South Dakota
Poll: Johnson, Jackley and Rounds lead in SD GOP primary
Editor’s note: If you cite the results of this poll, credit South Dakota News Watch and the Chiesman Center for Democracy, per copyright law and our republishing policy.
PIERRE, S.D. – With seven weeks until the June 2 primary, U.S. House Rep. Dusty Johnson is close to avoiding a runoff in the race to secure the GOP nomination for governor, according to a new poll sponsored by South Dakota News Watch and the Chiesman Center for Democracy at the University of South Dakota.
In the contests for U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, state Attorney General Marty Jackley and U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds have solid leads over their challengers.
The scientific survey of 500 registered Republicans, conducted April 7-11 by Mason-Dixon Polling and Strategy, found Johnson leading the four-way contest for governor with 34% of likely GOP primary voters supporting his candidacy.
The other three candidates are effectively tied for second due to the margin of error being plus-or-minus 4.5%. State House Speaker Jon Hansen, of Dell Rapids, has 18% support from GOP voters, and Aberdeen businessman Toby Doeden and Gov. Larry Rhoden both have 17%. Roughly 14% of those surveyed were undecided.
South Dakota Election Voter Guide
Everything South Dakota voters need to know about statewide contests in the primary and general elections.
If no candidate receives at least 35% of the vote on the June 2 ballot, a runoff between the top two finishers will take place July 28. The winner of the contest will meet Democrat Dan Ahlers in the Nov. 3 general election.
Rhoden’s support drops; Hansen surges
While Johnson, who grew up in Pierre and lives in Mitchell, saw a 6-point increase from the News Watch/Chiesman poll conducted last October, Rhoden’s support fell 10 points.
Julia Hellwege, director of the Chiesman Center and USD associate professor in political science, said Rhoden’s association with his predecessor, former Gov. Kristi Noem, could be behind the drop in poll numbers.
“He has aligned himself closely with Noem. They worked closely together, and he continues to champion her and stand by her,” she said. “There’s a potential that has been a side effect.”
Rhoden served as lieutenant governor under Noem and became governor in January 2025 when President Donald Trump made her secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. He fired her last month after severe criticism.
Hellwege pointed out the poll found that Johnson even leads in West River, a stronghold for Rhoden, who is from Union Center east of Sturgis.
She said one candidate more than any other has been the main beneficiary of the declining support for the sitting governor.
“Anyone shifting from Rhoden is more likely to shift towards Hansen,” Hellwege said, noting that Hansen is a state lawmaker, like Rhoden was, who plays up his conservative Christian credentials.
Hellwege said in comparing the new poll results with those from last year, a certain pattern can be seen. That includes the surge in support for Hansen and Johnson, a decline in support for Rhoden, a stable level of support for Doeden and a lower number of undecided voters.
“My interpretation is many Rhoden voters in the last poll shifted to Hansen voters and the undecideds went to Johnson,” Hellwege said.
SD governor: Johnson in driver’s seat
Hellwege highlighted the extent to which the math favors Johnson.
“Even if all the undecided voters go to one of those second-place candidates, plus if you factor in the margin of error, they still would barely reach where Johnson is sitting right now,” Hellwege said.
Brad Coker, founder of Mason-Dixon Polling and Strategy, ranked as one of the least-biased and most-factual pollsters, also believes Johnson is in a comfortable position.
“Johnson is moving into the clear front-runner status,” he said.
“People know him. People like him, and that’s probably why he’s ahead right now. Whether he can hold on to that will depend on what the other campaigns – particularly Hansen’s – are able to do in the coming weeks,” Coker told News Watch, pointing to the poll results that found Johnson has a 47% favorability rating, the highest of any of the candidates.
South Dakota News Watch invests in scientific polls to let elected leaders know how constituents think they’re doing and also survey people’s opinions on important issues. But a good poll isn’t cheap, so if you value these stories, please consider helping cover the cost. Thank you!
