, who was term-limited.

Also, Kameron Nelson of Sioux Falls was ousted in District 10, where fellow Democratic incumbent Erin Healy (38%) and Republican Bobbi Andera (32%) finished ahead of Nelson (30%) in a tight race.

Democrats gained a seat in District 32 (Rapid City), where Nicole Uhre-Balk joined Republican Steve Duffy as the two top vote-getters.

All eyes now turn to Pierre, where intraparty GOP battles for leadership positions will heavily influence the Legislature’s policy-making machinery in 2025 and 2026.

Can a surge among populist candidates on the Republican right, animated by the carbon pipeline issue, lead to changes in caucus leadership, threatening the ability of the party’s pro-business establishment to craft and control policy?

Right now it’s too close to call in the Senate and leaning establishment in the House, but an influx of new members makes it tough to assess.

The votes are scheduled for Friday night, so the suspense won’t last long.

There was a marked difference in mood between the election night gatherings for anti-abortion Life Defense Fund and progressive petition group Dakotans for Health, which sponsored Amendment H to enshrine abortion rights in the South Dakota Constitution.

At the Best Western Ramkota in Sioux Falls, Republican state legislator Jon Hansen and longtime anti-abortion advocate Leslee Unruh flew their “No on G” banner proudly as results showed the amendment barely getting 40% of the statewide vote.

Hansen hoisted a glass of wine in the hotel corridor as Unruh spoke to News Watch about the momentum of the anti-abortion movement, which was reflected in out-of-state donations, ground-level organization and poll swings leading up to the election.

“I feel that there are too many people who are triggered by this conversation,” said Unruh, who noted her decades of work at the Alpha Center, a Sioux Falls pregnancy resource center. “My hotline is going to be busy with women who are hurting because they feel (animosity) from both sides, and we can’t do that. We have to meet people where they’re at.”

Though the campaign ran radio commercials conceding that South Dakota’s restrictive abortion law “may need to be changed” in the Legislature, Unruh didn’t offer any specifics changes that she would support.

Across town at the downtown ICON Lounge, Dakotans for Health founder Rick Weiland huddled with family and friends around 11 p.m., long after most attendees departed after seeing the handwriting on the wall for Amendment G and also Initiated Measure 28, the group’s ill-fated grocery tax repeal measure.

Abortion rights measures in other states were immune to the Trumpian wave, with successful efforts in states that the former president won, such as Arizona, Missouri, Nevada and Montana.

That suggests there was more at play than just ideology and vibes in South Dakota, where voters rejected near-total abortion bans by statewide vote in 2006 and 2008.

The fact that Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union declined to get behind Amendment G early in the process complicated efforts to raise money nationally and build an effective coalition of political and legal stakeholders.

Dakotans for Health and its volunteers found themselves on an island, outraised by a margin of 4-to-1 as the anti-abortion factions launched a robust and effective ad campaign calling the measure “too extreme.”

“We didn’t have any money to push back when they were pushing hard,” Weiland told News Watch as a few stragglers watched election coverage on a big screen. “You can do a lot of damage with 3 million bucks if you keep throwing out messages of disinformation to scare people. It’s almost like their campaign has made lying fashionable or something.”

Unruh and Hansen wouldn’t commit to whether a scheduled trial in Minnehaha County challenging Dakotans for Health’s petition efforts would proceed starting in late January. One of the requests of the lawsuit was to prohibit Dakotans for Health “and those who worked with or for it” from being involved in petition or ballot measure campaigns for a period of four years.

“There’s a lot wrong with the way these ballot initiatives are done,” said Unruh. “My name’s on (the lawsuit) and I would personally like it to go forward, but there are other people involved, so we’ll just have to see.”

This story was produced by South Dakota News Watch, an independent, nonprofit news organization. Read more in-depth stories at sdnewswatch.org and sign up for an email every few days to get stories as soon as they’re published. Contact Stu Whitney at  at stu.whitney@sdnewswatch.org.

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – Climatologically speaking, Western South Dakota is one of the sunniest parts of the Nation.

“The eastern side of the Black Hills is kind of notorious for having a lot of sunshine,” Dr. Darren Clabo, South Dakota State Fire Meteorologist, said, “300 some-odd sunshine days a year.”

With that in mind, our fusion reactor in the sky can be a lucrative energy source.

Jacob Van Cleave is a grad student studying wildfire growth in the meteorology program at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, where Dr. Clabo teaches. He used his research and a forecasting internship with an energy company to study the impact of wildfires on renewable energy.

“We have longer periods of those clear skies,” Van Cleave says, “We have more direct contact with peak solar heating; we’re pretty similar in the rate of the energy production you would get in Florida.”

But with all the dry weather and sunshine that’s happened, there is a caveat, Dr. Clabo explains.

“Over the past ten years, we’ve seen an increase in the number of fires across the Western United States,” Clabo said, “And so, the smoke production has also gone up considerably.”

And the longer this pattern goes on, those looking to capitalize on solar energy have some things to consider because of how solar cells work.

“If you cover up a solar panel, think of a three-by-three or four-by-four sized solar panel with a penny, you reduce (the solar panel) to one percent of generation,” Van Cleave explained, “The way the cells work … they’re interlocked together. If you block one cell, you only get the charges that jump from the one cell to the next.”

