South Dakota’s race for secretary of state took center stage on the latest episode of “Dakota Town Hall,” as Democratic candidate Terrence Davis discussed Republican Secretary of State Monae Johnson’s decision to cross party lines and endorse him.

Johnson announced the endorsement Sept. 19 after losing the Republican nomination to Heather Baxter at the state GOP convention. The move drew national attention and became a major topic of Davis’ conversation with hosts Jake and Murdoc.

Davis said he was aware of Johnson’s decision before it became public and described the endorsement as significant because of her experience in the office. He argued that while secretary of state is a partisan elected position, many of its day-to-day responsibilities are administrative.

“This office doesn’t belong to any particular party,” Davis said. “It is this is a partisan race, but it’s nonpartisan in function, and you have to be able to serve all citizens.”

The conversation also focused on election administration and the debate over hand-counting ballots. Davis said he supports South Dakota’s current use of tabulation machines combined with human oversight, while saying hand counting can still have a role in elections.

The episode opened with a Rapid City connection as Garrett Van Lear of Formula Hard Rocker Racing at South Dakota Mines discussed the student team’s annual effort to design and manufacture a Formula SAE race car. Van Lear said the roughly 25- to 30-member team competes against about 120 teams at Michigan International Speedway each May.

The hosts closed the episode by discussing another major Rapid City development: an $18 million investment to expand the David Lust Accelerator Building campus in the Innovation District, where Northrop Grumman will become the first anchor tenant of a new secure facility supporting the defense industry. The project is tied to the region’s efforts to capitalize on the B-21 Raider mission at Ellsworth Air Force Base.