Donate and make these polls possible
Coker said Hansen has the best chance to challenge Johnson not only because his candidacy has seen the biggest increase in support but also due to not many people knowing him – yet.
“Hansen’s name recognition is only 73%. He’s still got 27% of the voters who don’t know who he is, which I think gives him a much higher ceiling than Doeden and Rhoden,” Coker said. “That tells me Hansen is getting some traction.”
On the flip side, Doeden’s 35% unfavorable rating and high name recognition indicate his support has mostly peaked, Coker said.
“He has a higher negative rating than positive rating, which tells me he’s got a core group behind him, but his growth potential is far more limited, especially since he has 89% name recognition,” Coker said.
The poll was conducted after the four candidates met in the March 31 KELO-TV debate but before the April 13 SDPB and South Dakota News Watch forum.
US House: Jackley has comfortable lead
Since Johnson ran for governor, that opened up South Dakota’s only seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In that contest, Jackley – who is from Sturgis and previously served as U.S. attorney for the District of South Dakota – has a comfortable lead toward securing the GOP nomination.
According to the poll, he has 68% support from South Dakota Republican voters surveyed, well ahead of challenger James Bialota Jr., who has 12%, with 20% of respondents undecided.
“This primary is definitely in Jackley’s favor, even if all the undecideds move to Bialota,” Hellwege said.
The winner will face Democrat Nicole “Nikki” Gronli in the November general election.
US Senate: Incumbent Rounds ahead by large margin
Rounds – who’s from Pierre and was South Dakota’s governor from 2003 to 2011 – also enjoys a sizable lead over his challenger.
He received 66% support from GOP voters surveyed, compared to 18% for challenger Justin McNeal, with 16% of respondents undecided.
“The fact that McNeal, who is vastly outspent by Rounds, is able to get up to 18% is commendable. But at the same time, I don’t think there’s any expectation that Rounds will not be able to hold on to that seat,” Hellwege said.
The winner will take on Democrat Julian Beaudion in November.
Favorability poll results for all governor, House and Senate candidates
The News Watch/Chiesman poll also asked Republicans their opinions of the candidates. To see results for each person, click the arrow below and the tab for each section: overall, by gender, age and region where they’re from.
Coming Tuesday
Tuesday’s story will focus on South Dakota News Watch/Chiesman Center for Democracy poll results on the job performance rating South Dakotans give Gov. Larry Rhoden, Sen. John Thune and other elected officials. The story also includes voter thoughts on Noem’s time as DHS secretary and President Trump’s decision to fire her.
South Dakota News Watch is an independent nonprofit. Read, donate and subscribe for free at sdnewswatch.org. Contact politics and statehouse reporter Alexander Rifaat: 605-736-4396/alexander.rifaat@sdnewswatch.org.
South Dakota
SD Lottery Millionaire for Life winning numbers for May 10, 2026
The South Dakota Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at May 10, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from May 10 drawing
01-03-20-35-46, Bonus: 05
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your prize
- Prizes of $100 or less: Can be claimed at any South Dakota Lottery retailer.
- Prizes of $101 or more: Must be claimed from the Lottery. By mail, send a claim form and a signed winning ticket to the Lottery at 711 E. Wells Avenue, Pierre, SD 57501.
- Any jackpot-winning ticket for Dakota Cash or Lotto America, top prize-winning ticket for Lucky for Life, or for the second prizes for Powerball and Mega Millions must be presented in person at a Lottery office. A jackpot-winning Powerball or Mega Millions ticket must be presented in person at the Lottery office in Pierre.
When are the South Dakota Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 9:59 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 10 p.m. CT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky for Life: 9:38 p.m. CT daily.
- Lotto America: 9:15 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Dakota Cash: 9 p.m. CT on Wednesday and Saturday.
- Millionaire for Life: 10:15 p.m. CT daily.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a South Dakota editor. You can send feedback using this form.
South Dakota
After Standing Rock, could a canceled mine project offer a roadmap for opponents of a new oil pipeline in South Dakota?
