From the Black Hills to the Big Sioux, the Dakota Town Hall Podcast.
Hosted by Murdoc in the West and Jake in the East, Featuring Dan Ahlers SD Dem’s executive director and Nikki Gronli, former state director for USDA Rural Development.
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Read along with this week’s transcript from Dakota Town Hall
Murdoc: And welcome back to, Happy Friday. It’s Friday afternoon. So of course an hour of South Dakota politics is exactly what you would like to listen to because you’re a psychopath.
Welcome to it. Here on the cowboy in Rapid City or on your favorite podcast player maybe this weekend. Also, if you have any comments or questions for the show, let’s start this at the beginning.
Sometimes we forget. You can go to dakotatownhaul.com and send in your questions. It is South Dakota’s most listened to political podcast with Jake Shoenbeck in the East, Murdoc in the West. Jake, here we go again did you pay your taxes?
Jake: I certainly did. I just got done a two months ago. I was way ahead. I bet there’s, I bet there’s one policy-sci major who like cracks a beer every Friday and listens to us at USD. I bet it was like at least one.
Murdoc: Oh, I kind of like that.
Jake: Yeah. You know, like a Keystone, Keystone and Dakota Town Hall.
Murdoc: I would like the college Republicans to make a drinking game out of this show. I’m not saying what they’re drinking, Jake.
Jake: Whatever Murdoch interrupts, drink and there’s, there’s immediately just drunk children running around campus.
Murdoc: You’d need kegs and kegs. Well, I was laughing with my Democrat buddies who listened to the show and they sent a text the other day, Jake. They’re like, it’s been straight white male Republican quarter on a Dakota Town Hall. You want to widen your stance a little. I said, that’s fair enough.
Jake: Well, I mean, yeah, I think it’s about time. I’ve got a little bit of a feminine charm onto the show. Right?
Murdoc: It’s been, I can’t, who is it’s embarrassing to probably have to think about this was Caden Whitman, the last woman on the show. It’s just been dude after dude.
Jake: Most likely. So to bring us a feminine charm, we have Dan Ahlers, the executive executive director of Democrat Party, but we also have on Nikki Gronli. Nikki is the former director of Rural Development for USDA. Nikki Dan, welcome to the show.
Gronli: Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us. I couldn’t agree more, Dan, in his feminine charm. That’s that’s what I always think of.
Murdoc: So before we get into, we’re going to do a whole show on maybe a recap from the SD Dems perspective on how the session went. And also we’re going to talk to Nikki about these town halls that that have been happening around the state. Perhaps a little, you guys missed our predictions 2026 episode last week.
So maybe we fire off some 2026 predictions from the left versions of expertise of who’s going to win and who’s going to make it. But first, Jake, did you know TikTok’s coming to South Dakota?
Jake: I did not know that. In fact, I deleted a TikTok because of the episode we had with your friend Dan forever ago. I don’t have it.
Murdoc:Oh, yes, that’s right. I mean, everyone’s going to have to put it back on their phone according to that dude according according to that dude in Wyoming. He’s going to buy it for 40 something billion dollars.
Jake: Reed Rassner and a entrepreneur from Wyoming.
Murdoc: Someone in the governor’s press office went, we could, we could, we could dominate the new cycle if we get out approving this right away. I think is what happened. I asked the lieutenant governor if I could be secretary of TikTok and he said yes.
Jake: So that’s a, that’s a big win. That’s a big win.
Murdoc: It’s better than the Delbridge Museum, right? No, baby. That’s a lot better than that. No one’s going to get me asbestos might steal all my data.
Jake: You take some of you. So you lose some.
Murdoc: Well, it’s, it’s, you wouldn’t believe the, like I got a text from Tom Johnson from rapid, from elevate rapid city. Like this, this, this put West River in a tizzy today as we record this on a Wednesday.
Jake: So is this like a real thing at all? Or is it just like some guy got loud and has money and just like, I can, he saw Jeff Bezos send his girlfriend to space and was like, I can buy tik tok.
Murdoc: Like honey, what if I bought you a social media platform? So this is, this is just a lot of hot air. I assume.
Murdoc: Uh, see, let me, I’m trying to say this as respectful as possible just cause I’m a little closer to our Wyoming neighbors out here. Yeah, it’s ridiculously silly.
Jake: Okay. That’s why I thought,
Murdoc: but that, you know, some ridiculously silly stuff works out sometimes in this administration. Am I going to rule out tick talk moving to the black hills? Absolutely not.
Jake: Yes, you’re not wrong there. Mount Rushmore, the garden of garden of heroes, what’s what they call it? You’ll do the on the black hills.
Murdoc: We’ll have it all out here. That I don’t, I mean, we might have some data connectivity issues. Like, I just don’t know if we have the
Jake: the broadband build out was pretty good. I feel like if you’re actually talking about, you know, South Dakota when it comes to, uh, you know, like how are, sorry, Nickki is shaking your head like it wasn’t a good build out.
Ahlers: I’m just saying some positive things to my friends at Golden West, but
Murdoc: I love, you know, the gold West people are working hard. I just don’t know if they’re ready for tik tok.
Jake: Hey, when you have to like blast through to get your like fiber anywhere, use dynamite to get fiber from place to place. It’s a bit difficult. Give him a little slack there.
Gronli: I want to see. So I came from broadband prior to USDA.
Murdoc: So, so you know the tik tok dances and you’re just, you’re set. You’re good to go. Well, okay. I guess I will. It seems like that’s not going to happen, but you know, if it, if it, if it does, you know, secretary tok tok, you’re all welcome.
Jake: There goes like half your staff. We’re not going to hire everybody that works your place.
Murdoc: That’s all right. That’s, that’s okay. I’m the secretary tik tok. I have things to do. I can’t be worrying about home slice and silly peony podcast like Dakota town all. All right. Let’s get, let’s do some work. Let’s get to it.
Um, I, uh, Nikki, you have been. What it looks like traveling around the state just as much as Larry Rhoden, who looks like he also may be running for office. I’m not saying there’s a connection there, but where would you like to start?
Gronli: Well, so this is nothing new to me because with USDA and rural development, I spent all my time on the road. I was a road warrior, uh, working with communities on infrastructure issues, making sure maybe their rural hospital has what it needs is so they can expand or modernize.
So traveling around the states, what I’ve been doing for the last three years. When this came up when, you know, we’re like, okay, people want to be heard. They’re upset.
The members of Congress aren’t responding. We see it on social media. All the comments under their posts or when are you going to have a town hall?
When are you going to have a town hall? And honestly, one day driving in my car listening to the news. I thought, this is what I’ve been doing. I’ve been driving around the state. I’ve been listening to people. I’ve been looking for solutions for them. So why not?
