GOVERNOR LARRY RHODEN: LAWMAKERS DESCRIBE THE NEW GOVERNOR AS A STEADY HAND AND SOURCE OF HUMOR
PIERRE, S.D. (Makenzie Huber / South Dakota Searchlight) – Larry Rhoden owes his new job as governor to Kristi Noem, but her political career might have stalled shortly after it began if not for his help, according to a story they’ve both shared publicly.
As a new state legislator in 2007, Noem thought a fellow Republican lawmaker from her district was insufficiently devoted to anti-abortion legislation. She aired that view in an email to constituents, which angered other Republicans.
Rhoden told the story earlier this month while introducing Noem for her last State of the State speech.
“She got herself in a little trouble, kind of put her foot in her mouth over an issue, and there was a lot of consternation among her colleagues,” he said.
Rhoden was the state House majority leader at the time. He arranged a group dinner with Noem, telling other attendees that she didn’t “have a lot of friends.” The advice Noem received that evening and the relationships she formed helped to put her on a path to political success.
Noem was eventually elected to Congress, and then became South Dakota’s first female governor with Rhoden serving as her lieutenant governor. Now she’s the secretary of the federal Department of Homeland Security, and Rhoden has succeeded her as governor. He’ll serve the remainder of her second term through 2026, when he’ll have to decide whether to seek his own term in that year’s election.
South Dakotans know a lot about Noem, after her many statewide campaigns, her two books and her consistent presence on social media. They’re less acquainted with Rhoden, who took the oath of office Monday as South Dakota’s 34th governor. Rhoden said as much when he addressed the Legislature during a joint session on Tuesday.
Ranching roots
The 65-year-old is a fourth-generation rancher from rural Union Center, in western South Dakota. He values his faith, family and hard work, he said in his speech. He and his wife, Sandy, have four grown sons and seven grandchildren.
Rhoden’s brother still lives on the land where their grandfather homesteaded, while Rhoden lives nearby. His family has a tradition of military service, he said, including in the Revolutionary War and the world wars. Instead of going to college after graduating from high school, Rhoden joined the National Guard.
He’s now the 12th governor in South Dakota history to lack a college degree, and the first since Walter Dale Miller, another Republican rancher and lieutenant governor who took over as governor after the death of Gov. George Mickelson in 1993.
Rhoden joined the state Legislature in 2000, where he served for 16 years. His interests during his legislative career included property rights, pro-gun policies, anti-abortion legislation and tax reform.
In 2014, he ran in a five-way race for the Republican nomination for an open U.S. Senate seat. He finished a distant second to former Gov. Mike Rounds, who went on to win the general election.
Humorous and serious
Rhoden joined Noem as her running mate in her successful 2018 gubernatorial campaign, after she’d served four terms in the U.S. House. As Noem generated national headlines during her administration, Rhoden was a quiet, sometimes comedic presence in the background.
While fulfilling the lieutenant governor’s dual role as president of the state Senate, he broke two gavels with his powerful strike, earning him good-natured ribbing from legislators and a heavy-duty aluminum gavel as a gift. He also made his own wooden gavels and put his 40 years of custom welding experience to use crafting a “VETO” branding iron for Noem.
While participating in a 2017 debate about legislation to permit concealed guns in the Capitol (an idea that eventually succeeded), Rhoden hit a panic button in a committee room to see how quickly authorities would respond.
In her first book, Noem recalled her years serving in the Legislature with Rhoden and said they were part of a group of lawmakers and lobbyists who enjoyed the “Seinfeld” sitcom and compared themselves to the cast. The group decided Rhoden “was a lot like Kramer,” Noem wrote, “with his funny expressions and crazy head tilts.”
Noem also described Rhoden in her book as a strategic thinker who knew “when a good quip was exactly what was needed to ease the tension in the room.”
Tim Rave was a member of that group of friends. He’s now the South Dakota Board of Regents president and South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations executive director. He laughed at the “Seinfeld” memory, saying Rhoden took the Kramer comparison well.
Rave, a former speaker of the House, said Rhoden will serve as a “rock steady hand” to navigate the leadership transition. South Dakotans will see a “genuine” man and leader in the coming years who will listen, collaborate and use humor when necessary, Rave said.
Dan Ahlers, executive director of the South Dakota Democratic Party, formerly served with Rhoden in the Legislature. Ahlers remembers Rhoden as a “firebrand” from his early years as a legislator, but said Rhoden has matured into someone who will be more “attentive” to the state than his predecessor.
“I think Larry is more focused on South Dakota,” Ahlers said. “What we’ve seen with Noem throughout her career is, ‘What is the next step? What’s the next and next and next?’”
Aberdeen Republican Rep. Al Novstrup, who has served in the Legislature since 2003, said Rhoden will bring the same sincere, honest and competent leadership to the governor’s office that he embodied during their time together in the Legislature.
