Rep. Heather Baxter, R-Rapid City, speaks on the House floor on Feb. 10, 2026

South Dakota Republicans win statewide races, including secretary of state Heather Baxter

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Republicans won in South Dakota on Tuesday. What happened instead was a clean sweep: the GOP finished ahead in all nine statewide candidate contests in the Nov. 3 general election, according to the South Dakota Secretary of State, as KXLG reported. The last race to be decided was the one with the biggest implications for how the state runs its elections: The Associated Press called the secretary of state contest at 1:33 a.m. Wednesday for Republican Heather Baxter, who took 59% of the vote to defeat Democrat Terrence Davis at 36% and Libertarian Tamara Lesnar at 5%, with about 90% of votes counted, South Dakota Searchlight reported.

That result matters because the secretary of state oversees elections, campaign finance reporting, lobbyist registrations, business filings, and concealed pistol permits. Baxter, a small-business owner from Rapid City and state representative who turned to this race after losing a legislative primary in June, campaigned on election security and said her website supports “improved hand-counting” methods. As a legislator she cosponsored an unsuccessful bill that would have prohibited the use of machines to count votes.

Heather Baxter Wins With 59% — and a Narrower View of Her Own Power

The central fight in the race was over election security. Baxter told South Dakota Searchlight earlier this month that she would focus on making sure counties comply with state and federal requirements while giving county auditors greater local control.

“The biggest misconception is that I’m going to go in and just completely get rid of these machines when I don’t even have that in my wheelhouse of what I’m allowed to do,” Baxter said.

Davis, a former state trooper from Sioux Falls, took the opposite position, arguing the state’s election system is sound and that Baxter was motivated by “the whole situation surrounding the 2020 election” — a reference to President Donald Trump’s false claim that the election was fraudulent. Lesnar, of Grenville, formerly served as a compliance officer at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

South Dakota Republicans win statewide races, including secretary of state Heather Baxter
Photo: mykxlg.com

Republican Lance Russell was unopposed for attorney general. Republican Don Haggar won a seat on the Public Utilities Commission with 61% over Democrat Frank Kloucek’s 39%. Republican Catherine Barranco took the auditor’s office with 63% against Democrat Tom Cool’s 37%. Republican Melissa Hull won treasurer, 63% to Democrat Margaret Kuipers’s 37%. And incumbent Republican Brock Greenfield kept the commissioner of school and public lands seat, 62% to Democrat Raeann Mettler’s 38%. Republicans also won the governor’s race — Larry Rhoden and Tony Venhuizen over Dan Ahlers and Steven McCleerey — plus the U.S. Senate seat (Mike Rounds over independent Brian Bengs) and the at-large U.S. House seat (Marty Jackley over Nikki Gronli).

Two Outlets, Two Turnout Numbers

Turnout was the one figure the outlets measured differently. KXLG, citing preliminary official returns, put statewide turnout at 40.16% with 252,415 total ballots cast. Mitchell Now, using the Secretary of State’s unofficial results, reported 310,298 ballots cast among 628,563 registered voters — 49.37% — and noted that was down 10.03 percentage points from the 2022 midterm, with 44,372 fewer ballots cast. Either way, participation fell well short of the 2024 presidential election’s 69.93%.

Mitchell Now’s unofficial vote totals show the scale of the Republican margins: Baxter drew 172,350 votes to Davis’s 106,533 and Lesnar’s 16,260; Barranco got 182,677 to Cool’s 109,365; Hull 182,344 to Kuipers’ 109,731; Greenfield 179,727 to Mettler’s 110,996; Haggar 174,552 to Kloucek’s 115,197. Voters also approved constitutional amendments J (specifying U.S. citizenship as a voting qualification) and K (a trust for unclaimed property) and rejected I (repealing Medicaid expansion if federal funding fell below 90%) and L (requiring 60% approval for constitutional amendments), according to the state ballot question results.

A Sweep That Runs Back to 2014

This wasn’t a surprise in the way a flip would have been. Republicans have held every statewide office in South Dakota since Democrat Tim Johnson decided not to seek reelection in 2014 and left the U.S. Senate in 2015. Tuesday’s results extend that streak through another midterm cycle, and they hand Baxter an office whose day-to-day powers — per her own words to South Dakota Searchlight — do not include unilaterally scrapping vote-counting machines, even as she takes office promising tighter compliance and more local control for county auditors. Historical turnout figures come from the Secretary of State’s election statistics.

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