Today is Dennis Daugaard’s 70th birthday. The 32nd Governor of South Dakota was born at Sioux Valley Hospital in Sioux Falls on June 11, 1953.
His wife, former First Lady Linda (Schmidt) Daugaard, was born nine days earlier on June 2, at the Dell Rapids Hospital. Both celebrate their 70th birthday this month.
Dennis and Linda first met as eighth graders, after Dennis’ country school was closed and consolidated into the Dell Rapids School District. After going their separate ways for college, they got back together and were married on April 4, 1981; they celebrated their 42nd wedding anniversary this year.
Dennis, who had graduated from Northwestern Law School, pursued a career first in banking, and then at Children’s Home Society of South Dakota. Linda, a teacher, raised their kids and worked as a school librarian. Dennis eventually entered politics, first serving as a state senator 1997-2003, and then as lieutenant governor in the administration of Governor Mike Rounds from 2003-11. Dennis ran a successful campaign to succeed Rounds in 2010, winning election alongside his running mate, Matt Michels, and the two took office as governor and lieutenant governor in January 2011.
Governor Daugaard’s first year wasn’t easy, as balanced the budget following the Great Recession with a ten percent budget cut, responded to the murder of a prison guard at the state penitentiary, and led the state’s response to the historic 2011 Missouri River floods.
Linda, meanwhile, was an active and visible First Lady. She chaired a task force on infant mortality, recruited foster families, and open the Governor’s Mansion for public tours. Remembering her years as a librarian, Linda traveled to schools to encourage among third, fourth, and fifth graders – in her experience, the age at which kids lose interest in reading. Over eight years, she 313 schools and 22 libraries.
Governor Daugaard continued to be an active chief executive, pursuing efforts to expand the state’s workforce, reform the criminal justice system, strengthen the state’s public pension plan, and improve maintenance and preservation of state buildings. Under his leadership, South Dakota was named “Best Run State in America” and obtained the highest bond rating of AAA from all three rating agencies.
In 2014, Daugaard and Michels were reelected by the largest margin in state history amidst a period of historic Republican control of state government. In his second term, Governor Daugaard backed a plan to increase highway funding, supported task force recommendations that raised the state’s teacher pay out of last place, and proposed reforms to the juvenile justice system. In 2016, Daugaard signed legislation asserting the state’s ability to tax remote, online sellers. This led to a favorable ruling from the United States Supreme Court, ending a twenty-year effort by states to achieve sales tax fairness.
Governor Daugaard left office in January 2019, and he and Linda returned to their farmsite near Dell Rapids. Unusually for a former governor, Daugaard retired from active politics, and has been firm in saying that he will not seek further office. Instead, he and Linda have worked support of a variety of charitable causes, traveled, and spent time with their three children (and in-laws) and seven grandchildren.
Like all former governors, Dennis was honored with a portrait at the State Capitol and a statue on the Trail of Governors. He was also inducted last year into the South Dakota Hall of Fame.
Dennis and Linda Daugaard are great South Dakotans and great people. All the best to them as they celebrate this milestone!
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