PIERRE, S.D. – The South Dakota Legislature will be led by a more conservative group of lawmakers for the next two years following leadership elections held among House and Senate members Friday night.
Dell Rapids Rep. Jon Hansen will serve as the House speaker, while Sen.-elect Chris Karr of Sioux Falls won the vote to be president pro tempore. Hansen, 39, was one of the leaders of Life Defense Fund, a group that opposed Amendment G, an amendment that would have legalized abortion, and a vocal ally of anti-carbon pipeline advocates. He was first elected to the Legislature in 2010. After taking a break from the Legislature in 2013 to attend law school, he joined the body again by winning election in 2018.
The House speakership is considered a plum of legislative offices and a coveted position that can lead to a run for governor.
Hansen had been the speaker pro tempore in 2021 and 2022, a position that traditionally ascends to speaker. However, he was defeated by one vote ahead of the 2023 legislative session by outgoing Speaker Hugh Bartels. In winning Friday, he defeated Yankton Rep. Mike Stevens, a Yankton lawyer who had been speaker pro tempore under Bartels.
The leadership races come after the defeats of several incumbents in the June primary election. A chief factor in their losses was support for a bill passed by lawmakers in March that was seen as friendly to carbon sequestration transmission lines. Voters symbolically rejected that bill via the primary election, then again in Tuesday’s election, when a referendum on it was overwhelmingly defeated. The election returned a supermajority of Republican lawmakers to each chamber of the Legislature.
The offices are significant because the leadership controls committee assignments for lawmakers. They also decide which committees hold hearings on specific bills.
Those powers are considered crucial for some legislative efforts because assignment to an unfriendly or supportive committee can be the difference between a bill’s death or advancement.
The anti-carbon pipeline sentiment was further reflected in the selection of Rep. Karla Lems of Canton. Lems, 55, won her second term in the House and has been a leader in the anti-pipeline movement. She defeated Rep. Taylor Rehfeldt of Sioux Falls.
Spearfish Rep. Scott Odenbach, who has led efforts to reform the state’s higher education curriculum, will be the majority leader in the House. At 52, he is in his third term in the Legislature. Odenbach’s victory came at the expense of Rep. Will Mortenson, who had sought a second term as majority leader.
Rep. Marty Overweg of New Holland beat out Salem Rep. Drew Petersen as assistant majority leader. Whip positions were won by Reps. Greg Jamison, Jessica Bahmuller, Brandei Schaefbauer, Bethany Soye and Les Heinemann.
In the Senate, Karr, 44, will arrive in the body for his first term there. He won the District 11 Senate seat after eight years in the House. In the leadership vote, he defeated Huron Sen. David Wheeler, who had been a majority whip in the current Legislature.
Pierre Republican Sen. Jim Mehlhaff, who won his second term in the Senate Tuesday, will serve as the Republican majority leader. Mehlhaff, 59, replaces Sen. Casey Crabtree of Madison and is considered a reliable conservative vote.
Sen.-elect Carl Perry of Aberdeen will serve as assistant majority leader, edging Sen. Helene Duhamel, who’d been a whip under Crabtree.
New Senate whips are Sens.-elect Sue Peterson and Kevin Jensen, both coming to the chamber after terming out of the state House, and Sens. Tom Pischke and Randy Deibert.