Murdoc: So you were out in Rapid City this week?
Gronli: Mm hmm. Just Monday.
Murdoc: So what’s, uh, what’s the average town hall look like? What kind of, you know, getting good attendance and all that?
Gronli: We are. So, um, we had a room set for 180 in Rapid City at the Dahl Art Center. We ended up having to, uh, we had 217 in the room. We went to standing room only and we were pretty much at what capacity was. Um, and we were there each one of these week planned an hour.
Every one of them is running longer. We’ve had to get to a point where we just have to, um, shut things down because we’re, we’re longer than our stay at the location, but, um, we’ve had great attendance last night in Sioux Falls. We were at 400 in the room and unfortunately, um, we’re hearing 75 to 100 people had to be turned away. Um, which I wish that wouldn’t be the case, but it’s hard to find large venues for something like this.
Murdoc: And, uh, So it’s not like you, I don’t mean to be rude, but it’s not like you needed them. I mean, there’s going to be a law in the books trying to ban 180 Democrats being in one place here next year.
Jake: Why don’t you tell us, so give us a little kind of, what do these look like? What’s being talked about How are? I also want to know how are these being advertised people? I mean, are they coming and saying this is a Democrat town hall? Or is it like a people’s town hall? Like, well, how is this being brought to the people?
Gronli: Well, you know, when I went to Dan and brought him this idea, I said, Dan, I would be willing to go out and do town halls and I’m willing to go out and do this. I mean, I’ve got friends all around the state. If I need to go stay somewhere for an evening, do it the next day, I got friends to stay with. But Dan said, I think it’s a great idea.
And you know, the whole idea behind it is making sure everybody is welcome Republican, independent Democrat. I don’t care right now. Things are chaotic and people have concerns and I want to be there to listen. I want to take this and put it into a report for our members of Congress. That’s kind of the end game with this and meet with the staff and say, this is what’s being said while you guys are not in the room.
Murdoc: I guess I’m trying to figure out where I want to start here. I’m sorry. I Jake had a good question. I want to go back to you. Let’s start there. What are the top three like these are the issues like if you had to AI into a paragraph, what are what are what are what are the top three things that need to change?
Gronli: Tariff’s. Everybody is very concerned about tariffs and the chaos whether you’re a small business owner. Farmers have been stepping up and talking about it. People are concerned about where their grocery bills are going to go and their products they have to buy are going to go. So the interesting thing is with the tariff topic. You’ve had farmers bring it up.
You’ve had small business owners bring it up and you’ve had single moms bring it up. I’d say that is the number one thing we’re hearing. The next thing that is of great concern just happened recently when we talk about the individual who is in El Salvador in the prison and that the White House isn’t bringing him back. And we’ve got a lot of folks that are concerned about that when we’ve also had President Trump say that maybe we could use this technique with American citizens too. And the concern is this happened if it could happen to him. It can happen to anybody. So there’s a fear factor there.
Murdoc: I have I don’t know how to ask this.
Jake: That number three you got number three don’t you.
Gronli: Let me get to number three. And then I would say with number three there is a whole lot of concern with what DOGE is cutting. And when we’re seeing things like Children’s Home Society Helpline Center lose these these funds and people see them as important. They see them as something that takes care of people. They’re very concerned.
Murdoc: Question to the room. Nikki start with you. Do if you pulled South Dakota about this dude now Salvador do we want to bring him back or do we care?
Gronli: People want him back. They feel like he didn’t get due process. It hasn’t been proven that he is any sort of gang member and that he is a father who has a child and a wife here in America and he should have never been taken in the first place.
Murdoc: Jake?
Jake:I don’t know. I mean I got to be honest. I don’t know how many I’m sure people coming to the top to that to the listening sessions and talk sessions are concerned about it but as South Dakota’s the whole I don’t know how much they actually are paying attention.
Murdoc: I think if they knew the dude and method dude they would meet him because we’re you know thoughtful caring people but I don’t think where this would get voted on in the comment section in social media we care about a someone who isn’t a citizen.
Jake: Well I’m sure they probably go like hey where there’s smoke there’s fire or whatever right and I’m just saying it’s probably like what thought processes is.
Gronli: One other thing I think that is at the heart of this is people see it as a constitutional crisis that people are being taken without due process and that means any one of us is is under threat from an administration that isn’t using due process and has said we could use this for American citizens to
Murdoc: I mean I don’t know I always of course I’m going to take the left side on this on this because that’s I’m the Rhino right barely hanging on at this point according to some people but like due process argument is always real tough because the case models are always the hardest examples and like that’s is how that’s not new that’s not Trump thing that’s always how it’s worked in this country the case models for due process are never dude who ran a stoplight who pays his taxes that’s not how this works homie.
Jake: I mean I can’t speak to it too much myself I haven’t really followed it that closely I’ve seen headlines but I can’t speak to whether or not.
Gronli: You know the other thing I’d say is if you think about we were at Augustana University we have a lot of students there and we had students in the room. So we all on this excuse me and probably are a little bit older than that. And so you also have to take into account who’s in the room and talking.
Murdoc: Jake could technically still date like PhD grads I think that’d be fine.
Jake: Okay I can put myself in there in their seat right I mean you’re looking at an economy that is super super hard to tell which way it’s going right the volatility is crazy and when you are a soon to be grad that’s the biggest thing I’ll scare you was like can I get a job like that’s the biggest concern. I graduated in 2018 economy was awesome right because you’re graduating in 2025 the economy is insanely bad for new hires right now it’s a terrible time to get a new job. So for them probably very scary I can see why they’d be concerned about what’s going on in economy
Murdoc: should have took that class in in canning instead of basket weaving or
Jake: I have started canning recently by the way and getting okay at it.
Gronli: Yeah and like I said I think overwhelmingly the tariff situation is across the board what we hear again and again and again Rapid City Sioux Falls different folks.
Jake: If you want to argue about tariffs I mean I don’t know you I don’t want to talk about the economics of tariffs the real problem I think is no one knows what’s going on with tariffs we don’t know if they’re on or off or they’re 10 or 25 percent of 125 percent and that makes it very difficult to understand what’s going on in the economy.
Murdoc: That is what’s happening and let me issue really and and I want to I want to exclamation point Jake’s point in a real life situation without naming any names dude from my high school has posted 27 times about tariffs and like I sat with that dude in high school math. But everyone’s got an opinion.
Jake: And we can talk economics I mean from an economic standpoint we have never put tariffs on to this degree in a good economy before that’s like a new thing to do that usually was always when the economy was on a downward slope we put tariffs on some how be protected. So you can have an economic argument you can have that argument but what you can’t really deal with is we don’t know what’s going on.
