The Progressive Midwesterner

Only two members of the South Dakota House of Representatives (one Republican, Kevin Jensen, and one Democrat, Doug Post) voted against South Dakota House Bill 1191 (HB1191) , legislation that, if enacted, would legalize industrial hemp, but not marijuana, in South Dakota. As of this writing (February 17, 2019), the legislation is currently pending before the South Dakota State Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee . Despite the overwhelming support for industrial hemp in South Dakota, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem is a staunch opponent of HB1191 and claims, without facts or evidence, that legalizing industrial hemp in South Dakota would effectively legalize marijuana in South Dakota: (South Dakota Gov. Kristi) Noem reiterated her opposition to legalizing industrial hemp in 2019 during her weekly press conference, saying she has "very real concerns" about passing House Bill 1191 during this legislative session. "I believe if we move ahead with ind...

Brady Mallory, a news reporter for Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based CBS affiliate KELO-TV, interviewed President Donald Trump following a rally for South Dakota Republican gubernatorial candidate Kristi Noem, a far-right Trump loyalist. During the interview, Trump insulted farmers whose livelihoods have been negatively impacted by the Trump trade war: You heard that correctly. President Trump said that farmers whose lives have been negatively impacted by the Trump trade war would have lost their farms anyways. That kind of rhetoric is insulting and hateful to farmers and people who live in communities where agriculture is a vital industry to their community. Furthermore, America has a lot of arable land that is used for many different forms of agriculture, and many states, especially in the South, the Midwest, and some of the western states, have large agricultural industries that have seen loss of export markets due to the Trump trade war. As someone who is probably more of a pro...

Most election analysts are already predicting that this year's midterm elections are likely to be a very strong election year for the Democratic Party nationally. One region of the country that could amplify an already-likely "blue wave" of Democratic electoral victories is the Inland Midwest, a six state region consisting of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The Inland Midwest region gets its name because all six states are Midwestern states, but none of the six states have a shoreline along any of the Great Lakes. The Inland Midwest is a very Republican-leaning region of the country, as Donald Trump received slightly over 56% of the vote in last year's presidential election in the six-state region . However, at least one statewide race in each of the six states in the Inland Midwest are competitive (including all three U.S. Senate races in the region), and several U.S. House seats in the region are competitive as well. As much of th...

In a poll , conducted by Anzalone Liszt Grove Research for the campaign of South Dakota Democratic gubernatorial nominee Billie Sutton, Sutton, a state senator and rancher from Burke, is trailing Republican nominee Kristi Noem, the U.S. Representative from Castlewood, by only four points, with the poll's margin of error at 4.4%, meaning that the South Dakota gubernatorial election is within the statistical margin of error. The poll had Noem at 46% and Sutton at 42%. The poll did not appear to include Libertarian nominee Kurt Evans or the Constitution Party's nominee, which will be determined on August 14 . The Libertarian and Constitution nominees would likely pull more votes from Noem than Sutton, which would increase the odds of a Sutton victory. More importantly, an informed-ballot test showed that Sutton has a six point lead over Noem (48% Sutton-42% Noem) after the informed-ballot test. This information tells me that Billie Sutton has a path to victory in South Dakota . ...