Despite its situation in the Great Plains and square in the center of the Populist movement, South Dakota’s staunch Republican profile would greatly run ahead those of its Midwestern counterparts. Even so, South Dakota would go on to produce some of the most influential Democrats in recent times.
Early History – Two Dakotas
France is the first country to have held a claim over the land of South Dakota, looking to sustain the fur industry. After the land was traded to Spain, then back to France, the United States acquired South Dakota in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. The Lewis and Clark Expedition was the first to formally explore the area thereafter, and the fur trading industry dominated the first half of the 1800s. The 1850s saw the settlements of two of the state’s largest cities today: Sioux Falls and Yankton, allowing the Dakota Territory to be established in 1861, which also included North Dakota.
As previously discussed in the North Dakota article, the two Dakotas experienced two different eras of growth and interests. While North Dakota was settled primarily for agriculture, South Dakota developed more of a mining profile with the discovery of gold in the Black Hills in 1874. South Dakota was tied to larger cities like Omaha and Chicago via railroads, allowing its own cities to become larger and more influential. North Dakota, on the other hand, was much more sparsely settled and connected to Minneapolis by its own railroad. South Dakota considered its northern counterpart a land of “wild folks, cattle ranchers, and fur traders.”
North Dakota found it cheaper to remain a territory, while South Dakota pushed for statehood and to retain the name “Dakota” for itself, which became akin to a certain brand of products and services associated with the region, much like “California raisins” or “Georgia peaches.” The two ended up sharing the name and were both admitted on November 2, 1889. President Benjamin Harrison (R-IN) shuffled the paperwork and signed them blindly, leaving it a question to this day of which Dakota technically became a state first.
South Dakota’s statehood now allowed it to make decisions on key issues, such as prohibition, the location of the state capitol – which had previously been “stolen” by a corrupt North Dakota politician – land skirmishes with the Natives, agricultural issues, and women’s suffrage. The railroads allowed speculation that the city of Pierre could be the next Denver due to its location on the railroads, which led the state to select the city as its capital. In addition to railroads, South Dakota’s westward expansion was partly facilitated by wars with the Natives, most notably in the form of the Battle of Wounded Knee, the climax of the federal theater of removing Native tribes from the Great Plains.
Most of South Dakota’s earliest settlers were from New England, and with much of its profile being agrarian, the state developed a staunch Republican-Populist political lean. Its first election in 1892 went to Republican Benjamin Harrison, with William Jennings Bryan (D-NE), who ran on a fusion ticket with the Populist Party, winning the state in 1896 on the “free silver” to help indebted farmers. Progressivism was on full display in 1912, Theodore Roosevelt, originally a Republican, split from the party against President William Howard Taft (R-OH). His third-party bid allowed Woodrow Wilson (D-NJ) to easily win the election. Roosevelt carried six states and because South Dakota’s Republican Party was controlled by Progressives, Taft was not on the ballot, allowing South Dakota to be the only state Roosevelt would carry with a majority of the vote.
Outside of the 1896 and 1912 elections, South Dakota would become a fiercely Republican state. Of the thirty-three elections in which the state has voted, South Dakota has only voted for four Democrats and one Progressive.
Twentieth Century Politics – A True Red State
Like other farming states, South Dakota suffered immensely during the Great Depression. The 1920s farming crisis and the Dust Bowl further indebted and impoverished farmers, which pushed the state to vote for Franklin Roosevelt (D-NY) in 1932 and 1936. South Dakota would quickly revert to the Republican fold in 1940, and since then, it has only backed one other Democrat: Lyndon Johnson (D-TX) in his 1964 landslide.
South Dakota’s economy jumped back to life with World War II when the state’s heavy agricultural sector was needed. In 1944, Congress passed the Flood Control Act, constructing six large dams on the Missouri River, four of which are located in South Dakota. The projects brought hydroelectricity, boating, fishing, and other forms of recreation to the state’s economy.
Tourism was also part of the state’s master plan as early as the 1920s. Part of this plan was an effort to draw tourists to the state, especially the Black Hills in the western part of South Dakota. The proposal was a large monument dedicated to the nation’s birth and development, memorializing some of its famed leaders. In 1927, Mount Rushmore National Monument was commissioned by President Calvin Coolidge (R-MA) and was overseen by sculptor Gutzon Borglum. Borglum died during its creation, allowing his son Lincoln to succeed him and finish the work.
While South Dakota remained mostly agricultural – to this day, agriculture is still its top industry – the state retained its large Republican hue, but because of its ancestral Populist tendencies, continued to elect Democrats down ballot, but not as frequently as North Dakota.
In fact, South Dakota has one of the shortest political histories for the Democratic Party out of most states. In addition to having only won four presidential elections here, the party has also only elected five governors of the thirty-three who have served. Democrats last held the State Senate in 1992 and the State House in 1974. Since South Dakota’s admission to the Union in 1889, Democrats have only held the State House for six years and the State Senate for twelve.
Despite its strong Republican leanings and the 1972 landslide won by Richard Nixon (R-CA), native son and Senator George McGovern (D-SD) would do better in his home state than most other parts of the country. He only won Massachusetts and the District of Columbia in that election.
Farming concerns in the 1980s would deliver a single-digit win for George H. W. Bush (R-TX) in 1988, uncharacteristic of the state’s true conservative angle. The margins from 1988 to 1996 would be some of the thinnest for the Republican Party in the state. George W. Bush (R-TX), however, would turn the state back to its roots.
South Dakota’s geography also reflects the Republican lean of the state, as the only counties that would flirt with the Democratic Party were the more populated eastern counties along the Missouri River. The strongest Democratic counties in South Dakota are those that are home to Native American reservations. Outside of the reservation counties is Clay County, home to Vermillion and the University of South Dakota. While reliably Democratic, Republicans are not overpowered here as they are in other college towns across the country.
Even South Dakota’s urban counties, such as Minnehaha (Sioux Falls), Hughes (Pierre), Yankton (Yankton), and Pennington (Rapid City) are all firmly Republican.
Current Political Leanings – A Firm GOP Hold
In addition to hosting one of the longest presidential winning streaks in the country – a feat it has shared with eight other states since 1964 – South Dakota is home to the longest gubernatorial winning streak for any party in the country. No Democrat has won a governor’s race here since Richard Kneip in 1974.
In the U.S. Senate, however, Democrats have had more recent success. Democratic strength to the upper chamber was on a forty-year drought until the election of McGovern and James Abourezk in the 1960s and 1970s. Another drought would produce Tom Daschle (D) in 1987, who would serve as Senate Minority Leader from 1995-2005 in broken stints, as well as Majority Leader from 2001-2003. Daschle was defeated by John Thune (R) in 2004, making him one of just a handful of incumbent party leaders to lose re-election.
Senator Tim Johnson (D) also served with Dashcle, creating a brief period in which Democrats controlled both Senate seats until Daschle’s loss in 2005. Johnson served until his retirement in 2015. Republicans now control both Senate seats in South Dakota and neither have been remotely competitive since 2004.
Today, the state still boasts agriculture as a main industry, but the presence of Citibank in Sioux Falls has transformed a once sleepy farming town to a regional economic powerhouse. Sioux Falls is also home to a burgeoning tech hub, giving the Great Plains a small taste of Silicon Valley. Low taxes and low regulation have made South Dakota an attractive destination in the last decade, prompting concerns it might gain some electoral power in the near future.
Despite the population shifts to South Dakota, nothing seems likely to knock off its intense Republican ancestry any time soon.