Ahlers: And another great example today I got an email from one of the vendors that we use here in South Dakota South Dakota small business and he’s like I’m just going to be up front with you guys we’re going to try and be as fair as we’re going to we can be this is how we’re going to handle these prices because we don’t want to place too much of the burden on you but this is what it’s going to look like.
So I mean I think small business owners are trying to figure out you know how do we you know how do we keep things going for us you know and not damage you know our own economy our own economic success or or model here in South Dakota but still recognizing that there’s an impact and there’s an increase in costs and how do we lessen that burden and passing it off to the customer to say I know there’s a lot a lot of folks out there that are small business owners and they’re trying to be thoughtful about it but it is creating a real problem because there is all that uncertainty out there.
Jake: So you’re your goal of this right of these sessions is to basically get a report you can give to the congressional leadership leadership sorry Dusty rounds and Thune right?
Gronli: Yeah and you know part of that is I want them to know that while they’re sitting like Senator rounds was sitting with 13 people with Americans for progress in Rapid City while I had 217 at the dahl who have a lot of concerns and he’s not meeting with them publicly and those are his constituents and the first person who stepped up at Augie was a Republican who just became an independent because he’s had it with the chaos.
Jake: So let me ask you something how do you get this report done right how do you get that report in the hands of them and make them take it as something that’s not just a Democrat piece of paper right. Like that’s going to your issue that’s going to your barrier right is there okay yeah of course these are things that we’re not doing well because you’re Democrats.
Gronli: I’m of the opinion so I stopped by the member of Congress offices often to talk about different things I’ve had people that I brought down there when they’ve had a situation like recently a woman who had a social security situation and couldn’t get anybody so I was like you know what we do we go to the office and we talked to them and we get to the bottom of it. They know me the team members know me I’ll make it an appointment whether it is read over at Representative Johnson’s office or I’m going to talk to Ryder at Senator Thune’s office and sit down and talk with them about what people are concerned about
Murdoc: nice staff name drop was well done you know that’s a good answer.
Jake: How are you going to actually get these results of them and make them care about the results.
Ahlers: And the other piece to that guys is you know yes the Democratic Party is sponsoring or hosting these town halls that’s because of the absence of our 3 members of Congress. We sent a letter and an email to all 3 inviting them to participate in a town hall. And I got a generic response from Thune’s office that was a form letter that they scanned in and sent in an email that had nothing to do with what I asked about and then I got a I got a nice email from Dusty’s office saying that the distant fit into their schedule and then what was interesting is I did get a third party call to my personal cell from somebody who used to work for Senator Rounds and was asking on their behalf about this town hall and they said well this is a partisan event I said it’s just a Democratic Party hosting it is it if Mike Rounds commits to this town hall I will find someone else the League of Women voters will get Augie Dems and Augie Republicans to co host the event.
I don’t care he’s like well what is the Democratic Party get out of it. I said how about a thank you for helping organize it said it’s not about us it’s about meeting with your constituents and listening to what’s going on. This was something that I’ve always felt strongly about even as a state legislator I love going to these events.
It was never afraid of people who didn’t like maybe something I did or stood for I mean we’re elected to office to be accountable to those people that voted for us so we need to make ourselves available and we need to make ourselves present.
Murdoc: I will I want to defend. I’m not that he needs a lot of defending I guess but like Senator rounds was in Rapid City and like talk to every news outlet and did take a lot of time so I it’s not like he’s out avoiding people.
Gronli: I talked to all the news outlets out there too. I just say no offense. You know I mean he was during the day North Star retreat with Native Americans who are worried about the Oshete Chakawee caucus. I went to meet with several of the news outlets interviewed with Tom Hansen from the other end of the state. So what’s the excuse here.
Jake: Well you’re not a US senator but something like running for you a senator or something.
Gronli: I’m just trying to help people.
Murdoc: Nice attempt number one, to keep track of our attempts that was attempt number one as we got to take a break. It’s such a what a big open tent we are in South Dakota the Democrats want events that Republicans want to go to the head of the Republican Party voted for Obama. It’s just a brand new Wild West world out here in Dakota town hall everybody.
Jake we’re going to take a break from Jake in the East. I’m the secretary of Tk Tok Murdoch in the West and we’ll be right back on Dakota town hall.
Murdoc: Back on the second turn here on South Dakota’s most listened to political podcast. Thank you for joining with Jake in the East Murdoch in the West and we’re joined by the left response will call it Nikki Gronli. The I want to make sure I get this right. You’ve got to you’ve got a mouthy title Nikki the former state director for USDA Rural Development for South Dakota. That’s correct. And then of course Dan a welcomed guest back on the show the executive director of the South Dakota Dems who lived in Wyoming for a while Jake.
Jake: Yeah Dan there’s also a Aayler’s Radio shop here in Sioux Falls that relate to you.
Ahlers: They’re all related. Okay my grandfather had 16 siblings.
Jake: So oh my gosh your poor great grandmother.
Ahlers: I know right.
Murdoc: He Dan I learned or was reminded for a while was a Campbell County Campbell in Gillette Wyoming. Ufta you gotta be tough you live in Gillette. Yeah it’s the town motto is like you know custody hearing.
Ahlers: It’s really interesting. It reminds me of a 24 hour Jerry Springer episode.
Murdoc: It’s wild. I think we’ve done a lot of shows you can still smoke in them bars. We used to stop doing concerts. Jake’s because like the bouncers would get real fighty like you wouldn’t even have to wait for the crowd to show up dude. I remember Jake’s. Speaking of speaking of Wyoming crowd there’s this whole tariff deals got a real teapot dome smell to it. If you look at the history Jake you’re so young you don’t get that reference teapot.
Jake: I don’t get that reference. I’ll be honest.
Murdoc: So it was it was some real futzen with the money. It was a supposed oil deposit in Wyoming during the presidency of Harding and kind of you know ended up bringing Harding down a little
Jake: Hold up. Maybe young has nothing to do with that. I know there’s not knowing the history of Wyoming oil scandals.
Murdoc: This is a big one.
Jake: Harding I just saying there’s a lot I thought you’d be like oh yeah this is like a Janklo thing or something I didn’t know like no that’s not even like I
Murdoc: like to point out the coincidences between the Harding administration and the Trump administration as I see them Jake that’s it. That’s it.
Jake: I don’t think you got to call me young for that one though.
Murdoc:Well that’s fair. I just wanted to sound smart for a second. Let’s get back into the show. Everyone’s a while. Dan get let’s get what’s word of your give us your 90 second session wrap up with Dan Ahlers.
