Stories credited to Dakota Free Press, by publication date. ChamberLight collects articles that mention the officials it tracks, so this shows its own coverage of this source, not how much the source publishes.

Stories from Dakota Free Press
Shaded: ChamberLight collected no stories, or almost none, from any outlet (a gap in its collection, not in the outlet’s publishing)

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Month	Stories	All outlets
April 2026	6	4,010
May 2026	0	none collected
June 2026	0	none collected
July 2026	0	none collected
August 2026	0	1 (collection gap)
September 2026	0	598

Who they cover

Party of the officials these stories are mainly about, across all 4 officials named. A story counts once for each official it is mainly about, so the split is over 8 story–official pairs, from 6 stories.

Republican88% · 7 pairs
Party not recorded13% · 1 pair

Most covered

Stories mainly about each official, and their share of the source’s 6 stories.

Article tone

ChamberLight’s article analysis assigns each story a tone toward the official it covers. It describes the coverage of that official, not Dakota Free Press’s stance, and reader votes do not change it. 6 stories.

Good Look: 2 (33%)
Mixed: 4 (67%)
Informational: 0 (0%)
Bad Look: 0 (0%)

Challenges to these scores

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Articles served from dakotafreepress.com

Hydro-Logic: Rapid City Needs Missouri River Water for B-21 Bombers

Western Dakota Regional Water System exec and former legislator Kristin Conzet was in Washington last week asking Congress to send South Dakota more federal money, this time to study the feasibility of piping water from the Missouri River out to the Black Hills. Knowing how to sell big government spending to Trumpublicans, Conzet said yeah, sure, people and cows are thirsty, but so are bombers: Conzet said the project area, including Rapid City, is “one of the only major regions in the state without a reliable, long-term water supply to meet community, rural, agricultural, economical, tribal, and national defense needs.” The water system has received $12 million from the state and has completed five years of foundational work, including demand projections, intake evaluations and regional system planning. The project is expected to cost billions of dollars. Conzet also tied the proposal to Ellsworth Air Force Base and the impending arrival of B-21 bomber planes, which are under development. She told lawmakers that “reliable water is essential to mission readiness and sustained operations” [Joshua Haiar, “South Dakotan Tells Congress of ‘Growing Water Security Risk’ If Pipeline Project Is Delayed,” South Dakota Searchlight, 2026.04.16]. The Western Dakota Regional Water System got on its feet in 2021 thanks to $8 million from President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act. The bill on which Conzet testified last week, Congressman Dusty Johnson’s H.R. 7288, would spend up to $10 million to pay for up to half the cost of a water-pipeline feasibility study through the Department of the Interior. A United States Geological Survey study published last year found that, as of 2022, the six aquifers in the Black Hills had more groundwater coming in than flowing out (see pp. 55–56), though that could change with population growth and long drought. The water that flows out of the Black Hills aquifers eventually ends up in the Missouri River, so one could argue that the 72-inch-diameter pipeline Western Dakota wants to build would just be carrying water back to where it comes from… but using that water to support expansion of the military-industrial complex seems like the least good reason to put this 161-mile kink in the hydrological cycle.

Apr 21, 20268 votes

Latest Poll: Johnson Winning Primary for Governor, Noem-Yoked Rhoden Struggling for Second

