Rapid City mayor eyes second term as growth, projects loom
Salamun says major investments, Black Hills momentum weighing on 2027 reelection plans
First-term Rapid City Mayor Jason Salamun says the decisions made over the next five years could shape the City of Presidents for decades.
And that has him leaning toward keeping his downtown office through 2031.
In an interview with The Dakota Scout this month, Salamun shared he’s “strongly considering” another run for mayor.
“Next year, obviously, will be the end of this term. I’m weighing whether to run again or not, but, most likely, I will,” said the 48-year-old who won the mayor’s office in 2023 after entering public service as a city councilor.
With his first term in the mayor’s office set to expire in July 2027, Salamun has time to decide, and has not yet made any public candidate filings to ready a reelection campaign. But the longtime Rapid City resident said Rapid City’s momentum can best be sustained with continuity in municipal leadership — particularly as western South Dakota’s largest city confronts rapid growth that demands major public investments.
Salamun also referenced billions in infrastructure improvements underway at Ellsworth Air Force Base, where the U.S. Department of Defense’s first operational B-21 Raiders are expected to arrive by 2027.
A $50 million multi-sports complex is also proposed for Rapid City.
“The growth for us has been significant,” Salamun said. “From 2020–2024, we’ve grown by 10,000 people just within the city limits alone. That’s not including the surrounding communities.”
“It’s such an exciting time in Rapid City,” he added.
Salamun’s path to the mayor’s office followed years of involvement in the community. Born in Texas and a Rapid City resident since the late 1980s, he attended local schools before earning a degree from Black Hills State University. After a military stint in Colorado from 1996 to 2000, he returned to Rapid City, working in media and later in banking, including a vice presidential role at Black Hills Federal Credit Union.
Should he decide to run and be elected to a second term, Salamun said his focus would mirror the priorities that carried him into office: public safety, economic development and managing growth.
“My whole vision for Rapid City is it’s where children thrive and families flourish,” Salamun said. “That means it’s a safe place to live. That means that’s where people can get a job, have a great quality of life, strong education system, all of those things are true.”
To that end, Salamun has at times used his platform to spotlight public safety gaps, like last month when he publicly criticized the state of South Dakota’s parole system in the aftermath of a parolee being apprehended in a shooting that seriously injured a Sioux Falls police officer.
Days earlier, seven arrests were made in a single parole check in Rapid City.
Salamun also made headlines last year when he joined Attorney General Marty Jackley and Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken to call upon the state’s Department of Social Services to move more swiftly in distributing tens of millions in opioid settlement funds sent to South Dakota by the United States Department of Justice.
“To be the mayor of one of the fastest growing cities in the Midwest is a big job,” Salamun said, also not dismissing a political future beyond 2031. “I’m pretty focused on Rapid City right now. … We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