Jake: I’ll give you I’ll give you three minutes.
Ahlers: You give me three minutes. Okay well I’ll take either you cut me off when you guys are done.
Jake: Yeah plenty of time to talk about this session.
Ahlers: No I think you know we have nine legislators you know that’s not a lot but they did a fantastic job this year. They they they were focused and I think they really worked on issues that were important to South Dakota and their constituents yet Caden Whitman with her water projects bill you know that works on water conservation and infrastructure projects. Those who are across the state and very important access to water, water conservation. All of that is is vital to our our economy and our ecosystem so she took the lead on that did a fantastic job. You had Eric Muckey working on improving access and making it easier for people who want to get jobs to get jobs and we suffer from a worker shortage so bring those types of bills to Pierre and passing them great work. He also worked hard with a lot of Republican legislators on appropriations to avoid some cuts to the state library. They listened to the the schools the librarians and did some good work.
Murdoc: Unfortunately today here’s all the good things that happen. We give you the floor to throw the Republicans a kick’n and you just go here’s all the nice things that happen. You’re so good guy.
Jake: I think he’s correct to do this actually though. I think all the dumb stuff the Republicans did was on display whereas Democrats don’t get the light show on them for the did did work on.
Ahlers: Well I think what I want to you know my main point is is that we often get labeled as these out there folks doing things that are out of touch the general public and then you’ve got somebody like Aaron Eric Emory who’s just working to improve access to to rural EMS and health care to make it easier once again to take people who have these certifications but may not always be recognized in South Dakota and now they now because they they are they uphold international standards. Now they can be EMS in South Dakota. We’ve done that for a lot of other professions. We did that during the Noma administration. We did that during the Dewgarde administration and here’s Eric working to improve access to real health care and increase employment opportunities again and bring some of those high need areas new opportunity. So I think that that’s what I really want to highlight is that kind of work. Yeah there was a lot of crazy stuff that happened during session and I think you saw some partnerships to between those nine Democrats and some Republicans that stopped some crazy stuff from happening and I think I think if people would like to see that crazy stuff go away. I remember a time when I was in the Legislature where there were 24 Democrats in the House and there were 12 or 13 in the Senate and that crazy stuff never made it out of committee. So I’m just putting that out there if South Dakones want to see some of this go away. There’s a way to do that
Jake: and I mean there’s a lot to help. There’s no doubt that there was some great bipartisanship that helped take down some stupid bills this session to put it very bluntly. I mean Drew Pierce has taken a lot of heat for that article I’m thinking about was a searchlight or something. A lot of heat for that article that he did some good work on though.
Murdoc: Also Will you know for the grace of God and Will Morton backbone on a couple of issues you know that was bipartisan unfortunately for the.
Jake: Will had to find a new way to lead. I mean you couldn’t do it through being a House board leader.
Murdoc: Let’s go back to it though right like there’s more left over phone chargers in the Ramco to draw right now in the lobby than there are elected Democrats. So like what’s the future look like Dan.
Ahlers: Well I think you know playing off of what we talked about just in the last segment on those town halls that information that is good that that were in those listening sessions that we’re going to send out to the member of Congress. I think it’s a message for Democrats to that these are the things that are important to South Dakotans and we should be focused on those. I think there is a lot of energy in the Democratic Party right now. We’ve seen an uptick in people interested in running at all levels. We’ve got someone who’s interested in running for Secretary of State already ready. We’ve got a candidate there we’ve got one Senate candidate announced possibly a second. We have three or four people looking at running for Congress and one person looking at running for governor and several people already committed to running for the state legislature. Those are good things and they’re happening early and they need to happen early. So there should be some more announcements coming very shortly.
Murdoc: Jake I wonder if there’s anyone else on this show this week that could weigh in on that specific topic.
Jake: Anybody?
Gronli: I will stay at the town halls. We are making sure that people know that if they want to take action they should be running and they should reach out to us.
Jake: You know it would be really great to get some primaries for Democrats though. I think it’s an important part of running and honestly making better candidates is having primaries. That’s where you’ve tested in the fire right. That’s how you become a better candidate.
Ahlers: Okay I agree. Absolutely. You know I didn’t face a primary until I ran in 2016 and you know as a candidate you’re like I hate primaries right but I I’m not gonna lie. I think coming out of that primary really strong help me eventually take out Roger Hunt in a very red district. So I think primaries are really good and I’m sold on them.
Murdoc: I agree. I’m on paper. I’m with you. You sell me on that 99 times I 100 I’m with you and if I put on a South Dakota Democratic hat Jake and every South Dakota Democratic primary is about trans or let’s go back to the bean farmers. You guys are toast and November because it’s still going to be trans.
Ahlers: Yeah. I don’t think you see that. Go ahead Jake.
Jake: Well I really think the average Democrat voter cares a lot less about what’s going on with trans rights than they do about the economy. And I’m willing to bet that the Democrat can it that you know hammers on economy and what’s going on with tariffs to Trump’s Trump stuff things like that. Is more like it win the primary than someone’s just going to town on trans rights. Right.
So I don’t know might actually make them a star candidate in the long run because they now know how to answer the questions on economy versus saying like that’s a good answer.
Murdoc: I don’t know about trans. That turns me around. You’re right. I get that.
Ahlers: And I think that the people that are talking about those issues all the time aren’t the Democrats.
Murdoc: It’s actually the Republicans. I well agree with that. That that’s a fair response back but like it’s not. I don’t mean it as a rude thing. I mean you know it’s it’s a conversation that’s happening on the national level of the Democratic Party how it gets translated. Nikki down to South Dakota politics certainly affects the candidates that will be running against vulnerable Republican districts.
Gronli: You know with the town hall stuff and like I said when you think about who’s talking about tariffs single mom a nurse several farmers small business owners. This is the economy and when we’re sitting there and we’re listening and we’re hearing those concerns we also want to come away from this and say OK what do we do next. How we make sure we’re addressing those issues because groceries which is not an old fashioned word and is something I am worried about in my family every week is what everybody else at South Dakota is also worried about.
Jake: Dan you said that only Republicans talk about trans rights and things like that. I think we saw we’ve heard the argument for from the Democrats and that was a large part of the Kamala Harris campaign was that Republicans are weird and they just talk about these things that no one else talks about forgot about weird.
Murdoc : That was funny. Right.
Jake: But like that didn’t work like as I thought it was an effective. I thought it was a fact. I thought it was going to be effective. It was working for a second a second but it didn’t work. And so like because I think the argument is that OK yeah. Republicans might be talking about it but we know Democrats are in favor of these things.
