South Dakota 2016 Election Results

South Dakota held its general election on November 8, 2016, deciding 105 legislative seats across 70 districts and the office of Public Utilities Commissioner. No chamber changed party control.

Highlights

• Republicans widened supermajorities in both chambers, growing from 58-12 to 60-10 in the House and reaching 29-6 in the Senate. Both of their Senate gains came from Democrats:
  • Jordan Youngberg (R) unseated Sen. Scott Parsley (D) by 94 votes in Senate District 8.
  • John Wiik (R) won Senate District 4, left open by Democrat Jim Peterson.
• Voters narrowly approved Initiated Measure 22, an ethics and campaign finance overhaul that called for an independent state ethics commission, new limits on gifts to lawmakers, and publicly financed campaign credits. It did not last: in February 2017 the Legislature passed and Gov. Dennis Daugaard signed a bill repealing the voter-approved law, with an emergency clause that made the repeal take effect immediately.
• In the House, Republicans picked up three Democratic-held seats and lost one:
  • Steve Livermont (R) edged Red Dawn Foster (D) by about 240 votes for a House District 27 seat.
  • Republicans swept both seats in House District 9 and House District 22.
  • Democrats' lone gain came in House District 25, where former Rep. Dan Ahlers (D) took the second seat from Rep. Roger Hunt (R) by fewer than 40 votes and held on in a recount. Tom Pischke (R) won the other seat.
• Voters weighed 10 statewide measures, approving 4 and rejecting 6. They capped interest on payday and car title loans at 36 percent with Measure 21 and defeated Amendment U, a lender-backed rival that would have barred legislative rate caps on such loans. They also approved Amendment S on crime victims' rights and Amendment R on technical schools, and rejected a lower youth minimum wage (Referred Law 20), an independent redistricting commission (Amendment T), nonpartisan elections (Amendment V), changes to independent-candidate election rules (Referred Law 19), and an initiative letting organizations charge fees for services (Measure 23).

Legislature

• House (70 seats): 12 D, 58 R before the election, 10 D, 60 R after; control stayed with Republicans.
• Senate (35 seats): 8 D, 27 R before the election, 6 D, 29 R after; control stayed with Republicans.

Statewide races

Legislative races

Ballot measures