Rhoden Wins South Dakota GOP Runoff; Noem Honored With Statue at Trail of Governors

South Dakota held a Republican gubernatorial primary runoff on July 28, 2026, after no candidate reached the required 35% threshold in the initial primary, which included Governor Larry Rhoden, U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, and businessman Toby Doeden. Rhoden, who became governor in 2025 after Kristi Noem resigned to become U.S. Homeland Security secretary, advanced to the runoff against Doeden. Rhoden won the runoff by a substantial margin, with one source citing an approximate 71%-29% lead, and will face Democrat Dan Ahlers in the November 3, 2026 general election. During the primary campaign, Rhoden received endorsements from the South Dakota Fraternal Order of Police and Sioux Falls Mayor Christine Erickson, while former President Donald Trump endorsed Doeden. As governor, Rhoden signed anti-doxxing legislation (HB 1084 and HB 1298), making it a crime to maliciously publish personal information about law enforcement officers and judges online, effective July 1, 2026. His budget included $13.2 million for staffing a new women's prison in Rapid City, $5 million for a new Highway Patrol aircraft, and $2.4 million to expand the National Guard Readiness Center in Sturgis, though these budget figures are reported by only one source and remain unconfirmed by others. Separately, a ceremony honoring former Governor Kristi Noem was scheduled for August 7, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. at Hilger's Gulch in Pierre, part of the South Dakota Trail of Governors. The event was planned to unveil a life-size bronze statue of Noem alongside her official gubernatorial portrait, painted by artist David Uhl, with the South Dakota Highway Patrol Honor Guard participating. It remains unresolved whether the statue unveiling and the runoff election are directly connected beyond both involving South Dakota's gubernatorial succession, as the reports do not establish any causal link between the two events.