That’s why they’re talking about it. So I guess I want to hear a response to that. Like how do you say like if you keep saying Republicans are weird. I don’t know if that actually gives an answer to the problem that people are putting forward.
Ahlers: Well just to clarify things I didn’t say Republicans were weird.
Jake: You did it.
Murdoc: I just that argument goes right and I quote pull quote Dan said they’re all weird.
Jake:They’re all weird.
Ahlers: But but like you said those issues the bathroom bills all these different things. Those are the things that are being brought up that bring this this these discussions and a focus on trans rights or LGBTQ plus community. And what I tell people and what we we need to do a better job and I and my response to that is is yes we’re standing up for folks from a wide array of backgrounds the LGTQ plus community people of my minorities women but we’re also standing up for farmers to it’s more about human rights and freedoms. The thing that the Republicans continue to talk about they’re about personal freedom and personal choice until it’s not something they agree with either we stand for people’s freedom. We stand up for all citizens.
because if we don’t, then all of our rights are in jeopardy. It’s just which group is next? And I hate to bring the Holocaust Museum into this. There’s a great quote in the Holocaust Museum where they talk about, they came for the communists, I said nothing, they came for the socialists, you know, I’m paraphrasing, and I said nothing.
And then they came for me, there’s no one left to speak for me. You know, they always, which group can we pick on first? And which, which group can we demonize or vilify?
Murdoc: I do think we can, we can demonize the communists. I’m fine with that. it’s good in a primary to like take these shots, but it’s so the Republicans need to find a turn. Like, I know I’d make fun of these hard, bright yippies because they’re nuts, but like, we got to find a softer tone to talk about this or it’s just a little, it’s going to cost you eventually to be that.
You know what I mean? But I don’t know the head of the Republican Party right now is trying to thin out the Republicans. So like, I’ve never met a party leader right now that’s trying to like, well, you know, there’s a little too many of us right now.
Jake: I agree with this is that they, how do they public things? And it’s like, trans issues are like solutions looking for problems. A lot of them.
Murdoc: Yes.
Jake: It’s not really happening in South Dakota. And like, you can argue one with the other, but like, we’re not really seeing like trans kids and sports in South Dakota. So like to do a, like all his work on a bill and like all is like a hoopla on it. It’s just not worth the time.
Ahlers: Well, and we’ve seen that the schools and the, you know, the colleges, anytime there’s been issues, I mean, I still substitute teach occasionally. I use my sick days at work here and I go substitute teach with some say you’re sick, but I do enjoy it.
And it’s my brain break, believe it or not, from all the politics. But you know, for someone who spent nine years in our education system, substitute teaching, the schools, if these issues arise, are very adept at taking care of any problems and meeting needs for students, especially, you know, around those types of issues. And we’ve seen that with our universities too.
These problems on our campuses don’t exist because we have people that understand how to address those situations to make people feel comfortable, to make people feel welcome. So to your point, Jake, it does become a colossal waste of our time. And we’re not once again focused on the things that really matter. Those meat and potato issues, those economic issues, those like building airport issues. Yeah.
Murdoc: Air who needs airports,
Jake: airports and prisons, not fun, but very important.
Murdoc: What about the chemtrails, Jake? The chemtrails. Oh my God, the chemtrails. All right. We should take a break. Yes.
Jake: We got a lot more to talk about. I think we’re going to let the Democrats go to go to town and swing on us here in the next break. We’re going to talk about some dumb things Republicans are doing right now because there’s been plenty of that. More of that in the next break. This is Dakota Town Hall. We’ll be right back.
Jake: Take three because they messed up on the second one. This is Dakota Town Hall. Welcome back.
Murdoc: I’ll take it.
Jake: From Jake in the East, Murdoch’s in the West. We also have a couple of Democrat friends here. We have Dan Ahlers, the executive director of Democrat Party, as well as Nikki Gronli. She is the former USD World Development Director for South Dakota. Dan, I have a question for you and Nikki for you too. How many years have you been a Democrat for?
Ahlers: My entire life since I registered to vote in 1991. Okay. So that’s
Murdoc: Jake wasn’t even born.
Jake: No, I was four years before I was born. So 34 years.
Gronli: I got is exactly the same. Dan and I are the same age.
Jake: That’s crazy. You only beat the SDGOP chairman by two years. So what a wild world we are in in 2025.
Murdoc: I should have saw where you were heading, but I didn’t see it. That’s funny.
Jake: It’s interesting. The SDGOP is if you didn’t think we were already were in a civil war, it feels like now
Murdoc: don’t shut up. Oh, civil war.
Jake: Fine. That’s hyperbole. Regardless, we have somebody that is certainly looking to oust rhinos out of the party. And I might seem that he thinks that our governor was a governor or rhinos or he’s making comments on or they’re making comments on the SDGOP website Murdoch.
Murdoc: Liz May wrote an article basically saying the governor better John Dutton his way into the land dispute. That’s whatever’s happened. And are you guys following this land story? There’s a land dispute where the federal government says they couldn’t put a fence and now there’s some some of the freedom caucus or, you know,
Ahlers: yeah, I’ve seen a little bit about this militia deal for a long time. I think this fence was up for years. And now there’s a dispute over it’s it’s where it’s located. And yeah, I’ve been watching it. It’s it’s certainly become a landowners rights issue again, much like the pipelines for some of the conservatives.
Murdoc: What is the governor supposed to Jake is the governor. So I’m sorry to interrupt Dan is the governor supposed to like, get on his horse and
Jake: you know, I mean, that’s the thing. I like you can go to Pat Powers at Dakota war college. Talks about a little bit. This is like a federal issue. And that’s why Rounds is currently like has ended over the past year has been working through this issue with the federal government. Like it’s not like you see lies for cost people like trying to get like a that no one’s dealing with this.
And it’s like they actually are just like they don’t take every chance they can get to get in front of a camera and tell you something’s wrong. But it was something
Ahlers: I mean, you’re right, Jake. It’s a federal issue. And I’m sure that they’re trying to work through it. I think it makes for good headlines. And I saw one of our illustrious representatives was out there and had a social media post about being being on their farm and checking everything out and talking about land owner rights. And I know there’s a lot of people piling on and jumping in.
Murdoc: I mean, you say it’s a good headline, but like the new the original source of the thing to Jake’s point of maybe it is a civil war is from the South. Like when was the when it I can’t tell me the last time the parties, the state parties website took a shot at the sitting same parties governor.
Ahlers: I don’t know.
