South Dakota’s Noem, Thune beat GOP rivals
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who has elevated her national prominence through a hands-off approach to pandemic restrictions, won the Republican primary on Tuesday against a former legislative leader who accused her of using the office to mount a 2024 White House bid.
The first-term governor’s primary win against former South Dakota House Speaker Steve Haugaard gives her a commanding advantage as she seeks another term in November against Democratic state Rep. Jamie Smith, who did not face a primary challenger.
U.S. Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Republican in the chamber, also won his primary against two challengers who joined the race after Thune drew the ire of former President Donald Trump. Trump speculated the senator’s career was “over” after he made public statements dismissing the former president’s lies about widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.
One candidate, Mark Mowry, was among the crowd that demonstrated near the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. The other challenger, Bruce Whalen, ran for Congress in 2006 but lost the general election in a landslide.
Neither of the challengers was well-funded or wellknown in the state, and in a sign that Thune was positioned for victory, Trump has steered clear of South Dakota.
Thune is a longtime fixture as the state GOP’s elder statesman, and if he wins reelection to a fourth term, he is a likely pick to succeed Mitch McConnell as Senate Republican leader. He will face Democrat Brian Bengs, an Air Force veteran and college professor, in November’s general election.
In New Mexico, Mark Ronchetti won the Republican primary for governor to challenge incumbent Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.
The former television meteorologist on Tuesday defeated
four other candidates including state Rep. Rebecca Dow.
Ronchetti’s campaign emphasized concerns about crime, illegal immigration, high rates of unemployment and underperforming schools.
He pledged to deploy 150 state law enforcement personnel to the state’s remote international border with Mexico to combat illegal migration and drug and human trafficking. The proposal echoes National Guard deployments by Republican governors in Arizona and Texas.
New Mexico has alternated between Democratic and Republican governors since the early 1980s. An incumbent
governor last lost reelection in 1994. The November election for New Mexico governor will be a test of Democratic resolve in the most Hispanic state in the nation — an oil-producing region with enduring currents of Catholicism and a strong culture of gun ownership.
In Iowa, several Democrats were competing for the chance to challenge Republican Chuck Grassley in what will likely be an uphill effort to defeat one of the Senate’s longest-serving members.
The Democratic primary largely centers on Abby Finkenauer, a former congresswoman from northeast Iowa, and Mike Franken, a retired Navy
vice admiral. Physician Glenn Hurst, a city councilman and active member of the Iowa Democratic Party state central committee, is also running, but he has raised and spent far less money and is not well known around the state.
Regardless of who emerges on top in the primary Tuesday, the Democrat will face stiff headwinds going into the general election against Grassley, who has served seven terms.
Grassley easily repelled a primary challenge from Jim Carlin, a state legislator and lawyer from Sioux City.