Almost exactly a decade since the start of the Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access pipeline gained national and international attention, new disputes are simmering over tribal rights in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
Earlier this month, an environmental organization and a Native American advocacy group sued the US Forest Service, claiming that an exploratory graphite drilling project on national forest land threatened a recognized ceremonial site on mountain meadows known as Pe’ Sla, or Reynolds Prairie.
But on Friday, Pete Lien and Sons, the company behind the project, abruptly withdrew, saying it would perform reclamation on the site and would not seek to file another plan. The decision came as a striking victory for Native American tribes and environmental groups that had opposed it – but other projects in the works may not meet the same conclusion.
The project, claimed nine groups within the Sioux Nation, including the Standing Rock Sioux, would “directly and significantly” affect the use of Pe’ Sla, which sits within Ȟe Sápa, the Lakota name for the sacred Black Hills of South Dakota, itself the locus of Lakota creation myths.
A second exploratory project by a Canadian company looking to mine uranium on state-owned land could affect Craven Canyon, an area that contains 7,000-year-old sites of importance to Indigenous tribes, historians and archaeologists.
Opposition to the twin projects – backed by Pete Lien, of Rapid City, and by Clean Nuclear Energy Corp – comes as a proposed Alberta-to-Wyoming pipeline for carrying Canadian crude oil to the US is close to securing commitments from oil companies after Donald Trump granted permitting through an executive order.
All the projects have at their heart issues of extraction, water safety and sacred sites, much as the Standing Rock dispute of 2016 that saw “water protesters” gather in a standoff with law enforcement over concerns regarding water safety and sacred sites.
That case began when the Standing Rock Sioux passed a resolution stating that “the Dakota Access Pipeline poses a serious risk to the very survival of our Tribe and … would destroy valuable cultural resources” and was a violation of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty guaranteeing the “undisturbed use and occupation” of reservation lands surrounding the pipeline.
In the aftermath, the environmental group Greenpeace was ordered to pay damages of $345m by a North Dakota judge to pipeline company Energy Transfer and subsidiary Dakota Access in connection with the protests, an order that is set to go to appeal. Greenpeace claims the legal action is designed to silence activists.
Most of the current disputes relate to energy, reflecting the Trump administration’s drive toward US energy independence and away from dependence on foreign sources, particularly China. Graphite, used in electric vehicle batteries, is almost exclusively imported. Roughly 95%–99% of uranium is purchased from foreign sources, including Russia and Kazakhstan.
The pipeline deal, meanwhile, is expected to help increase oil output from Canada, the world’s fourth-largest producer, to around 6.1m barrels a day, up from 5.5m now. Bridger, the company behind the Alberta-to-Wyoming pipeline, has said the project was being developed in response to identified market interest.
Wizipan “Little Elk” Garriott, a member of NDN Collective, an Indigenous rights group opposing the mining at Pe’ Sla, says the entire process of approval for the planned mine “happened in the dark”.
“There was no notice that they were proceeding provided to us, nor to the sovereign tribal nations,” he says, in violation of environmental and cultural impact study requirements and consultations with the tribes.
Lilias Jarding, director of the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance, one of the parties in the victorious Pe’ Sla action, says the decade since Standing Rock has seen a huge growth in projects attempting to mine tribal lands and areas of ceremonial significance.
Since the start of the second Trump administration, the push for both minerals extraction and energy has dramatically increased. “They’re being more aggressive,” Jarding says. In the case of Pe’ Sla, he adds, the company didn’t stop drilling when the lawsuits was filed: “They started drilling 24 hours a day.”
The alliance, along with tribes, claim the graphite project violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and that the US Forest Service improperly used a process known as a “categorical exclusion” to bypass reviews.
Oglala Sioux president Frank Star Comes Out said in a statement that the Sioux tribes never ceded to the US the lands in the Black Hills, which, he said, “remain the spiritual center of the Great Sioux Nation and they are not for sale, lease or exploitation” and that the lawsuit is a “united tribal response to protect a sacred site from those who continue to desecrate our ancestral lands”.
