Jackley wins election for South Dakota’s sole House seat

South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley (R) is projected to win the state’s lone House seat, according to Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ), with Jackley defeating Democrat Nikki Gronli in the race to succeed Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.).

Jackley, who has served two stints as the state’s top law enforcement official, will replace Johnson, who opted against seeking a fifth term in Congress to run for governor.

DDHQ called the race for Jackley when he led by 34 percentage points with 1 percent of the vote reported as of 9 p.m. EST.

The victory keeps the statewide congressional seat in Republican hands, where it has safely remained since 2011. South Dakota has not elected a Democrat to the House since former Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, who lost her reelection bid to former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in 2010.

The state has been a Republican stronghold in the Trump era. The president carried South Dakota by nearly 30 percentage points in 2024, while Johnson won reelection that year by a much wider 44-point margin against Democrat Sheryl Johnson.

Jackley held a significant advantage heading into the general election, with the nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report rating the race as “solid Republican.”

Jackley secured the Republican nomination in June, easily defeating James Bialota with more than 79 percent of the vote. His path to nomination became even easier after state Sen. Casey Crabtree dropped out of the race in February and threw his support behind Jackley.

He has spent much of his career in law enforcement, serving as U.S. attorney for South Dakota from 2006 to 2009 before being appointed state attorney general, a position he held until 2019.

Jackley returned to office in 2023 after winning the Republican nomination at the party’s state convention in 2022. He made an unsuccessful bid for governor in 2018, losing the Republican primary to Noem.

His Democratic opponent, Gronli, previously served as South Dakota’s state director of rural development for the Department of Agriculture. She secured her party’s nomination without a primary challenge after other Democratic candidates withdrew.

Jackley emphasized his experience as attorney general throughout his campaign, touting his record of pursuing criminal prosecution and presenting himself as a conservative focused on public safety and law enforcement while fighting drug trafficking and supporting border security.