Voters poised to elect large class of new lawmakers to South Dakota Legislature

A Sioux Falls resident votes in the general election on Nov. 5, 2024, at St. Lambert's Catholic Church. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)

South Dakota voters appeared on the verge Tuesday of sending dozens of new faces to Pierre.

Results were still trickling in well past midnight Central time in South Dakota's urban enclaves, including Minnehaha and Pennington counties, but the number of new lawmakers was notable even without a final tally. As of 12:15 a.m. Central time on Wednesday, preliminary results from the South Dakota Secretary of State's Office showed at least 44 prospective new lawmakers in position to take seats in the 105-member Legislature.

If those results hold, a dozen of those new senators and representatives will return to Pierre after a hiatus from previous legislative service.

Those include Sioux Falls Democrat Jamie Smith, who took on Gov. Kristi Noem in the 2022 governor's race, and Republican Spencer Gosch of Glenham, who was speaker of the House from 2021 to 2022. Smith was leading late Tuesday in his District 15 Senate race — although with a large portion of the results still unreported — and Gosch was assured a House seat in District 23, where he was one of two candidates for two seats.

The other 32 prospective new lawmakers would serve their first terms. Many of them emerged victorious in their primary races and ran unopposed on Election Day.

Fourteen incumbents lost their spot in Pierre during the June primary, with 11 falling in part as a result of their support for a bill dubbed the "landowner bill of rights."

That bill aimed to maintain a path forward for a controversial carbon capture pipeline while offering protections for landowners and cash for counties, but opponents characterized it as a giveaway to Summit Carbon Solutions, the Iowa company proposing the pipeline.

The "landowner bill of rights" was referred to voters by opponents. Voters were rejecting Referred Law 21 in early, unofficial returns Tuesday night.

Those unofficial and partial results indicated there could be 29 new members of the House of Representatives and 15 new senators for 2025, or 41% of the House and 43% of the Senate.

Republicans are expected to maintain a large majority in the Legislature, having locked up near majorities before any votes were cast, due to Democrats not fielding a full slate of candidates in many districts.