Credit cards, crime, corrections & conflation: 2025 brings new stature, scrutiny to South Dakota politics
Year's news cycle paced by Kristi Noem promotion, government spending, prison politics, public corruption
South Dakota crashed into American history in 2025.
A new governor, an unprecedented level of influence for the state in the White House and on Capitol Hill, and deepening fractures among Mount Rushmore conservatives over prisons, pipelines and populist politics marked a storied year for South Dakotans inundated with headlines about courtroom bombshells, transparency battles and public corruption.
