(C) South Dakota Searchlight
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Before votes are counted, Republicans already have a near-majority in the Legislature • South Dakota Searchlight [1]

['Makenzie Huber', 'Ashley Murray', 'Searchlight Staff', 'Joshua Haiar', 'More From Author', '- September', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline']

Date: 2024-09

Before South Dakotans began early voting Friday for the Nov. 5 general election, the Republican Party already had a near-majority in next year’s Legislature.

Seventeen Republicans are running unopposed for the 35-member Senate, which has one winner in each district.

Republicans are guaranteed another 35 seats in the 70-member House, which has two winners in each district. The guaranteed Republican seats are in districts where two candidates are running and both are Republicans, and in districts where three candidates are running and two are Republicans.

Current partisan split The current partisan split among sitting legislators in South Dakota: Senate: 31 Republicans, four Democrats.

House: 63 Republicans, seven Democrats.

There’s one unopposed Democrat running for Senate, and the Democratic Party is guaranteed at least two seats in the House.

All 105 seats in the Legislature are up for grabs in the election, and 43% of the them are already decided — an increase from 42% headed into the 2022 election.

Seventeen of the 45 unchallenged legislative candidates on the November ballot also went unchallenged in their party’s June primary election. There were 44 Republican legislative primary races in June and one Democratic primary race.

Sixty-one candidates running for a state legislative seat in Nov. 5 election are women, while 98 are men.

Voters in South Dakota have plenty of other choices to make beyond legislative races. Ballots are lengthy, with seven statewide ballot questions, a U.S. House race and a Public Utilities Commission race, plus local races.

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[1] Url: https://southdakotasearchlight.com/briefs/south-dakota-legislature-election-2024-unchallenged-candidates-republicans-majority/

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