Barely a month into the job, South Dakota Republican Chairman John Wiik stood on the Senate floor Wednesday and implored his Senate companions to put a stop to a bill that threatens to further fracture the GOP.

“We don’t need Senate Bill 40 now. We don’t need more division now,” he said.

The bill would remove political party delegates from nominating General Election candidates for lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state auditor, state treasurer, commissioner of school and public lands and public utilities commissioner. Instead, those candidates would be nominated in political party primary elections, in the same way that governor candidates are nominated.

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