Many incumbents lost their legislative seats in a South Dakota primary election that saw historically low voter turnout.
Eleven Republican incumbents fell to challengers. Three other Republicans attempting to switch chambers came up short.
Several of the winning challengers ran on landowner rights. This comes after the legislature passed a “landowner bill of rights” last session that critics said took away local authority and empowered pipeline companies.
The election centered around grassroots Republican issues that tie back to the 2024 legislative session.
That’s according to Republican Representative Scott Odenbach, who handily won his reelection bid in Lawrence County.
Odenbach said the issues voters cared about were changing certain candidate nomination processes, preventing counties from voting on hand counting ballot measures, and eminent domain reform.
“The people saw right through it and said it’s overreach. That was a big, big factor in this," Odenbach said. "I also think when you have a low-turnout election, the activity of grassroots republicans was a big factor.”
Of the 37 candidates Odenbach’s political action committee donated money to, 27 won Tuesday night. He also contributes the success to candidate recruitment.
Nearly half of the winners in the 44 Republican primaries are unopposed in the November election. There was only one Democratic primary race.
Statewide voter turnout was 17 percent. This marks the state's lowest primary voter turnout since 2000, which saw just 15 percent turnout, according to data from the Secretary of State's website. Historically, South Dakota primary voter turnout usually ranges between 20 to 30 percent. It was 32% in 2022.
That’s something that sticks out to Senate Majority Leader Casey Crabtree. The Republican from Madison says the number of primaries is good, but there’s a downside.
“At a time when we’ve got the most Republicans registered in South Dakota’s history, we only had a 17 percent turnout," Crabtree said. "Would like to see us in the future bring more people—more Republicans to the polls.”
Crabtree, who sponsored the carbon pipeline bills in the Senate, said he’s unsure any one particular issue moved voters to the polls.
Without a general election challenger, Crabtree said he’s excited to work with new lawmakers who will bring a fresh perspective to the state Capitol.
All results are unofficial until the votes are canvassed. The full unofficial results are available on the Secretary of State's website.
