Tag: South Dakota

The Story: President Joseph Biden has nominated the head of California's Department of Occupational Safety and Health to play the same role in Washington, as...

The Story: The Smithfield meat-packing plant in Sioux Fails, South Dakota, has received increasing attention of late as a vector in the spread of Covid-19....

This new record shatters the 1992 “year of the woman” in which five women were elected to serve in the Senate. Here are three things to keep in mind about women and politics as a new Congress prepares to take office. If you look at gender alone, 54 percent of women identify as Democrats or lean Democrat, and only 38 percent of women identify as Republican or lean Republican. This thin margin among white women was clear in the 2016 presidential election: 45 percent of white women voted for Hillary Clinton and 47 percent voted for Donald Trump. Conservative feminism Experts have found that conservative women and conservative women’s groups consider themselves part of the “women’s movement” even as they reject the traditional goals of that movement: equal rights legislation, legal abortion, some forms of birth control and the ability of women to serve in combat. Concerned Women for America founder Beverly LaHaye, whose late husband was a politically prominent evangelical minister and conservative activist, saw her organization as a way to represent more traditional and religious values in the women’s movement. The efforts of powerful conservative women’s groups including Concerned Women for America help explain why voters in Alabama elected its first female governor, Kay Ivey, with 60 percent of the vote and passed socially conservative measures. For example, Nevada and South Carolina are politically mixed states but vary dramatically in their ranking on women’s equality and political empowerment. Only two of the seven female candidates (both Republicans) won in South Carolina. This is not true of South Carolina, where it was seen as an achievement in 2016 when just four women were elected to the state Senate, which has 46 seats.

Good Monday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today. Read about Republicans’ struggles in those states. • The Trump administration is considering narrowly defining gender as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth, which could roll back federal protections for transgender people. Read the story. • President Trump shifted his tone on Saudi Arabia again over the weekend, expressing doubt about the Saudi government’s claim that the journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed accidentally in a fistfight with Saudi operatives. Read more about Mr. Trump’s changing response. • Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin defended his decision to meet with Saudi officials this week, saying his aim was to reinforce ties at a critical moment. Now a Republican candidate for Senate in the state, his time in office has been costly for state taxpayers. Read about the debate.

In 1972, George McGovern of South Dakota was the Democratic Party's nominee for president. Both ran campaigns with strong visions for what they wanted America to be. And while Mondale says McGovern's campaign looks good through the lens of history, "It's not the campaign I would have run." Mondale tells me he believes McGovern made a mistake in how he executed the message of his campaign; perhaps too liberal at a time when the country was shifting to more conservative politics. Four years later.....1976.....Mondale is elected vice president on the ticket with former Georgia governor Jimmy Carter. Four years later, in 1980, they are defeated by Republican Ronald Reagan and his running mate George Bush. I think we had to open up the party. But Mondale tells me there were people in his own campaign who questioned his vice presidential choice. Sometimes after that 84 election, Mondale ran into George McGovern. Mondale asked his friend a question; "George, how long did it take you to get over your defeat in running for president?

Six people have announced they are running for mayor in 2018 Wochit Sioux Falls' six mayoral candidates might be pursuing a non-partisan office, but that doesn't mean their political parties don't influence voters. "If partisanship can show us anything in these races it's more so the general disposition toward how active the government is going to be and the use of government to improve people's lives versus leaving people alone," he said. But political ideologies can rear their head on the margins of civic politics. In this year's Sioux Falls mayoral contest, voters will choose between four Republicans - Jim Entenman , Mike Gunn, Greg Jamison and Paul TenHaken - and two Democrats - Kenny Anderson Jr. and Jolene Loetscher. Municipal offices across South Dakota are supposed to be devoid of partisan politics, and candidates don't run as Republicans or Democrats. But more often than not, city councilors and mayors are affiliated with one of the two major political parties. And though party designations aren't as important in local races, political science buffs say voters can glean a bit about a candidate's potential governing style based on the letter that would be next to their name if they were running for a higher office. Some of the candidates are quick to dispel the notion that their political affiliation will have any impact on how the city would be lead should they earn a spot at City Hall. For instance, Loetscher said it's not necessary to consider a party platform when making decisions about the city's future. But when it comes to the essential services government provides, it's not as important.