by Collin Duprel

Marty Jackley won the Republican Nomination for U.S. House. Mike Rounds won the Senate primary for the upper chamber. Both won decisively, and by an exceptional margin that comes from over a decade of name recognition. The South Dakota GOP war machine worked exactly as designed, by creating a “choice” without ever really having a choice.

But there’s one thing missing from both elections: a real debate with their opponents. Marty Jackley vs. James Bialota. Mike Rounds vs. Justin McNeal.

Winning without debating isn’t victory; it’s coronation and insulation. Marty and Mike won because of name ID, party alignment, large donor pools, and professional campaign strategy with staffers who have done this before. Most of the campaign work by Justin and James was done independently, and campaigns aren’t successful that way (I’ve been there).

Jackley and Rounds also got the easy win because South Dakota voters never saw them forced to defend their own DC visions on stage. This should worry every voter who thinks primaries are supposed to be about choices, not coronation victories from pure popularity contests.

Marty Jackley ran on prior public experience, without legislative experience, for the new job. He’s a household name in South Dakota because of his years as Attorney General and as a former Gubernatorial Candidate. His candidacy really felt like an incumbent run without being an incumbent, and his final numbers looked like it, too. He promised to continue backing law enforcement, push the party platform on issues like abortion, and bring South Dakota values to Washington, D.C where there are currently no values to be found.

James Bialota ran as the chaos factor outsider. It’s true that many political insiders, myself included, questioned whether he would even make the ballot. He gained as many enemies as he did supporters in a lot of rooms he entered, particularly with Native American voters. But he did make the ballot, and by doing so, he should have been entitled to the same opportunity to have a moment on stage and present himself to the voters.

The constituents never got a side-by-side. No debate on key issues like the 2nd Amendment, Property Rights, Agriculture, Medicare, or Green New Deal opinions. We never heard them argue for their positions, and the stage stayed empty, and Jackley walked away with the nomination untested.

Mike Rounds faced Justin McNeal in the primary. Rounds brought a major incumbent advantage and a record. 90%+ alignment with GOP leadership, NRSC money, and a bank account built over years from the time he was South Dakota’s Governor to the Senate Halls in D.C. He voted yes on defense, border security, judicial confirmations, and everything leadership wanted. He followed the party’s number one rule: don’t be “counterproductive to the agenda,” per Mike Johnson.

Justin McNeal wanted to shake the tree. He tried to shake it in a previous cycle for a potential run against Dusty Johnson, but was unsuccessful in making the ballot. He wanted to ask Rounds about overspending and foreign military intervention. McNeal himself is a veteran and said he didn’t see how Iran was a threat to the United States. He wanted to ask Mike Rounds some hard questions to see if he was even capable of saying “No” when the rest of the room said “Yes”.

But Justin McNeal never got the opportunity. In a Primary without any debates, name recognition beats everything, so Mike Rounds gets the easy win. Voters just selected the name they knew without hearing the case against it, and our different media outlets across the State complied with that decision by never providing voters an opportunity to hear the opposition.

There is nothing wrong with Media helping people be more informed.

Keloland. KOTA, Dakota News Now. SDPBS. 

I’m looking at you.

When powerhouse candidates like Marty Jackley and Mike Rounds get to skip debates with punch-up candidates like James Bialota and Justin McNeal, voters don’t get a choice. They get defaults. The result likely would have been the same, and someone like Marty Jackley in particular would be one of the toughest debaters we’ve ever seen, but they should still need to “prove it”.

Hard questions never got asked. Would Marty Jackley vote no on an unconstitutional bill even if leadership demanded a yes vote? Would he back a discharge petition on the Epstein Files to force transparency brought by Thomas Massie if Speaker Johnson opposed it? Would Rounds ever break with GOP leadership on spending? Would either of them try to work across the aisle in the future? Would they support Federal Regulations or Subsidies and Tax Breaks for Data Centers?

Republicans don’t get to hear those answers until their candidates square off against Democrat Nikki Gronly in the House and two opponents in the Senate: Democrat Julian Beaudion and Independent Brian Bengs.

Let’s make sure those debates happen. 

I’ll even moderate.

Collin Duprel is a guest columnist for the Rapid City Post. Opinions expressed may not necessarily represent the views of the Rapid City Post, its affiliates, or advertisers.