ANALYSIS | Russell’s AG nomination, party convention mark South Dakota GOP shift
Republican delegates trended toward mavericks, outsiders for constitutional offices
Lance Russell spent eight years proving to South Dakota Republican delegates they made the wrong choice.
This time, they agreed.
The former lawmaker and longtime West River prosecutor’s decisive victory Saturday for the Republican nomination for attorney general at the South Dakota GOP Convention in Rapid City was more than a political comeback. It was the clearest sign yet that the center of gravity inside South Dakota’s dominant political party has shifted toward a more populist, grassroots wing that increasingly prizes ideological consistency over institutional approval.