A new Mason-Dixon Polling and Strategy poll on the Republican gubernatorial primary sponsored by South Dakota News Watch and the Chiesman Center for Democracy finds Congressman Dusty Johnson pulling ahead and Governor Larry Rhoden stuck in a statistical tie with Speaker Jon Hansen and loudmouth rich guy Toby Doeden. Set next to the last big poll, from Emerson College Polling last month, the SDNW/Chiesman poll shows undecideds jumping to Johnson’s ship while Rhoden remains in his embarrassing dead heat with guys who ought to be in single digits. Why can’t Governor Larry Rhoden turn incumbency into a lead? Reason #1 is that Congressman Dusty Johnson is a smart, enthusiastic candidate whom everybody knows and likes. Reason #2 or #3 may be that Rhoden remains hitched to Kristi Noem’s broken wagon: Julia Hellwege, director of the Chiesman Center and USD associate professor in political science, said Rhoden’s association with his predecessor, former Gov. Kristi Noem, could be behind the drop in poll numbers. “He has aligned himself closely with Noem. They worked closely together, and he continues to champion her and stand by her,” she said. “There’s a potential that has been a side effect” [Alexander Rifaat, “Poll: Johnson Widens Lead in SD GOP Governor Race,” South Dakota News Watch, 2026.04.20]. Hellwege’s point is supported by this same poll’s finding that Noem’s captivation of the home crowd is over: Roughly 3 in 4 South Dakotans approve of President Donald Trump’s decision to sack former Gov. Kristi Noem from her role as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, according to a new poll sponsored by South Dakota News Watch and the Chiesman Center for Democracy at the University of South Dakota. The survey of 500 registered voters across party affiliation conducted April 7-9 by Mason-Dixon Polling and Strategy, found 76% of respondents agreed with Trump’s move, while 59% of South Dakotans disapproved of her performance as head of the DHS. The margin of error is plus-or-minus 4.5%. …Brad Coker, founder of Mason-Dixon Polling and Strategy, ranked as one of the least-biased and most-factual pollsters, also pointed out that support for Noem was dropping prior to her role at DHS, citing revelations in her 2024 memoir that she shot and killed her dog because, as she put it, it was “untrainable.” “I think she was already starting to slip. Trump gave her a lifeline, and she wasn’t able to hold on to the lifeline,” Coker said. “Republicans have dogs too. It wasn’t something that just offended the left” [Alexander Rifaat, “Poll: Most South Dakotans Approve of Trump’s Firing of Noem,” South Dakota News Watch, 2026.04.21]. Approval of Noem’s firing is above 70% in every demographic slice covered in the poll—sex, age, region, and party. The 71% of Republicans saying good riddance to Noem may not be showing an outburst of critical thinking; they may just be choosing fealty to an even bigger cosmetically enhanced megalomaniac: Julia Hellwege, director of the Chiesman Center and USD associate professor in political science, was not surprised by Noem’s approval numbers given, in addition to her being heavily disliked by Democrats, Republicans tend to validate decisions made by President Trump. “This is somewhat expected in the aftermath of her termination, which was praised by both liberal opponents and then of course Trump supporters who would support his decision,” Hellwege told News Watch [Rifaat, 2026.04.21]. The only other time Larry Rhoden appeared on a statewide primary ballot was 2014, when he ran for U.S. Senate in a field of five. Rhoden finished a distant second at 18.2% behind better-known and better-liked Mike Rounds. He barely beat louder darkhorse and fellow State Senator Stace Nelson. 12 years later, after six years as Lieutenant Governor and one year as Governor, Rhoden should be polling better. I find it hard to believe he could finish below 20% again, but the Emerson and Mason-Dixon polls suggest I may have to revise my prediction for the GOP gubernatorial primary: Johnson remains in the 40s with a clear win, just like the 2018 primary that launched him to Congress over two challengers fighting for right-wing scraps, but Rhoden’s looking like he will barely break 20% and barely beat Hansen for second place.

Apr 21, 202617 votes

Latest Poll: Johnson Winning Primary for Governor, Noem-Yoked Rhoden Struggling for Second

Apr 21, 202620 votes

Hansen: Undo Noem’s Merger of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Departments

