South Dakota’s Republican voters will head to the polls on Tuesday, June 2, to choose their governor candidate for the November general election.
Four men are running for the spot, including Gov. Larry Rhoden, Congressman Dusty Johnson, House Speaker Jon Hansen and businessman Toby Doeden. Only registered Republicans can vote in the primary election for this specific race.
The winner needs to earn at least 35 percent of the vote, otherwise there will be a special runoff election later this year.
Forum Communications Co., newspapers profiled the four candidates running in next week’s election. Here are the stories on each person, along with an extended question-answer portion.
On Toby Doeden: “He’s a solid, limited government conservative, which is what Republicans are supposed to be. That’s what a Republican is, but too many Republicans have drifted from what our platform is,” Sen. Taffy Howard of Meade and Pennington Counties Howard said.
On Jon Hansen: “His values and his mannerisms and his kindness towards people are the same in private, in public. … I think it’s a great attribute that he’ll bring to the governor’s office if he wins,” said Rep. Scott Odenbach of Lawrence County.
On Dusty Johnson: “He just brought the same level of energy that I saw at the commission to his job at Vantage Point. And I would say it’s not just energy with Dusty. It’s creativity,” said Larry Thompson, CEO and co-founder of Mitchell-based Vantage Point.
On Larry Rhoden: “What I have seen in the last couple years is he is very adroit at dealing with the legislature and dealing with them as people,” Lt. Gov. Tony Venhuizen said. “There are not many people around here, not sure if there is anybody else, who could reach to both sides of that divide like that, bring them together issue to issue.”
You can read the full article at the Mitchell Republic.