This page is based on a 2022 post about the unopposed election of Attorney General Marty Jackley and will be kept up to date.
Here are the nine times in South Dakota history that a statewide elected official has run in a partisan election unopposed:
1946: Republican Public Utilities Commissioner C. L. “Roy” Doherty becomes the first candidate in South Dakota history to win a statewide elected office without opposition. Doherty had been elected in a 1936 special election following the resignation of Democratic incumbent Windsor Doherty, and narrowly defeated Democrat Fred B. Ray, whom Governor Tom Berry had appointed to the seat. Roy Doherty won reelection to a full term in 1940, and then was unopposed in 1946. He went on to win three more contested elections, serving on the PUC for 34 years from 1936-71, making him one of the longest-serving elected officials in state history.
1998: Term limits had been passed by South Dakota voters in 1992. Governors had been term-limited prior to that, but for the first time term limits were applied to down-ticket state constitutional offices. This meant that longtime incumbents running in 1998 could not seek reelection in 2002. South Dakota Democrats opted not to challenge two popular incumbents: Attorney General Mark Barnett, who was seeking a third term in 1998, and State Auditor Vern Larson, who was running for a fourth term (and would later serve two terms as state treasurer and a brief period as commissioner of school and public lands).
2006: As in 1998, South Dakota Democrats did not challenge popular incumbents for several statewide offices: Chris Nelson, who was seeking a second term as secretary of state; Rich Sattgast, who was seeking a second term as state auditor; and Vern Larson, who was running for reelection as state treasurer. Larson, who is the longest-serving constitutional officer in state history, thus became the only candidate to run unopposed for statewide office twice.
2010: U.S. Senator John Thune became the first person in South Dakota history to be elected to federal office without opposition. After winning an extremely hard-fought election in 2004 against incumbent Tom Daschle, who was a three-term incumbent and the Democratic leader in the Senate, Thune won reelection in 2010 without opposition. It remains the only time in South Dakota history that a federal office has gone completely unopposed. (Congressman Dusty Johnson was reelected with only a Libertarian opponent in 2020 and 2022).
2022: Marty Jackley was running unopposed for attorney general, the first time in state history that a major party has failed to contest an open statewide office. Jackley had previously been appointed attorney general in 2009 and had been reelected in 2010 ad 2014, before leaving due to term limits.
2026: Lance Russell was unopposed for attorney general, the second time that a major party failed to contest an open statewide office, and the first time that this occurred when the other party’s candidate had not previously held the office.
