Rep. Peri Pourier, D-Rapid City, speaks on the House floor on March 3, 2025. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
South Dakota state Rep. Peri Pourier has switched her political affiliation from Democratic to Republican.
Pourier made the announcement on Monday, a day before lawmakers gather for a special session to vote on a state prison construction plan. South Dakota Searchlight confirmed Pourier’s registration switch with a county election official.
The switch further tips the scales in Republicans’ favor, with 97 Republicans and eight Democrats in the Legislature after Pourier’s defection. That’s the lowest number of Democrats in the Legislature since 1953, when there were two.
Pourier is an Oglala Lakota tribal member with a Rapid City address who represents District 27. It stretches from just east of Rapid City to the Pine Ridge Reservation and includes other rural areas. She is a former member of the Democratic House leadership team, but declined to caucus with her fellow Democrats during the most recent legislative session. So did her Senate district mate Red Dawn Foster, who did not immediately respond to a South Dakota Searchlight message Monday.
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Pourier was minority whip in the House Democratic caucus in 2023 and 2024. She sat on the House Judiciary, Military and Veterans Affairs, and Taxation committees last legislative session.
In a Facebook post, Pourier said tribal sovereignty aligns with the Republican Party tenets of decentralized government, economic prosperity, lower energy costs, self-determination and public safety. “By contrast,” she added, “well-intentioned Democratic reforms have too often undermined sovereignty.”
“My decision reflects a strategic recalibration — one that strengthens my ability to advocate for our communities and deliver meaningful results,” Pourier said. “I will not explain away poverty and violence with rhetoric. I remain committed to confronting these issues directly — not someday, not when it becomes politically convenient, but now.”
House Majority Leader Scott Odenbach, R-Spearfish, said Pourier has been invited to the House Republican caucus meeting on Tuesday morning during the special session.
“We will benefit from her strong voice and unique perspective on issues, and her constituents will benefit from more exposure to Republican principles,” Odenbach said in a text message. “It should be a win-win for everybody involved.”
Pourier’s Facebook post did not say whether she will participate in Republican caucus meetings or abstain from caucusing as she did during the last legislative session.
House Minority Leader Erin Healy, D-Sioux Falls, said she believes Pourier will continue to “act on her values and principles,” and hopes she will continue to represent the best interests of her constituents in southwestern South Dakota and on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Healy added that Pourier was the only Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. Healy plans to discuss changing committee member assignments to ensure Democrats have a seat on the committee next session.
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South Dakota Democratic Party Executive Director Dan Ahlers said he’s “disappointed” by Pourier’s announcement. He said South Dakota Democrats have addressed Native American issues more successfully than Republicans on the state and national level.
Ahlers added that party affiliation switches among lawmakers “usually happen because of something other than a change in their values.” Sometimes lawmakers switch parties because it’s advantageous for the next election or to gain access to a task force or committee, he said.
Former Sen. Ryan Maher was the last Democratic lawmaker who switched to the Republican Party. He switched in 2011 after serving as a Democrat from 2007 to 2010, while representing a portion of northwestern South Dakota and the Cheyenne River Reservation.
Other examples of lawmaker affiliation switches include former Sen. Jim Bradford, who switched from Democratic to Republican in 2009 and then back to Democratic in 2011, and former Sen. Jenna Netherton, who switched her affiliation from independent to Republican in 2013.