Republicans Rhoden and Jackley win, other GOP candidates lead

Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden has been in office almost two years and claimed victory Tuesday in his first election to the office, with more than a third of the vote counted.
He and longtime prosecutor Marty Jackley for the U.S. House of Representatives celebrated victory two hours after polls closed.
Other Republicans led in the other top races: Heather Baxter for secretary of state and Mike Rounds for U.S. Senate.
With 229 of 671 precincts reporting, Rhoden and Lt. Gov. Tony Venhuizen led Ahlers and running mate Steven McCleerey 67-33%.
Baxter was leading the race with 61%. Davis had 34% and Lesnar, 5%.
Rounds, who previously served in the state Legislature and as governor, was poised to win another six-year term in a win over his challenger, Independent Brian Bengs, a U.S. Navy and Air Force veteran. Rounds led Bengs 64% to 36%.
South Dakota’s only seat in the U.S. House opened this year. Democrat Nikki Gronli, who was formerly the state’s director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development program, and Jackley, who previously served as the state’s U.S. attorney, met in that contest for Congress. Jackley led 67% to 33%.
Statewide, 78,788 absentee ballots had been received by the secretary of state’s office as of Friday. That’s quite a jump from 2022, when 55,377 absentee ballots had been received by the Friday before Election Day.
This story was produced by South Dakota News Watch