Pendulum continues to swing in South Dakota Senate with selection of new Republican leaders

An anticipated shakeup in South Dakota’s Republican legislative leadership has begun. Republican senators met Friday and nominated Tim Reed of Brookings as president pro tempore and selected Casey Crabtree of Madison as majority leader and Amber Hulse of Hot Springs as assistant majority leader. As majority whips, Republican senators selected Randy Deibert of Spearfish, Helene Duhamel of Rapid City, Jim Mehlhaff of Pierre and Stephanie Sauder of Bryant. Mehlhaff, who was previously majority leader, and Deibert, who was already serving as a majority whip, are the only holdovers from the previous leadership team. Republican voters once again opt to oust incumbents from South Dakota Legislature The changes, announced Friday in a news release, continue a back-and-forth struggle between factions of the party. The struggle was particularly pronounced during the past several years as Republicans argued about a carbon-capture pipeline that was proposed to pass through eastern South Dakota.

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