Dusty Johnson isn’t the only Republican candidate for governor inviting charges that he wants bigger government. In Monday’s debate on public TV, Jon Hansen, of all people, says he wants to split the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources back into two agencies: House Speaker Jon Hansen, for example, told South Dakota Public Broadcasting viewers that, on day one, he would split the state Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources and return them to separate stand-alone departments, as they had been before [Bob Mercer, “GOP Governor Candidates Engage in 2nd TV Debate,” KELO-TV, updated 2026.04.14]. Governor Kristi Noem buried the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in the pro-business Department of Agriculture in 2021 to cut inspections of factory farms and cramp conservation. The 2021 Senate tried to stop that merger but fell one vote short. Jon Hansen was in the 2021 House but took no action to stop the Ag/Enviro merger then. Hansen cleverly avoids any appearance of enviro-leftism by saying he wants to re-separate DANR because agriculture “deserves its own department.” I support his proposal because the environment deserves its own department, separate from the diametrically opposed exploitationist cravings of the ag-industrialists who control the Department of Agriculture. But here Jon Hansen and I are agreeing again on a nice liberal idea. That’s not going to win Hansen any Republican primaries! By the way, in Fiscal Year 2021, the last year the Department of Ag and DENR stood apart, the Legislature appropriated $47,558,714 for Ag and $25,977,065 for DENR, a total of $73,535,779. In FY 2022, the first year of the merger, the Legislature gave DANR $71,722,731. Merging the two departments saved only 2.5%, less than $2 million, from their combined budgets. For Fiscal Year 2027, DANR is getting $98,407,404, 33.8% more than the combined FY2021 pre-merger appropriation. That’s an average of 5.0% budget increases on ag and ENR functions each year since the merger.

Apr 15, 20269 votes

Government Bloat as GOP Campaign Line: Dusty Johnson Proposes State Surgeon General

Dusty Johnson may be surrendering his frontrunner status in South Dakota’s gubernatorial race by handing his Republican primary opponents an easy attack line: Dusty Johnson wants bigger government! When a moderator asked the candidates what they would do to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates, U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson of Mitchell pledged to create a state surgeon general position. He said the state needs “somebody who can think in an innovative way about how to better deliver care.” He also pledged to move the management of government-funded health care for low-income people, known as Medicaid, from the state Department of Social Services to the state Department of Health so it could be treated like a “health care program” instead of a “welfare program.” Moving Medicaid from Human Services to Health poses no problem, but the comment in Monday’s GOP candidates’ debate on SDPB about creating a big new government job is an invitation to Larry Rhoden, Jon Hansen, and/or Toby Doeden to make mean little tweets. I can find only five states that have surgeons general: Pennsylvania (which created the first such state-level position in 1996), Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, and California. Michigan tried surgeon generaling for a few years but eliminated the position in 2010. Surgeon and Cato Institute fellow Jeffrey Singer argues that Trump’s failure to fill the federal surgeon general position shows that the federal government could follow Michigan’s example and do no harm: …Americans have gone over 430 days without a “nation’s doctor,” as the surgeon general is often called—and few, if any, have noticed. That should raise a more fundamental question: not who should serve as surgeon general, but whether we need one at all. The surgeon general and the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps are vestiges of a bygone era—institutions that persist not because they are essential, but because they have never been seriously reconsidered. Today, federal public health activity is dominated by sprawling agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health. The surgeon general’s role has diminished to mainly a national spokesperson, issuing advisories that are more symbolic than practical—and that can become a platform for unnecessary political and cultural conflicts. The Commissioned Corps, for its part—formally led by the surgeon general, though ultimately overseen by the assistant secretary for health—maintains the trappings of a uniformed service but performs functions that largely overlap with those carried out by other federal, state, and local health agencies. However well-intentioned, they add another layer to an already crowded public health apparatus. The past 430 days have offered an unintentional experiment—and the results are telling: The system continues to function just fine without a surgeon general. …And the office itself is hardly indispensable. President Lyndon Johnson effectively eliminated the position during his administration. Unfortunately, in 1979 the breakup of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare into the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education caused the position’s resurrection. That history makes something clear: The surgeon general is not a cornerstone of the public health system; it’s a legacy position that persists largely because no one has seriously asked whether it still needs to exist [Jeffrey A. Singer, “America Has Gone More Than a Year Without a Surgeon General. Has Anyone Noticed?” Reason, 2026.04.01]. As Louisiana demonstrates, a state surgeon general may just promulgate RFK-style anti-science rather than the innovative care delivery Johnson blurbs. Maybe pledging to appoint Allen Unruh to the position would boost Dusty’s primary score, but on face, creating another Cabinet-level position smells of government bloat. And smell is all it takes to beat up a primary opponent. In the 2018 GOP gubernatorial primary, Marty Jackley said he’d have more volunteer commissions and task forces to get ideas on pheasants and economic development, and Kristi Noem hollered big government! and beat Jackley in June. Noem’s successor Rhoden could easily take that page from his benefactress’s playbook and reassert himself as the one true conservative in the race, leaving Johnson sputtering in defense of a new government job for which there hasn’t been much popular demand.