Jake: I don’t think there’s an answer to that question. I don’t think it’s ever happened before. Like that’s just it’s a wild thing to do. Like it’s a different world. It’s just it’s just like a non issue on a state level. Like it is an issue for that family.
I get that. And there’s some very personal things there and slander rights. I get that, but it’s a federal issue. And that’s why Senator rounds is dealing with it. He is working on this. Like he is interesting bills and is working with the family to get this resolved.
Murdoc: It’s a perfect play into this kind of this camps like you got to keep feeding the hate into the wood chipper, right? So that so that there’s an oh, on this season of the reality show of a merit, you know what I mean? It’s got to keep the entertainment high. And this, this has all the checks, all the boxes, man.
Jake: Well, you’re exactly right. I mean, you look at, you know, John Hanson’s wrote this wave of land owner rights to leadership now along with a lot of other Republicans have. So like, and all of a sudden now that the pipelines are kind of going away because they won that fight, need to find a new fight. And this is a new fight, right? But it’s also a very, I’m going to call it small fight actually too.
Like it’s one family. This is not effective time to South Dakotans. If you put hours and hours of your time, John Hanson into this, it will not have a huge benefit for a bunch of South Dakotans have a benefit from one family.
Murdoc: I don’t know. It might be pretty brilliant. I’m not sure I agree guys.
Ahlers: I think it’s very opportunistic. I was reminding people to go back to his comments on the Keystone XL pipeline when that was being fought. He was all for it. And the landowners rights weren’t a conversation then. So I see his his fight on this is being very more about opportunity than about real substance and policy or his his real feelings on things.
Jake: I agree. The far right being hypocrites don’t come on.
Murdoc: When it don’t matter. No one’s checking their sources from 2016 checking a source. Come on.
Ahlers: That’s why I’m pointing it out here on South Dakota’s number one podcast.
Jake: Thank you. We appreciate that.
Murdoc: Appreciate that. Appreciate that.
Jake: Democrat endorsement of the podcast. We appreciate that.
Murdoc: What a perfect opportunity for Nikki Grinley to announce a statewide office she may or may not be running for. Well, second attempt.
Gronli: I keep going out there doing these town halls and letting people know they should run.
Murdoc: Candidate recruitment.
Murdoc: Let me ask it this way then Nikki. In previous attempts to try to get more elected Democrats than leftover phone chargers in the Ram Coder drawer in the lobby. It was let’s get a candidate in every district. Is that still your hope?
Gronli: I would love to see that and I would love to see some primaries. But I think we should ask Dan about it because I know Dan has the strategy and has been working that strategy. So I think it’s more important to hear from Dan on this one.
Ahlers: You know, I know in the past we’ve had past chairs and executive directors that have tried to fill every every seat and have a full slate. And I think that that’s a worthy endeavor. We start with districts where we stand a better chance and we want to make sure that we have good quality candidates because I think the quality of our candidates is far more important than the number of candidates. But it is really important for us to have candidates at least one in every district because we need to have someone for Democrats to vote for. We need an alternative to a Republican that maybe isn’t doing their job. And that’s for independents, Republicans, non-party affiliates, who libertarians, whoever. I think all South Dakotans deserve a choice. And when they have a choice, it’s better for the process.
I think people become more engaged. And I think we can by doing that we can end up with better government. But we have a lot of work to do.
I’m not going to say that we don’t because we do. I am excited about this 2026 because it looks like we have a lot of people interested in running. We continue to vet because we want the best candidates that we can possibly have. I don’t just want to fill a seat. I would rather have a good Republican in a seat than a bad Democrat. And that might get me in trouble a little bit with my bosses.
Murdoc: But seriously, I think that’s the only strategy you can take. Otherwise, you’re toast. Yeah.
Ahlers: And I just think it’s good. Where are the places that we can make inroads? Where can we continue to build? And we have to earn it. In the end, we’re going to have to earn it. And that means we’re going to have to sell ourselves to the people of South Dakota and let them know what we’re about.
And we started this last cycle. We ran a great slate of candidates. Even Pat Powers talked about the quality of and caliber of our candidates. We outfund raised the Republicans. We started organizing our counties.
Murodc: Rino.
Ahlers: What was that?
Murdoc: He’s a rhino. Sorry.
Jake: I don’t wait. Hold on. I don’t want to be outfund raised the Republicans, by the way. I want to little correction. I don’t know if you outfund raised Republicans. That might be a
Murdoc: for that one little quarter.
Ahlers: I actually the Democratic Party outraised the Republican State Party. Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah. Every month.
Jake: My apologies. That is that is fair. Yes, I agree with that.
Ahlers: Yes. Now there are PACs out there and stuff like that. But keep in mind, these PACs are not all coordinated. The difference. That’s right. Yeah. The PACs aren’t organized in a way where they’re all communicating together and working as a unit as a party does. So there’s those fragments out there. And if you think about those PACs, a lot of those PACs, those large PACs, other than maybe Dodens belong to the more moderate Republicans. And you saw a lot of them lose.
Ahlers: Sorry, Jake.
Murdoc: Thanks, Dan.
Ahlers: That wasn’t a shot at you, by the way.
Jake: It’s a shot at me. My dad’s PAC. It’s fine.
Murdoc: Okay, I want to ask it this way to both of Nikki. You first. What are the three districts you should go after as the Democratic Party? What are the most vulnerable districts that you don’t currently already control?
Jake: Yes.
Gronli: We should get district 25, Dan. We should try and get that one.
Murdoc: District shopping with Nikki Gronli.
Jake: We can’t either. That’s the thing.
Murdoc: That’s a good point. That’s good point, Jake.
Jake: Good luck. You’re up to bat.
Ahlers: I would love district 25. I’m the only Democrat to have won that in the last decade. So that’s a tough district. But I think that there, I think Brookings, I think district seven, I think district, yeah, I think it’s 18 and Vermillion. And I think there’s some potential in district one. It is not the blue district that it used to be. But I think some good old-fashioned campaigning and door knocking with some really good candidates, we could win some of those seats back.
Gronli: Some farmers out there. Oh, sorry. Don’t you think?
Ahlers: Oh, go ahead, Nikki.
Murdoc: No, now you got to go.
Gronli: Okay. I was going to say, don’t you think maybe in Pennington, there’s a couple of districts there where there’s some seats? Maybe.
Murdoc: Yeah, I noticed you guys are real silent about West River, but I’m going to elephant in the room since I’m here. District 32 is the most vulnerable district in the state.
Ahlers: Who is that again? Yes, I would agree with you. No one’s secret.
Murdoc: Yeah, I know. Sorry. Because that’s Helene Duhamel and Steve Duffy and Nicole Eury-Bock. Those are the people in that district. I don’t, by the way, say that for any other reason other than the people who live there. It’s like Laramie in Wyoming.
