Former USDA appointee announces Democratic bid for Congress

Nikki Gronli, former state rural development director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture during the Biden administration, participates in a press conference at the downtown Sioux Falls library on April 7, 2025. (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight)

Former U.S. Department of Agriculture appointee Nikki Gronli announced her candidacy for South Dakota’s lone U.S. House seat Monday morning, potentially setting up the first Democratic primary race for the seat in over a decade. 

The House seat will be up for grabs in next year’s election because Republican U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson is running for governor. 

Gronli filed her Federal Election Commission statement of candidacy Monday morning and will launch her campaign at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the Holiday Inn City Centre in downtown Sioux Falls. Sioux Falls nonprofit executive Billy Mawhiney announced last month he is running for the Democratic nomination as well.

If both stay in the race until next June’s primary, it’ll be the party’s first U.S. House primary race in South Dakota since 2012. The party did not have U.S. House candidates in the 2020 and 2022 elections.

South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley has announced his intention to seek the Republican nomination for the seat. Republican state Sen. Casey Crabtree, of Madison, filed his statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission this summer.

Gronli set out across South Dakota with other Democrats this spring to hold town hall meetings for South Dakotans concerned about federal policy changes under the Trump administration. 

“As I traveled the state and listened to people, I realized there might be a place for me in this,” Gronli said in an interview with South Dakota Searchlight. “There might be an opportunity to continue to listen to them and bring forward their ideas and voices and be that voice in D.C.”

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Gronli is the former vice chair of the South Dakota Democratic Party and former state director for USDA Rural Development under the Biden administration. She oversaw investments in rural housing, broadband, infrastructure and other rural community projects. She is president of Flatlander Strategies, a marketing company.

Concerns about the economy, health care access and President Trump’s tariff policies “devastating” South Dakota farmers drove Gronli’s decision to enter the race. 

“I’m watching our current elected leaders not do what’s best for South Dakota,” Gronli said. “I’ve decided that I need to get in this race and give people another option. We need some folks who have the courage to stand up for South Dakota families.”

Besides Crabtree and Jackley, James Bialota, who describes himself as a small business owner and real estate investor, has said on Facebook that he plans to run as a Republican for the U.S. House.

A Democrat named Scott Schlagel has also filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to run for the seat.