When you relate these effects to wildfires, this is how smoke and ash affect solar panels:

“When you get wildfire smoke, those particles not only stick if they fall and act like a sediment – stick on to the panel – not only will they affect how efficiently that panel can absorb energy from the sun, you’ll also have solar rays hitting those particulates in the atmosphere and reducing production 20 to 50 percent depending on how extreme the smoke case is,” Van Cleave said.

There is at least something those using solar panels can do to take care of what touches the panel during a smoky wildfire. Van Cleave says they can work with the Environmental Protection Agency to find a company that can professionally clean them.

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GRAND FORKS — The UND football program will try to snap out of a two-game road losing skid by returning to the Alerus Center to face the two-time defending national champions South Dakota State.

Here are eight things you need to know about the Jackrabbits.

Two former UND players are on South Dakota State’s roster in offensive tackle Sam Hagen and wide receiver Marcus Preston.

Preston, a senior, caught 29 passes for 285 yards across his first three seasons of college football at UND.

The Kansas native has never become a major factor in Brookings. He has one catch this season for 4 yards – a touchdown against Youngstown State on Oct. 12.

Hagen, a Fordville, N.D., native, transferred to SDSU after the 2023 season as UND lost its offensive line coach (Joe Pawlak to Montana) and offensive coordinator (Danny Freund to SDSU) in the offseason.

Hagen has been slotted as the starter for the Jacks all season, although he missed a few games with an injury in the middle of the season. He’s expected to play against his old team on Saturday.

The Jackrabbits will have two coaches with UND backgrounds in the Alerus Center this weekend.

Former UND quarterback and assistant coach Danny Freund now shares offensive coordinator duties for SDSU, while former UND running backs coach Robbie Rouse is a running backs coach for the Jacks.

After leaving UND, Rouse spent one season at Cal Poly before joining SDSU in 2023.

As a player, Freund was 16-6 as a two-year starter for the then-Fighting Sioux, finishing his career as the program’s most accurate passer (68.9 percent). He threw for 5,239 yards and 47 touchdowns.

Freund coached running backs (2011-12), quarterbacks (2013), wide receivers (2014-18) and was then elevated to offensive coordinator following the 2018 season.

Freund spent the 2022 and 2023 seasons with the associate head coach label.

South Dakota State head coach Jimmy Rogers paid a compliment to UND wide receiver Bo Belquist during a weekly press conference in Brookings.

“I think they have arguably the best wide receiver in FCS football in Bo Belquist,” Rogers said. “He should be an All-American the way he competes and plays.”

Belquist, a fifth-year senior who became UND’s all-time receptions leader earlier this season, has 48 catches for 754 yards and nine touchdowns this season.

South Dakota State quarterback Mark Gronowski is beating teams with his arms and legs – a trait that hurt UND in the latest back-to-back road losses.

Gronowski enters the weekend with his hand in 114 career touchdowns: 82 passing, 31 rushing and one receiving.

In 2023 in Brookings against UND, Gronowski threw for 167 yards and a touchdown and ran for a touchdown.

In 2022 at UND, Gronowski threw for 197 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for two touchdowns.

In a loss at UND in the spring of 2021, Gronowski threw for 309 yards and two touchdowns and was intercepted twice – the only two-interception game of the season.

South Dakota State has become an NFL pipeline in recent years with six former Jacks on opening day NFL rosters in 2024, led by tight ends Dallas Goedert of the Philadelphia Eagles and Tucker Kraft of the Green Bay Packers.

SDSU had two players selected in the 2024 NFL Draft with Mason McCormick taken in the fourth round by the Pittsburgh Steelers and Isaiah Davis taken in the fifth round by the New York Jets.

Davis has returned seven kickoffs for 179 yards this season. He has four carries for 18 yards.

UND enters the weekend coming off back-to-back losses and Rogers knows that could create a desperate opponent.

“They need this win, and they know that,” Rogers said. “We have to play with a certain edge. It’s a tough environment. We have to be prepared for a 60-minute game.”

The Jackrabbits trailed 14-0 the last time SDSU came to Grand Forks. The Jacks, however, used an interception return for a touchdown to flip momentum in a 38-21 victory.

With Isaiah Davis now in the NFL, SDSU has new opportunities in the backfield and Angel Johnson has emerged as a threat.

Johnson ran for a career-best 132 yards on just seven carries last week in a dominant win over Murray State. He scored on a 67-yard run late in the first quarter.

Of Johnson’s nine career touchdowns, six have covered 50 or more yards, including all three this season.

He scored on a 50-yard touchdown run against UND in 2023.

South Dakota State’s 2023 standout wide receivers – Jadon and Jaxon Janke – have graduated, opening the door for a breakout season for sophomore Griffin Wilde.

Wilde had seven catches for 150 yards in the season opener at Oklahoma State.

Wilde had 10 catches the following week against Incarnate Word.

For the season, Wilde has 44 receptions for 571 receiving yards.

Wilde has cooled on his torrid start but still had three catches for 78 yards last week against Murray State.