South Dakota’s Republican gubernatorial primary will be decided in a runoff next month after no candidate managed to clinch the necessary 35% of the vote to secure the nomination.
Retail and real estate executive Toby Doeden was projected to make the runoff Wednesday morning, while the second spot was up for grabs between incumbent Gov. Larry Rhoden, Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD), and state House Speaker Jon Hansen.
With more than 95% of the expected vote in, Doeden had 30.6% support, followed by Rhoden (25.2%), Johnson (23.4%), and Hansen (20.8%).
Rhoden, who served as Kristi Noem’s lieutenant governor for six years, took over when she left office to become Secretary of Homeland Security in January 2025.
The rancher, who frequently sports a cowboy hat, spent nearly two decades in the South Dakota legislature before becoming Noem’s second-in-command and had pushed to continue her business-friendly agenda during his stint as governor.
However, Rhoden, 67, has also kept a lower profile while in office than Noem, who used her time as governor to build a national following.
The governor’s biggest political victory this year was getting the state Legislature to sign off on a $650 million plan in September to replace the 141-year-old state penitentiary, an issue lawmakers had quarreled over for years.
“I kind of feel like that proverbial groundhog who came up and saw my shadow, and now there’s going to be eight more weeks of campaigning,” Rhoden told South Dakota Searchlight as the results came in. “But that’s the price we’re going to have to pay. We are going to hit the ground running next week.”
Johnson, 49, opted to run for governor rather than seek a fifth term as South Dakota’s lone member of the House of Representatives. He was considered to be the strongest potential challenger to Rhoden before the emergence of Doeden, who ran a largely self-funded campaign calling for the elimination of state property taxes.
“The career politicians told me what we collectively have done across this state was impossible,” Doeden told supporters Tuesday night. “They said no outsider in South Dakota can break through three career, 20-year politicians.
“Well, guess what? You and I, we are doing it.”
The winner of the July 28 runoff will face Democratic nominee Dan Ahlers, the executive director of the state party who ran unopposed in the primary.
Whoever secures the Republican nomination will be the heavy favorite in the Nov. 3 general election. South Dakota voters last elected a Democratic governor in 1974.
President Trump, who carried South Dakota in all three of his White House runs by margins approaching 30 points, did not make an endorsement during the primary and has not indicated whether he will back anyone in the runoff.
With Post wires