It’s the one little blue epicenter of, you know what I mean? And it is still the blue district it used to be, because the moderates are only moderate Republicans because they need to do business in the town. They ain’t got hold.
Jake:Yeah. I don’t know if you want a Democrat to take out like Helene Duhamel.
Murdoc: That’s what I’m saying, man. That’s what I’m saying. That is an individual that is no offensive to Helene at all. It’s someone that keeps the moderates together, I think, and you might lose without having that voice in the Senate.
Ahlers: We’re just going to go after her husband.
Jake:There you go.
Murdoc: Duffy. Poor Duffy’s always in the crosshairs.
Jake: Dang it. They’re big listeners too, by the way.
Murdoc: Duffy’s library. There’s like three of these candidates offices I’ve sat in around the state that are like on my top three that are really rad.
Jake: Tony number one.
Murdoc: Tony’s is rad because it’s got to, you know, go for the whole bit. But like Duffy’s my favorite one out West River. It’s like sitting in an old Kennedy office. Okay. We got a few minutes yet. Did did okay. What happened with Tom Pischke?
Jake: That’s what I was going to go. So we got to wrap that up a little bit because we recorded on Wednesday
Murdoc: teaser episode.
Jake: We got to wrap it up. So on Wednesday, we were talking about with Pat that they had censured. That’s that’s the u not o censured. Tom Pischke, the Minnehagyup GOP had it turns out like what two days Friday, Thursday, Friday, it comes out that the is a Corey Pearson. Corey Pearson, the Minnehagyup chairman did that unilaterally without any sort of vote and censured him over a comment on Facebook. And then the rest of the committee all said that wasn’t, would like to announce the center basically.
Murdoc: I mean, I don’t know why the Democrats think there’s such an opportunity for them to pick up some seats.
Jake: I mean, if you guys can, that’s a real indictment of you guys like, come on, like we’re just fumbling it constantly. The ball is around the goal line.
Ahlers: Yeah, yeah, I it’s become a very different district. And I think the current state of politics is what is making it difficult to win there. Keep in mind when I won, I had to get like between 2000 and 2500 Republicans to vote for me in order to win.
So that’s the makeup of this district. But you’re you’re here’s what I ran into my last I think in 2018 when I ran there, I knocked on a ladies door. And she said, she goes, Dan, are you still a Democrat? And I said, yes, she goes, well, then I can’t vote for you. And I said, Well, why is that she goes, I like who you are. I like what you stand stand for.
And I like what you do. But because you’re a Democrat, I can’t vote for you. Pete’s like, so if I change change to a Republican, you could vote for it. She goes, absolutely. I said, So the only problem you have with me is the letter behind my name.
And she said, Yes, I mean, what do you do with that? You know, there’s a certain amount of that going on right now that won’t vote for a Democrat. There I know there were a lot of people that voted for me many times that didn’t vote for me that time, simply because of the letter, not because of the work. And look at who we used to elect in that district. We elected a governor. He was our state senator. We had, we had Tim rave, we had Chris Langer. And they all held leadership positions. We were electing people who even when we didn’t agree, we were at least trying to do good work, right? And now we have a clown show. There you go.
Murdoc: A lot of legislators took the whole show for him to finally throw a zinger out there, Jake.
Ahlers: Well, it’s my district. I feel pretty personal about it. I was listening to a conversation with a local business owner who received state and federal funds and talking about our favorite person that you were just mentioning.
I’m listening to this conversation. I’m like, you voted for this guy and it’s your policies and your, your, your, your, your attitude towards government that you’re struggling right now. You created your own mess.
And now you’re, and now you’re sitting there trying to get this person who believes the same things that you do which created this situation in the first place to resolve it. I mean, come on.
Murdoc: I do see a lot like you’ll see some of them like, you know, or on 2016, there are Noem’s, dudes at the, on the county level and they’re dragging this 18% along so they could go win. And now they’re the same ones being like, I can’t believe the freedom caucus is doing these things. Well, like you put them in there. What are you doing? What are you mad at me for?
Jake: Well, to get back to Dan a little bit, Dan, you made a comment that you needed 2500 Republicans to win your race. Isn’t that kind of the entire strategy you guys have to have to win offices now as Democrats in the state? I mean, like, let’s say, look at the board pool to make it really simple. You percent Republican, 25 independent, 25 Democrat, right? To make it really simple. So isn’t everything you guys have to do is to basically convince Republicans to vote for you?
Ahlers: I think that’s true in the vast majority of the state. That has to be the strategy. And that means it’s going to take a personal touch. I don’t think we get from nine to 30 overnight. As positive as people like to be about the situation, it takes time. And it’s going to take a lot of work on messaging. It’s going to take a lot of effort on people going out and knocking doors.
And it has to be people that you know. So we got to find Democrats who do good things in their communities, just like Kayden, Eric, and Eric and Jamie. It’s good Democrats doing good things in the community. And now they want to go do good things for you and Pierre.
And that’s really what it has to be. I got elected not because I was a government major and any of those other things. People knew me as the guy who owned the video store. I was simply Dan, the movie man.
And it sounds silly. It sounds silly, but I will tell you to this day across the state and out of the state, I am recognized more as Dan, the movie man than I am Dan, the state legislator.
Gronli: That is still what my kids call him. That is still what my kids call him.
Ahlers: I had a bartender in Scottsdale. I was at an ASDC conference and they were asking me the very question that you just asked, Jake, about how to win in a red district. And I said something about being Dan, the movie man. And this bartender, I can’t repeat exactly what he said, but it was like, holy, he goes, you’re Dan, the movie man. He goes, I saw your story on TV. And I looked at the guys I was talking to and go, see? I said, that’s how you get elected.
I said, it’s that simple. You just got to be the person, that business owner, that community advocate that people like and trust.
Murdoc: The tree guy. It’s always an easy one.
Jake: Well, okay. So I guess kind of my point is with the whole talk about you need Republicans to win votes, I think this is, and again, this is Republican talking. If you guys bring up social issues, I think you’re one step forward, two step back, back every time you talk to a voter. Because the odds are, so let’s say you talk to bring up like trans rights, right?
Bring it up. Someone does one of your, one of your, one of your candidates does. Democrat likes that. Independent doesn’t care. Publicans don’t like it.
That’s one plus one neutral, two against, right? Every single time you bring that issue up. So I have to imagine you guys just can’t talk about social issues, only talk about economics.
If it’s not good for South Dakota, and maybe you win some races. Is that a fair, I mean, that’s really boiling it down. But I think that’s where you got to be at, right?
