My latest in the Pierre Capital Journal. A snippet:
In the 1970s, the Democratic Party in South Dakota was on the verge of being the majority party. Richard Kniep and Harvey Wollman were elected governor as Democrats in the 1970s. Democrats like George McGovern, Frank Denholm, and James Abourezk could get elected to national office. In 1972 Democrats won half of the state House seats and had majorities in the state Senate after the 1972 and 1974 elections.
Today, of the 105 seats in the South Dakota Legislature, Democrats hold only twenty-four. No Democrat holds a state constitutional office. Republicans continue to dominate voter registration rolls. Democratic candidates for governor routinely get trounced. In the last decade, two Democrat incumbents to national office, Tom Daschle and Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, have been defeated for re-election.
Read the whole thing.
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