2010 South Dakota Governor - Daugaard vs. Heidepriem

South Dakota is by some historical measures the nation’s most Republican state. From the time of its founding into the 1930s it had only a token Democratic presence in its state legislature, and even after the Great Depression gave birth to a competitive Democratic Party, they only occasionally won the gubernatorial race.

The state’s Democrats today suffer from the longest gubernatorial drought in the nation, as they have not won a governor’s race since 1974. There was some thought that Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, daughter of a former House majority leader and granddaughter of a governor would make a run for it, but she opted to run for re-election to the House instead.

Republicans nominated Lieutenant Governor Dennis Daugaard to succeed popular Governor Mike Rounds. Democrats nominated State Senate Minority Leader Scott Heidepriem. The two parties thus ensured that this race would result in more candidate misspellings than any race in history. More to the point, Daugaard seems unlikely to lose in what is shaping up to be a good GOP year.