Oglala activist Taylor Gunhammer said that drilling at Pe’ Sla was akin to “drilling under the Vatican or at a sacred site in Jerusalem”.
A representative of Clean Nuclear Energy Corp, Mike Blady, said the company was “aware of the cultural significance and are doing everything in our power to ensure that there is no collateral damage”.
Will this amount to a populist action similar to Standing Rock?
The Pe’ Sla dispute did not provoke the kind of Indigenous-led, grassroots resistance to fossil-fuel infrastructure projects that accompanied the Dakota Access pipeline, which in some ways became a template for contemporary protests, powered by social media, celebrities and politicians.
The tribes were not in favor of following in that direction, Jarding says: “It’s a deeply sacred spiritual and ceremonial site, and elders have made it clear that it’s not a good place for another Standing Rock with thousands of people. They say this is not the place.”
Under the Biden administration, the tribal groups felt they were entering into a period of co-management policy over federal lands that in many cases lie within treaty agreements. But under the Trump administration, that sense of co-operation has diminished.
“We’ve seen a ramp-up of opening up federal lands for mineral and gas exploration, but as a planet we need to be moving away from fossil fuels and toward policies that are sustainable into the future,” says NDN’s Garriott.
What was planned for Pe’ Sla now, or was happening at Standing Rock a decade ago, or has indeed happened over a long history of disputes between sovereign tribal groups and the US government, he says, is “protecting our land and protecting our water, not only for ourselves but for the planet. We’re not random protesters out there – we’re protecting our own land”.
South Dakota
SD Lottery Powerball, Lotto America winning numbers for May 9, 2026
The South Dakota Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at May 9, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Powerball numbers from May 9 drawing
15-41-46-47-56, Powerball: 22, Power Play: 2
Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Lotto America numbers from May 9 drawing
08-12-13-27-42, Star Ball: 04, ASB: 04
Check Lotto America payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Dakota Cash numbers from May 9 drawing
01-02-04-08-18
Check Dakota Cash payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from May 9 drawing
08-11-17-29-49, Bonus: 02
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your prize
- Prizes of $100 or less: Can be claimed at any South Dakota Lottery retailer.
- Prizes of $101 or more: Must be claimed from the Lottery. By mail, send a claim form and a signed winning ticket to the Lottery at 711 E. Wells Avenue, Pierre, SD 57501.
- Any jackpot-winning ticket for Dakota Cash or Lotto America, top prize-winning ticket for Lucky for Life, or for the second prizes for Powerball and Mega Millions must be presented in person at a Lottery office. A jackpot-winning Powerball or Mega Millions ticket must be presented in person at the Lottery office in Pierre.
When are the South Dakota Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 9:59 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 10 p.m. CT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky for Life: 9:38 p.m. CT daily.
- Lotto America: 9:15 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Dakota Cash: 9 p.m. CT on Wednesday and Saturday.
- Millionaire for Life: 10:15 p.m. CT daily.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a South Dakota editor. You can send feedback using this form.
-
World4 minutes agoMassive 11,000-carat ruby believed to be second-largest ever found in conflict-ridden country
-
Politics10 minutes agoLeft-wing governor ripped for ‘insane’ answer on whether he’d support minor son’s gender transition
-
Health16 minutes agoPediatricians group stands up for kids’ rapidly shrinking recess time: ‘Very powerful benefit’
-
Sports22 minutes ago2025-26 NBA Playoff Odds: Spreads, Lines for Second-Round Series
-
Technology28 minutes agoSchool app Canvas breach hits during finals
-
Business34 minutes agoFears of an AI breakthrough force the U.S. and China to talk
-
Entertainment40 minutes agoNBC orders game show version of Wordle with Savannah Guthrie as host
-
Politics52 minutes agoAs questions of temperament persist, Katie Porter tries to regain edge in governor’s race