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Saturday, Apr. 4, 2026

Does South Dakota have the longest stretch of Republican governors?

Michael Klinski, South Dakota News Watch
yes

South Dakota has the longest uninterrupted Republican hold on a governor’s office of any state in the country.

A Democratic governor has not held office in South Dakota in more than 47 years, when Harvey Wollman was the 26th governor of the state after replacing Richard Kneip, who resigned. He was replaced by Republican Bill Janklow in his first eight-year term on Jan. 1, 1979.

Utah has the second-longest run of Republican governors – a Democrat last served in 1985.

South Dakota has had three Democratic governors since the 1950s (five overall): Ralph Herseth (1959-1961), Kneip (1971-78) and Wollman (1978-79).

Two Democrats earned more than 45% of the vote since the party last held the state’s highest office. Billy Sutton received 47.6% of the vote against Republican Kristi Noem (51%), and Lars Herseth got 48.2% of the vote against George S. Mickelson (51.8%) for the first of his two terms.

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