It was a big Republican night, in South Dakota and across the United States, as Donald J. Trump was elected the 47th President of the United States, and Congressman Dusty Johnson earned a record-setting vote total.
Republicans also achieved gains in the State Legislature as female legislators reached an all time high; read more about that at this post.
This post has been updated with final results from the official canvas of the general election.
That the Trump/Vance would carry South Dakota was never in doubt, and the ticket prevailed with 63.4% of the vote. That is the third-largest win for a presidential ticket in South Dakota history, following the Eisenhower/Nixon ticket’s 69.3% in 1952 and the Roosevelt/Garner ticket’s 63.6% in 1932. It is Trump’s strongest showing in South Dakota, exceeding his wins of 61.5% in 2016 and 61.8% in 2020.
Congressman Dusty Johnson also scored a big win with 72.0% of the vote. Johnson’s 303,630 votes (an unofficial total pending the election canvas) is the most ever earned by a statewide candidate in South Dakota in an election contested by both parties. Johnson broke the record set by U.S. Senator Mike Rounds in his 2020 reelection victory, in which Rounds earned 276,232 votes.
Johnson was reelected to a fourth term in the U.S. House of Representatives, but it is only the second time he has faced a Democratic opponent, following a 60.3% result against Democrat Tim Bjorkman in 2018 and wins with 81.0% and 77.4% against Libertarian opponents in the past two elections. Johnson ran well ahead of the Trump/Vance ticket, demonstrating his strength as a statewide candidate, and his percentage is just behind John Thune’s 75.1% in 1998, which is the record for South Dakota’s at-large congressional seat in an election contested by both parties. (Thune nearly matched that record with 73.4% in 2000).
Public Utilities Commissioner Kristie Fiegen was also reelected last night, winning a third term on the PUC with 67.8%. Fiegen’s win makes her the first woman on this blog’s “Over 25 Club,” a list of the longest-serving state and federal elected officials in state history, as her eight years in the State House and projected 18 on the PUC will equate to 26 years.
The wins by Trump/Vance, Dusty Johnson, and Kristie Fiegen also mean that the South Dakota Republican Party has now won 50 consecutive statewide elections, dating back to 2010. The 2010-24 streak surpasses the Republican streak of 48 wins from 1889-94, making it the third-longest streak in state history.
SoDak Governors 