October 24, 2024 is U.S. Senator Mike Rounds’ 70th birthday. He was born in Huron, on the weekend of the pheasant opener, on October 24, 1954 to Don and Joyce Rounds.
(This post is adapted from a post written four years ago, at the time of Rounds’ reelection to the U.S. Senate.)
Rounds’ career in public office has spanned more than three decades. He was recruited by Governor George S. Mickelson to run for the State Senate in 1990, defeating a Democratic incumbent and beginning a ten-year legislative career in which he would become senate majority leader, working closely with Governor Bill Janklow.
In 2000, Rounds was among the first legislators to be term-limited. The following year, he launched an improbable underdog candidacy for Governor. The Republican field already included two heavyweights: Attorney General Mark Barnett, who had been preparing for years to run and had built a massive war-chest; and former Lt. Governor Steve Kirby, a Sioux Falls businessman who was also well-funded. Rounds entered the primary very late, and with no funding, but with the behind-the-scenes support of Governor Janklow. The 2002 Republican primary devolved into a brutal punching match between Barnett and Kirby. Meanwhile Rounds, who had no paid staff and relied largely on family and volunteers (including me), refused to run a negative ad and remained above the fray. A lifelong Pierre native and legislative veteran, Rounds relied on his depth of state government knowledge and told voters that “Working together, we’ll make South Dakota even better.”
Rounds’ 2002 primary victory is one of the great upsets in South Dakota political history, as he won 44% to 30% for Barnett and 26% for Kirby. He selected State Senator Dennis Daugaard as his running mate, and easily defeated the Democratic nominee, USD President Jim Abbott, a credible candidate who had no answer for Rounds’ nice-guy image and inherent Republican advantage.
Rounds became South Dakota’s thirty-first governor in early 2003. He was the first native of Pierre and the first graduate of South Dakota State University to serve as governor. His election also represented a generational shift, and he was the first “baby boomer” to hold the office. Rounds’ eight years as governor focused on economic development, with a set of policies and proposals he packaged as the “2010 Initiative.” Rounds’ signature achievement was the development of the former Homestake Gold Mine in Lead as an underground physics laboratory. That considerable achievement was a part of a wider effort to expand research at the state universities; he also supported several state-sponsored scholarship plans. Rounds’ was also a war-time governor. He supported South Dakota National Guard deployments to Afghanistan and the Middle East throughout his time in office. Rounds worked with the state’s congressional delegation to save Ellsworth Air Force Base from closure. He also dedicated new memorials in Pierre to the state’s Korean and Vietnam war veterans.
Rounds left office in 2011, turning over the Governor’s Office to his lieutenant governor, Dennis Daugaard, whom he had endorsed and supported in the 2010 campaign. He returned to his insurance business in Pierre, but soon turned his sights on the U.S. Senate. Rounds announced his 2014 candidacy for U.S. Senate just days after the 2012 election; incumbent Tim Johnson later retired. Rounds’ 2014 campaign was eventful, as he faced a five-way Republican primary followed by a four-way general election, but he ultimately prevailed by comfortable margins in both. His election 2014 was a milestone, as it marked the first time since 1962 that Republicans controlled the entire South Dakota congressional delegation. He was easily reelected in 2020.
In the Senate, Rounds has led efforts to rein in federal regulations, advocated for reform of the Indian Health Service and Veterans Health Administration, and supported trade policies and market reforms to benefit farmes and ranchers. He also advocated for the B-21 Bomber to be located at Ellsworth Air Force Base and has pushed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to improve management of the Missouri River system. Rounds has chaired the Senate subcommittee on cybersecurity and played a critical role in establishing the Beacom College of Computer and Cyber Sciences at Dakota State University. He has recently emerged as the leader of the U.S. Senate’s efforts to study artificial intelligence.
Mike Rounds is the first South Dakotan to serve two four-year terms as governor, and two terms in the U.S. Senate. Assuming he completes his current Senate term, his will be the longest career in elected office of any South Dakota governor, with 30 years as state legislator, governor, and in the U.S. Senate. Another Senate term would mean a 36-year career, tying the late U.S. Senator Tim Johnson as the longest-serving elected official in South Dakota history.
Rounds’ long career means that his has been a public life, and even private milestones have been shared with his fellow South Dakotans. That was no more true than when Mike and Jean Rounds shared Jean’s difficult battle with cancer, which sadly ended nearly three years ago.
Mike’s 70th birthday is another milestone on a long and historic career of public service.
SoDak Governors 