South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden speaks to supporters on Nov. 18, 2025, in Rapid City, South Dakota, after announcing his intention to seek the 2026 Republican nomination for governor. (Photo by Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight)
RAPID CITY — South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden launched a campaign to keep his job with an expression of his philosophy.
“Good policy makes good politics,” he said.
The comment came during remarks Tuesday at the Hotel Alex Johnson in downtown Rapid City, where Rhoden formally announced his intention to seek the Republican nomination for governor next year in the June 2 primary election.
He has competition from three other declared candidates for the party’s nomination: U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, businessman Toby Doeden and state House Speaker Jon Hansen.
Rhoden was elevated from lieutenant governor in January when Noem resigned to become secretary of the federal Department of Homeland Security. Since then, while serving the remainder of Noem’s second term, Rhoden has been attempting to prove his policy-over-politics mantra.
During the legislative session that ended in March, Rhoden stepped into a long-running controversy over a company’s proposed carbon capture pipeline through South Dakota. He signed a bill into law that bans such pipelines from using a legal process known as eminent domain to gain access to privately owned land.
He also proposed and convinced legislators to pass legislation containing multiple methods for slowing property tax increases. And he shut down Noem’s effort to build a prison on a strongly opposed location in rural Lincoln County, instead opting to appoint a task force that ultimately selected a site in Sioux Falls and won legislative approval for a $650 million project.
Rhoden said Tuesday that his policy efforts have succeeded because legislative leaders know he’s sincere about putting politics second.
“Even leaders want to be led, but they want to be led by somebody they trust,” he said. “And I think I’ve developed that reputation.”
Rhoden’s efforts have put him in a competitive position. An October poll of registered Republican voters commissioned by South Dakota News Watch and the Chiesman Center for Democracy found Johnson with 28% support, followed by Rhoden with 27%, Doeden with 15% and Hanson with 10%, plus about 20% of respondents who were undecided.
Johnson came into the race as the presumed favorite, having served four terms in Congress and built up campaign funds in excess of $6 million from his prior races. The funding status of the other candidates is unknown, because they don’t have a reporting deadline until January.
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In response to a question from South Dakota Searchlight about Rhoden’s announcement, Johnson sent a statement saying Rhoden has been “a worthy caretaker for South Dakota.”
“However, the next 20 years could be the best in our state’s history,” Johnson said. “That is going to take energy, vision and a real plan. That is what I’m offering in this race.”
Doeden called himself the only “outsider” in the race.
“Their faces and names are different, but Larry Rhoden and Dusty Johnson are one and the same: career politicians that answer to big donors, special-interest groups, and the rich and powerful,” Doeden said.
Hansen avoided mentioning his opponents by name.
“If you want to vote for the proven conservative Republican fighter who will put you and your family first again, I am the only candidate in this race for you,” Hansen said.
To beat Johnson, Doeden and Hansen, the 66-year-old Rhoden will have to do something he’s never done: win his own statewide campaign. Rhoden was twice elected as lieutenant governor while he was Noem’s running mate, but when he ran in a five-way race for the Republican nomination for an open U.S. Senate seat in 2014, he finished a distant second to former Gov. Mike Rounds, who went on to win the general election.
Rhoden is a rancher and welder from rural Union Center, a sparsely populated area about 45 miles east of Sturgis where he grew up. He and his wife, first lady Sandy Rhoden, have four grown sons and seven grandchildren.
Rhoden was elected to the state Legislature in 2000 and served for 16 years before becoming lieutenant governor. After he ascended to the governor’s office, Rhoden chose Tony Venhuizen — who was representing Sioux Falls in the Legislature at the time — as his lieutenant governor. Venhuizen appeared with Rhoden at the campaign launch Tuesday, confirming that they plan to run together.
Other declared candidates for governor include Democratic college student Robert Arnold and independent Lakota activist Allison Renville.
South Dakota Searchlight’s Joshua Haiar contributed to this report.