Apr 15, 20267 votes

Arnold Fails to Qualify for Governor’s Race; Statewide Candidates Average 86% Valid Signatures

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dan Ahlers of Dell Rapids will have no primary challenger. Robert Arnold of Pierre announced his bid for governor last July, eight months before Ahlers entered the race this February, but Arnold, a 20-year-old Oglala Lakota college student, was unable to translate that long head start into petition success. Secretary of State Monae Johnson estimated by random sample that only 1,119 of the 1,407 voter signatures on the nominating petition that Arnold submitted were valid, 113 short of the 1,232 required for Democratic candidates to make this year’s statewide ballot. Arnold’s signature validity rate was 79.5%. With roughly one out of five signatures invalid, Arnold would have needed to submit 1,550 signatures to survive the Secretary of State’s random sampling and qualify for the ballot. That’s a 25% cushion; at 1,407 signatures, Arnold’s cushion was only 14%, and he would have needed 87.6% of his signatures to be valid. Ahlers qualified for the ballot with a 93.3% validity rate—1,818 signatures deemed valid out of approximately 1,950 submitted. Ahlers had the best validity rate of the twelve candidates who filed petitions for statewide office. Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Julian Beaudion and his opponent, incumbent Republican Senator Mike Rounds were the only other candidates to beat 90% validity. The only candidates with validity below 80% were Arnold and GOP gubernatorial candidate Toby Doeden, who did slightly worse than Arnold at 79.4% validity. But Doeden compensated for his relatively low validity by submitting nearly 4,700 signatures, more than twice the GOP qualification threshold. The following table shows all filed statewide candidates’ petition stats. The Secretary of State reported submitted signatures only for Arnold; I have estimated other candidates’ submitted signatures by dividing the reported estimated valid signatures by reported validity rates. candidate validity rate valid sigs submitted sigs required sigs valid cushion submitted cushion office party Dan Ahlers 93.3% 1,818 1,950 1,232 47.6% 58.3% Gov Dem Mike Rounds 91.13% 3,160 3,468 2,171 45.6% 59.7% US Senate GOP Julian Beaudion 90.32% 1,750 1,938 1,232 42.0% 57.3% US Senate Dem Jon Hansen 89.61% 4,804 5,362 2,171 121.3% 147.0% Gov GOP Nikki Gronli 87.30% 1,844 2,113 1,232 49.7% 71.5% US House Dem Dusty Johnson 87.01% 4,181 4,806 2,171 92.6% 121.4% Gov GOP Marty Jackley 86.70% 3,168 3,654 2,171 45.9% 68.3% US House GOP Justin McNeal 85.06% 3,017 3,547 2,171 39.0% 63.4% US Senate GOP James Biolata 84.23% 2,576 3,059 2,171 18.7% 40.9% US House GOP Larry Rhoden 82.05% 2,575 3,139 2,171 18.6% 44.6% Gov GOP Robert Arnold 79.53% 1,119 1,407 1,232 -9.2% 14.2% Gov Dem Toby Doeden 79.4% 3,722 4,690 2,171 71.4% 115.9% Gov GOP The Secretary of State received roughly 39,100 signatures from these twelve statewide candidates and estimated that 33,734 signatures were valid. That yields an 86.2% validity rate. So if you use this year’s candidate petition season as a benchmark for planning a petition drive, you should plan to collect at least 16% more signatures than required to qualify for the ballot. But if you’re feeling careful, keep collecting until you have 20% to 25% more signatures than the minimum required. That goes in spades for any independents who may be collecting signatures to make this year’s ballot. No independents have filed for statewide offices yet. Anyone interested in running for Governor, US House, or US Senate without party affiliation has until April 28 to submit 3,502 valid voter signatures. p.s.: The average validity rate on Democratic statewide petitions this year is 88.2%. The average for Republicans is 85.8%.