“Over the years, we’ve had a lot of contentious issues. Larry has always been able to reach compromises that treat everybody fairly,” Novstrup said. “He’s always respectful to people he disagrees with. He’s got South Dakota integrity.”
TOP SOUTH DAKOTA ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATOR SAYS BIDEN-ERA LAW CREATED ‘WATER RENAISSANCE” IN THE STATE
PIERRE, S.D. (Seth Tupper – South Dakota Searchlight) – Though he didn’t credit the Biden administration by name, South Dakota’s top environmental official recently praised one of the administration’s laws for spurring a “water renaissance that was overdue” in the state.
Hunter Roberts leads South Dakota’s Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Its responsibilities include the regulation of drinking water and wastewater systems.
The office awarded $689 million to 200 water-related projects across the state during the last several years, Roberts told a legislative committee last week at the Capitol in Pierre. The money came from the American Rescue Plan Act, known by the acronym “ARPA.”
“It created an opportunity to make that investment and, I think, move our state forward long-term when we look at water-wastewater infrastructure, which is critical,” Roberts said. “If we don’t have safe, clean drinking water, what else do we have?”
Congress passed the ARPA legislation in 2021. Then-President Joe Biden signed it into law that March. It included a total of $1.9 trillion in funding to stimulate the national economy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
South Dakota’s share was about $1 billion. Besides water and wastewater infrastructure, the money funded broadband internet expansion, infrastructure for housing, telemedicine initiatives, the construction of a new state public health lab, and more.
Roberts’ department used the water and wastewater money to make grants for local projects. The grants helped to pay for infrastructure such as storage reservoirs, tanks, water pipes, treatment plants, wells, pump stations, filtration systems and sewer lines.
Some local water systems had been diligent about upgrading and modernizing before the ARPA funds became available, Roberts said, but for the others, “those additional funds kind of spurred our utilities to get off their keister and make those investments that they maybe hadn’t made in 20 to 30 years.”
At another point in his presentation to the legislative committee — which included a broad overview of departmental activities — Roberts said he was excited about the end of the Biden administration. Roberts was appointed to his job in 2019 by then-Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican who’s since become President Donald Trump’s secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
Roberts said the Biden administration enacted “overly broad, overreaching, unfounded” laws and regulations.
“It seemed like there was a lot of regulatory overreach coming from Washington, D.C., pushed down to the regions and the states that we didn’t like,” Roberts said.
He also acknowledged that Trump’s zeal for imposing tariffs could negatively impact international trade and industries that depend on it, including agriculture.
“That remains to be seen how that all works through the system, but it’s certainly something we’re watching closely,” Roberts said.
NEBRAKSA LAWMAKERS HEAR TESTIMONY ON TWO DEATH PENALTY BILLS IN COMMITTEE
LINCOLN, Neb. (WOWT) – State Sen. Terrell McKinney of Omaha has a bill which would abolish the death penalty in Nebraska and replace it with life in prison.
On Friday, McKinney told the Judiciary Committee during a hearing that the death penalty is inhumane and fails to deter people from committing the most heinous crimes.
But he also said it’s costly.
“The financial burden of the death penalty far exceeds that of life imprisonment,” McKinney said. Executions cost two to five times more due to prolonged legal processes, appeals, and required procedures.”
“That’s a false argument,” said Rod Edwards, who was the state political director of Nebraskans for the Death Penalty, which helped petitioned to restore it in 2016. “All the same appeals are available to somebody who’s in prison for life as are to those on death row.”
He points to more than 60% of voters bringing the death penalty back after the legislature passed a law prohibiting it.
“The voters have already spoken on this issue, and it was pretty overwhelming—both in the petition gathering portion of it and in the vote.”
Sen. Loren Lippincott of Central City has a bill which would change how it’s potentially carried out. It would allow nitrogen hypoxia as an acceptable method. That’s when someone inhales pure nitrogen gas through a mask until they suffocate.
“There is documentation before you that suicides with nitrogen or helium gases are painless,” Lippincott said. “Nitrogen is painless, it is peaceful, and is plentiful.”
No one at the hearing Friday testified in favor of his bill.
But Edwards says nitrogen gas could work.
“The only challenge we’ve faced is finding a method that is considered humanely acceptable to carry out the executions,” he said. “So if this is an option—I believe that there is at least one state in the country that is doing this—so if this is an option that makes it a more viable action, then I think I would be interested in learning about that.”
The method has only been used three times in the U.S.—all of them happening in Alabama last year, starting with convicted killer Kenneth Smith.
But in his testimony Friday, Jason Witmer of the Nebraska ACLU quoted a reverend who witnessed that execution.
“What we saw was minutes of someone struggling for their life,” Witmer recited. “What was saw (was) minutes of someone heaving back and forth.”
Another opponent echoed much the same.
“Legislation like this, which has already passed in other states, asks us to stomach allowing our state to kill people in our name via a method that our veterinarians won’t even recommend for our pets,” said Alex Houchin of Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
Both of the proposals need to make it out of committee before lawmakers can debate them on the floor.