Gronli: I think the other thing is when you go talk to a voter, you have to see what matters to them. Have a good conversation with them. So if the thing that they bring to the, the person door knocking is the their economy, how their family is doing, you have that conversation, you got to meet people where they are and listen and think about what does that mean if you’re running for office and what do you want to bring to them?
Ahlers: Yeah, Nikki’s 100% right. It’s all about the listening. And as a candidate and an avid door knocker, I’m introducing myself to that person. But my real goal is find out what’s important to them. And I think when you do that, a lot of what you’re talking about isn’t what comes up in the conversation.
You’re right. Somebody asks and then you need to be honest with them about it where you stand on those issues. I think you have to be authentic. You have to be genuine. So you don’t want to hide those things. And you may win some votes, you may lose some votes that way. But most of the time, it’s going to be focused on things that matter to them. And I think that that’s the approach that you have to take.
Jake: Listen, Dan, I was at a door and talked about street racing in Sioux Falls for 20 minutes. People are upset about street racing. And I just, I was, you know, I’ve just been like, yeah, it’s a real problem. It’s like, I don’t want to tell a guy I could do anything about it.
Murdoc: I keep telling them, you know, that we’re going to miss our fast and furious money, Paul Tenhaken. Let’s put, let’s put street racing on the list for our Paul Tenhaken episode that’s coming up in May.
Jake: We actually should. We’ll bring that up because he’s going to love that. He just wants to talk about asking about the potholes.
Ahlers: Well, that’s one of the potholes. I think that will happen on the end of April.
Murdoc: You’ll be seeing the cannabis industry asked asked me to yip about the unregulated fake weed that’s being sold everywhere in Sioux Falls too. We got all kinds of stuff to talk about Paul.
You can’t wait. On the other side of the wheel, I want to point out something I would, I can’t not call them Republicans, the Republicans. John Thune was out here for a South Dakota strong West River event with the Pennington County Republican women and no one talked about bathroom bills and no one talked about goofy nonsense. They talked about airport funding and why that’s important and large sale development and no one was there talking about pizza gate and whatever other nonsense.
It was just Thune talking to a bunch of people at a country club. That’s double up Republican. I’m, it’s like, it’s there. It’s like, it’s there too, but it’s like, it’s like in this space where it’s
Jake: like, listen, if we had, if those were all the Republican voters and all the Republican representatives right now, we would not be having this conversation. Well, that’s good point. That’s the issue.
Right. I mean, like that, that’s kind of where we’re at where it’s like we’re at. It’s such a crossroads and what you find yourself as a Republican. We get down a lot of different ways that are just, Dan you talked about earlier where we’re talking about Republicans that decide that, hey, you can’t, what books can be in libraries or who can do what in a bathroom and whether, how you feel about that, that’s all local control. It’s not how Republicans usually operate, but we’re there now.
Murdoc: I think the rhinos should take it back like the old wig party, like just lean into it and just be it. It’s like, because listen, if they keep getting their way on some of this stuff and the trans debate turns into now you’re, you know, gay relative can’t be gay, that’s going to really be down, downfall territory to the Republican party. Cause even the most conservative family in lemon has a gay aunt, this conversation’s over, but if we keep swinging this pendulum that’s hard as they’re going to try to swing it, that’s where this conversation is going to go, everybody.
Ahlers: And the Democrats are as be mindful of that too. Yeah, both parties do.
Jake: You know, Murdoch, they, they both did a great job of not going full into that answer actually right there. So they’re doing great.
Murdoc: Just giving them all kinds of bait. These future, these alleged future statewide candidates that we’re not talking to slash talking to definitely aren’t going to run for office. Yeah.
Ahlers: Just so it’s clear guys, I’m prohibited by the Democratic party constitution for running for state office while holding this position.
Jake: Well, then spill the beans man. One letter that says I quit and then you don’t have to listen to that anymore.
Gronli: Like I decided during this podcast, I’m going to run for that TikTok role.
Murdoc: Nope. I said it’s, I’ve been, you have to, you have to get a governor in the office until there’s a new secretary of TikTok. The lieutenant governor has already knighted me through email.
Jake: It’s an appointment role by the lieutenant governor.
Gronli: It’s a new role.
Murdoc: And the salary on my spot, the salary is dependent on how much I can teapot dome my way into some TikTok money. Just to bring it all home, baby.
Jake: All right, Murdoch. I think we have covered .
Murdoc: one thing, Yep. Sorry. And we’re keeping everybody late, but we, Nikki, it’s your first time on the show and you’ve traveled everywhere in South Dakota doing your town halls, which are open to everybody. Um, what’s, who’s got the best burger in the state right now? Oh my gosh. Your team should have prepped you on this.
Jake: Oh, thank God you arent a vegetarian.
Gronli: So there is this amazing burger in Rapid City. It’s a newer place and it’s kind of
Murdoc: out on the, uh, highway 16 there. Yes. Yes. It’s called the salt block.
Gronli: Yes. There you go. That was amazing.
Jake: A good burger. What kind of burger is this? Like a pub burger?
Gronli: Is it like the bourbon barbecue on it?
Ahlers: Oh, I’m out there tomorrow. That might have to be a good burger. It’s
Murdoc: huge and like, yeah, more of a pub burger and there’s a lot of, it, a lot of types of burgers. You know what I mean? Okay.
Gronli: Okay. Yeah. That was, it was good.
Murdoc: Dan, I give you an opportunity to edit your answer. I can’t remember.
Jake: Yeah, I don’t recall what you said last time.
Ahlers: Oh me. I just said it. That sounds really good.
Jake : I’m going to, no, no, no, what was your answer to the best burger, the best burger in South Dakota? I know you give it to us before, but I can’t remember what it was.
Ahlers: I, so they had a burger battle in Sioux Falls. So that’s a, it’s a little tainted, but they had a great burger at M.B. Haskets and a pickled vet. but it had pickled vegetables on it. It was a good burger. They had this nice, uh, nice, uh, sauce on it and it was just phenomenal. But they have to make great burgers out there at Murphy’s too.
Murdoc: So Murphy burgers got apples on it. You wouldn’t think it’d be good. It’s good.
Ahlers: It’s good.
Murdoc: This is going to be my new food reviews with Murdoch, the other podcast on home slice audio.
All right. I want to thank our guest, Nikki Gronli, from the South, the former director for South Dakota, USDA, rural development, and Dan Ahler’s back from the South Dakota Dems. Guys, great show. Appreciate it very much. Thanks for having us on. With Jake in the east, I’m Murdoch in the west, and this has been Dakota Town Hall. See you next week.
