Longtime political figure Kenneth Stofferahn passed away on March 18, 2024, aged 89. A three-term public utilities commissioner, Stofferahn also made unsuccessful bids for U.S. House, U.S. Senate, and Governor. His obituary does an excellent job of explaining his unusual political career:
Widely known across South Dakota, Ken traversed the state countless times during his long career in farming, activism, politics, and insurance. . . .
Perceiving the need for farmers to band together to ensure a fair return for their hard work and investment and drawing upon a family tradition of activism, he joined the National Farmers Organization in 1961, quickly rising in the group’s ranks to become a board member and, from 1968-1972, Director of National Membership in Corning, IA. It was during his NFO-related travels across the country that he met his future wife, Diane Henderson, in Colfax, WI. The couple wed on August 7, 1965, and, after leaving the NFO in early 1972, moved back to Humboldt to raise their four children on the family farm until relocating to Pierre in 1979.
Ken’s colorful political career began with a longshot bid in the 1972 Republican primary for the U.S. Senate. Though a loss, that experience initiated over two decades of public service in South Dakota, first as a local School Board member, then as a Representative in the State Legislature (1975-1977), where he championed public education, an issue of enduring importance to him and Diane, an elementary schoolteacher. Changing party affiliation to more closely reflect his core beliefs, Ken ran as a Democrat for the rest of his career, with notable yet unsuccessful primary and general election bids for the U.S. Senate (1978), U.S. House (1980), and Governor (1986). South Dakota voters, however, roundly endorsed his role as a Public Utilities Commissioner, awarding him successful races in 1978, 1984, and 1990, thereby making him one of the few Democrats able to win a statewide election after the party’s brief dominance in the 1970s had waned. Having twice served as the Commission’s Chairman, Stofferahn retired from the PUC in 1997.
Hearkening to the lessons he learned from his mother and from his hero, Harry Truman, Ken believed – perhaps naively at times – that politics was where people of good conscience and common sense could come together to improve the world around them. Having come of age at a time when philosophical differences seemingly yielded on occasion to honorable compromise, he was genuinely surprised by the no-holds-barred approach to politics that took hold in the latter part of his career, as reflected in the two times he was obliged to fight for his political life before the State’s Supreme Court. But survive he did, prompting one longtime colleague to observe, “I’ve never known anyone who could stand the heat like you could.”
As his obituary notes, Stofferahn entered politics through the National Farmers Organization, a populist movement founded in the 1950s that included many young farmers. His first bid for U.S. Senate in 1972 was as a Republican; he finished 4th in a five-candidate primary field as the nomination went to Robert W. Hirsch, who lost the general election to Democrat Jim Abourezk.
Stofferahn became a Democrat and ran for U.S. Senate again in 1978, losing the primary to Rapid City Mayor Don Barnett, who lost the general election to Republican Larry Pressler. That same year, Stofferahn was nominated for PUC, winning his first of three terms. In 1980, he was the Democratic nominee for U.S. House from the Second Congressional District, losing to Republican Clint Roberts by a 58%-42% margin. (It was the last election for the Second District, as South Dakota lost its second congressional seat effective in 1982.)
Stofferahn was reelected to the PUC in 1984, then ran for governor in 1986, competing in a field against Lars Herseth and former Governor Dick Kneip. Herseth narrowly won that primary, and then narrowly lost the general election to Republican George S. Mickelson. Stofferahnw was reelected to the PUC once again in 1990. He didn’t run again in 1996, giving way to fellow Democrat Pam Nelson, and left office in early 1997.
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