Democrats gain seats in South Dakota Legislature for the first time since 2008

No Democrat won a statewide race Tuesday in South Dakota, but the party picked up four seats in the Legislature.

Nationally, Democrats racked up historic gains. They retook control of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, and scored major state-level wins, including the governorship in Texas for the first time since 1994 and Iowa for the first time since 2006.

Democratic gains in the South Dakota Legislature were historic in their own way. The addition of four Sioux Falls-area seats brings the total number of Democrats in the 105-member South Dakota Legislature to 12, marking the party’s best showing since the 2018 election, when 16 Democrats won seats.

Tuesday marked the first time South Dakota Democrats have gained legislative seats in a general election since 2008.

2026 South Dakota general election results

The Republican Party’s dominant position in the Legislature was assured before the polls opened Tuesday morning. Fifty-two seats were guaranteed for Republicans, due to a lack of opposition: 21 in the Senate and 31 in the House. 

During the 2026 legislative session, there were eight Democrats among the 105 lawmakers — three in the state Senate and five in the House of Representatives.

Next year, Republicans will have 33 seats in the Senate, and Democrats will have two. The House of Representatives will have 59 Republicans, 10 Democrats and one independent, Evangeline Poor Bear of Pine Ridge, who told South Dakota Searchlight she aligns with Republicans but ran as an independent because she missed a filing deadline. Nevertheless, she’s the first person elected as an independent to the Legislature since 2010.

The four-seat pickup for Democrats could set the stage for future success, said Jon Schaff, a political science professor at Northern State University in Aberdeen — if the party can continue to gain ground.

“For the Democrats, it’s always about targeting those handful of districts where they’re competitive,” Schaff said. “It’s baby steps. Now it’s a question of whether they can sustain this over the course of several elections and find some vulnerable Republicans that they can pick off.”

Hailing from Sioux Falls

All incumbent Democrats on the ballot with hopes of returning to the Capitol in 2027 won their respective races.

All but two of the 12 Democrats elected on Tuesday were from the Sioux Falls area. Those two are incumbent Reps. Nicole Uhre-Balk of Rapid City and Eric Emery of Rosebud.

Uhre-Balk issued a news release Wednesday morning noting that she’s the first Democrat to be reelected in her district in 36 years. She and Emery are also the only South Dakota Democratic legislators residing west of the Missouri River.

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In the Sioux Falls area, Democratic Sen. Liz Larson was reelected, as was incumbent Rep. Kadyn Wittman. Rep. Erik Muckey ran for Senate, beating Republican Brenda Lawrence and holding a seat vacated by Democrat Jamie Smith, who narrowly lost a bid for Sioux Falls mayor earlier this year.

Democrat June Copperstad was elected to replace Muckey in the House.

District 10, where Larson serves, had been a split district with one Republican and two Democrats across both chambers. The Democrats now hold all three seats.

Districts 11, 12, 13 and 14 had been all Republican, but each will have a Democrat in the House in 2027: Sonja Mentzer in District 11, Stephanie Arne in District 12, Ali Rae Horsted in District 13 and Erinn Williams in District 14.

Horsted ousted Republican incumbent John Hughes, and Williams came in second in the District 14 House race for two seats behind incumbent Republican Taylor Rae Rehfeldt but ahead of Republican Tyler Tordsen, who served in the House from 2023 to 2024.

It makes sense that Democrats saw most of their success in Sioux Falls, according to Julia Hellwege, a political science professor at the University of South Dakota. The city’s demographics have shifted as it’s grown in population, Hellwege said.

“Most urban areas, broadly speaking, tend to be less conservative and somewhat more progressive,” said Hellwege.

That shift was almost certainly a factor in the party’s success in Sioux Falls, Hellwege said, combined with the broader frustration with incumbents that animated the shift toward Democrats in states outside of South Dakota.

Recounts possible in several races

Democrat Aaron Matson was narrowly defeated in the Sioux Falls-area’s District 11 by Republican Senate President Pro Tempore Chris Karr in a race close enough for a recount if Matson requests one. Republican Kari Shanard-Koenders beat Democrat Joe Zweifel in District 12. That contest is also close enough for a recount.

Additional recounts are possible in District 3, where Democrat Erin Ronayne Rudner was edged out for a House seat by Republican Timothy Hanigan, both of Aberdeen, and in District 9, where Republican Megan Tschetter of Hartford narrowly beat Democrat Amanda Potter of Sioux Falls for a House seat.

Zweifel, who’s also deputy director of the South Dakota Democratic Party, told South Dakota Searchlight he’s still deciding if he’ll request a recount. So did Matson.

The rest of the losing Democratic candidates did not immediately reply to calls and text messages asking if they intend to request recounts.

The results were proof of success for Democrats, Zweifel told South Dakota Searchlight, and affirmed that they’d picked the right races and solid candidates. 

“I know it wasn’t a good night for our statewide candidates, but it was still a big win for Democrats in South Dakota,” Zweifel said. “It’s the first time since 2008 that we picked up seats, and that’s something to be proud of.”

In Sioux Falls, Democrats ran in opposition to large-scale data centers, and Zweifel said that issue resonated with voters in a city wrestling with the possibility of data center development.

“We listened to the people,” Zweifel said.

Independents fizzle

Legislative races included an unusually high number of independent candidates. Eleven were vying for seats, and one was guaranteed a seat in District 27, where four independent candidates faced a single Republican for two slots.

Republican incumbent Liz May won that race, followed by Poor Bear, who outperformed the other three independents. 

The remaining independent candidates lost. They included Rep. Peri Pourier, who switched from Democrat to Republican in 2025 and ran for Senate as an independent in District 27. Pourier came in third in the race for the district’s single Senate seat. Republican Anthony Kathol won, followed by Democrat Celestine Stadnick, whose nominating petitions Kathol had challenged unsuccessfully in court.

Neal Tapio, a Watertown independent who’d formerly served in the Legislature as a Republican, came in third and lost his bid for a seat in the House. Another former Republican lawmaker, Bryan Breitling, ran unsuccessfully as an independent for a Senate seat in District 25.

Incumbent Republican Sen. Tom Pischke dropped out of that race this summer. He faces two felony charges for allegedly filling out candidate nominating petitions for county Republican party leadership positions without those candidates’ knowledge.

Bart Sample, the former Flandreau City Council member chosen by the Minnehaha County Republican Party to replace Pischke, won that Senate seat.

South Dakota Searchlight’s Makenzie Huber contributed to this report.