Apr 9, 202614 votes

Arnold Fails to Qualify for Governor’s Race; Statewide Candidates Average 86% Valid Signatures

Apr 9, 202612 votes

Governor Rhoden Not Doing Enough on Prison Rehab, Says Unproductive Congressman Johnson

I like Dusty Johnson, and I’d rather he be Governor than boring, trudgerous Larry Rhoden. But Dusty’s attack on Larry for a lack of action on prisoner rehabilitation misses the mark in a couple of ways. Johnson criticized the lack of major legislative action during a roundtable discussion he organized Tuesday in Rapid City with officials from law enforcement, addiction counseling and other related fields. “I just can’t believe that after we told everyone that we would have big new rehabilitation and treatment within the walls of the prison — that was a part of the deal of how we got the new prison — that the governor and some members of the Legislature walked away from it,” Johnson said [John Hult and Seth Tupper, “Governor Candidates Clash over Inmate Rehabilitation as State Builds New Prisons,” South Dakota Searchlight, 2026.04.07]. True, the Governor and the Legislature paused their discussion of rehab and recidivism in favor of focusing on taxes this Session. But as Lieutenant Governor Tony Venhuizen noted last month, the task force he chairs on those issues will be working through this year to develop proposals for next year’s Legislature. Rhoden put Venhuizen in charge of that effort immediately after Venhuizen’s successful leadership of the task force that put together the plan to build a new penitentiary. Convincing lawmakers to spend more money to help prisoners may be harder than convincing them to spend money to house them, so the rehab task force may well need this full year to build consensus on effective, comprehensive proposals that can survive House and Senate votes. Besides, a sitting member of this Congress like Dusty Johnson is in no position to complain about a lack of major Legislative action: Congress is wrapping up the year in the shadow of the longest government shutdown and with a growing reputation as the least productive in modern history. “Congress is in a coma. It has a pulse, but not many brainwaves,” said former Rep. Jim Cooper, a Democrat who represented Tennessee for 32 years. “It’s hard to tell that it’s even alive as an institution” [Barbara Sprunt, “‘Congress Is in a Coma.’ Former Lawmakers Sound Alarm on Health of the House,” NPR, 2025.12.21]. I have no doubt that Dusty, unleashed from the paralysis of a U.S. House beholden to the Golden Dictator, will push all sorts of dynamic policy initiatives through the Legislature. But his participation in this uniquely unproductive Congress puts him in a precarious position to criticize the Rhoden Administration’s plodding but proceeding work on prisoner rehabilitation.

Apr 8, 202611 votes

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Articles served from dakotafreepress.com

Hydro-Logic: Rapid City Needs Missouri River Water for B-21 Bombers

Latest Poll: Johnson Winning Primary for Governor, Noem-Yoked Rhoden Struggling for Second

Latest Poll: Johnson Winning Primary for Governor, Noem-Yoked Rhoden Struggling for Second

Hansen: Undo Noem’s Merger of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Departments

Government Bloat as GOP Campaign Line: Dusty Johnson Proposes State Surgeon General

Arnold Fails to Qualify for Governor’s Race; Statewide Candidates Average 86% Valid Signatures

Arnold Fails to Qualify for Governor’s Race; Statewide Candidates Average 86% Valid Signatures

Governor Rhoden Not Doing Enough on Prison Rehab, Says Unproductive Congressman Johnson