Governor candidate learned the hard way that South Dakotans like courtesy and specifics

The runoff pitted a political outsider versus an establishment politician. In the runoff between the two, Republican voters went in a big way for the status quo. There are probably many reasons to explain the outcome, with some having to do with the influence of President Donald Trump, Doeden’s demeanor and the one glimmer of specificity in a property tax plan that had always been just vague enough to be popular.

To some extent, all four of the GOP candidates in the primary could be mistaken for Trump fanboys. No one in the quartet wrapped themselves in the president more than Doeden. That might look to be a winning strategy in a state where Trump finished with more than 60% of the vote in 2016, 2020 and 2024.

Ep. 27: Recapping the runoff: A quote that doomed Doeden, Rhoden’s victory, and a Democrat’s ‘uphill battle’

Doeden styled himself after the president as a successful businessman who would use his business acumen to shake things up in Pierre. He was a political maverick, as he told it, striking fear into establishment politicians.

Doeden even struck the same Trump-like belligerent tone, labeling bad news about his campaign as “fake” and hurling insults at his opponents and those who disagreed with him.

In trying to be a Trump clone, Doeden forgot that he lacked one of the president’s important qualities — fame. American voters have a long history of belonging to a cult of celebrity that has elevated entertainers to positions of responsibility in government. The public’s embrace of that celebrity gave us Presidents Trump and Ronald Reagan and Governors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse “The Body” Ventura.

Outside the Aberdeen area, Doeden wasn’t a known quantity in South Dakota. When voters who were unfamiliar with him saw Doeden, it wasn’t as a Trump-in-the-making but as a rich guy with a surly attitude.

Doeden’s willingness to pick a fight and belittle his opponents in a Trump-like fashion likely didn’t sit well with an electorate in a state where personal connections run deep from community to community.

Republican voters may chuckle when they see Trump demean or make up silly nicknames for his opponents. However, it hit a little close to home when, after his primary victory, Doeden declared that he was glad to have ended Dusty Johnson’s political career. When Sioux Falls mayoral candidates Greg Jamison and Joe Batcheller, both Republicans, endorsed Democrat Jamie Smith over Republican Christine Erickson, Doeden called them “proven losers and petty politicians.” During the campaign he took to calling Rhoden “Lyin’ Larry” and tried to paint the governor and lieutenant governor as closet liberals by labeling them “RhoBiden” and “Minnesota Tony.”

That kind of thing has worked for Trump because we all observe national politics at a distance. Doeden was insulting our friends and neighbors. It was easy to wonder who would be next if he was elected.

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If South Dakota Republican voters were uneasy with his bullying and name-calling, they could also have had concerns about Doeden’s plan for eliminating property taxes. Doeden was never big on the specifics of his plan, but a South Dakota Searchlight story noted that the Aberdeen businessman never delineated between which property owners would be helped. He asserted that his plan would help “farmers, ranchers and small business owners.”

Then the Rhoden campaign and a coalition of business groups began to wonder out loud and often about how Doeden planned to plug a $1.8 billion hole in the budgets of schools and counties if he eliminated property taxes. That’s when Doeden spokesman Matt Hurley said that the plan was only ever meant to eliminate property taxes for homeowners. That late attempt to add some previously missing specificity to his plan may have cost Doeden support among farmers.

South Dakota political candidates of the future should heed the outcome of the Doeden/Rhoden runoff. Among the lessons in that race are that what works in Washington, D.C., falls flat in the Rushmore State. We like specifics in our tax plans and common courtesy in our politicians. Anyone who doubts that should look at the failed campaign of Toby Doeden, a candidate who won a battle and then lost the war.