The challenger in the recent South Dakota Farmers Union President’s race, Garret Bischoff of Huron, says he’s not conceding the election. A news release this week from the organization states that during a meeting Tuesday with President Doug Sombke Bischoff said he was not in the fight that has been reported in the media and is not seeking a new election at this time. It goes on to state that Bischoff conceded the election. However, he says that’s not true.

Bischoff says Sombke asked for the meeting and he agreed because he wanted to help workout some of the obvious issues. He told Sombke he wanted to take the feud out of the media, so it wouldn’t harm the organization. However, he never agreed to the news release from the South Dakota Farmers Union so it’s time to set the record straight.

Bischoff says he’s not the leader of the Save the Farmers Union Coalition but he says their concerns about the integrity of the election are valid and need to be worked out. He says there is proof to back the claims of election tampering.
Bischoff says he was hoping Sombke’s “olive branch” would be the start of members working out the problems with the organization, but after their news release it appears that olive branch was covered in “thorns.”

Doug Sombke declined our request for an interview.