Thousands of new voters join South Dakota GOP ahead of gubernatorial runoff

Surge follows recent trends but includes crossover registrations from Democrats looking to have a say before November

South Dakota voter registration by party. Republican registrations (red) have been trending higher than Democratic (blue) for decades but show a dramatic increase in 2026. (Graphic by Jen Pfeiffer / Design Loft)

The South Dakota Republican Party saw a wave of new voter registrations before the July 13 registration deadline ahead of this month’s runoff to decide the GOP nominee for governor.

The new registrations pushed the party’s numbers to a historic mark that hadn’t been reached in more than half a century. The wave of new voters started building prior to the June 2 primary election, but they accelerated after no candidate in the four-person race for governor reached 35 percent, triggering a runoff July 28 between Gov. Larry Rhoden and Aberdeen businessman Toby Doeden.

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