Johnson, Johnson fight for sole House seat

With the presidential and South Dakota elections on Nov. 5, voters will have a lot to keep in mind, including voting for their state representative. This year, the two candidates are incumbent Representative Dusty Johnson and Sheryl Johnson.

Dustin Michael Johnson, known as Dusty Johnson, has been South Dakota’s representative since 2019. Dusty Johnson was South Dakota’s public utility commissioner from 2005-2011, after which he was appointed chief of staff for then-Gov. Dennis Daugaard. 

Dusty Johnson says four policies are most representative of his campaign. 

His first concern is China. Dusty Johnson is a member of the Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, whose purpose is to assess the threat the Chinese government could pose to the United States, its economy and values and to create a plan to deal with potential threats.

 Within the role, he has been able to bring to light issues involving China’s human rights abuses and illicit drug production. Johnson aims to ensure America’s security and protection. 

Election security is another key issue for Dusty Johnson, who wants elections to be fair and free of results containing ballots of non-citizen voters. Dusty Johnson has led efforts to require a photo ID in order to vote – he believes that voting is a “sacred honor” and wants to ensure that trust in the system isn’t lost. 

“If public trust in our election system is lost, we’ll risk losing public trust in all of our institutions,” the Republican representative said. 

Dusty Johnson’s third priority is securing the border. Johnson seeks to enforce the southern border of the U.S. and advocates for stronger border policies, such as restarting construction on the border wall, improving the technology used along the area and hiring more border patrol agents. 

For his final plan, Dusty Johnson wants to focus on decreasing national debt and runaway spending. 

“I’ve voted against $14 trillion in unnecessary government spending and voted to cut $2 trillion over the next six years,” Dusty Johnson said. “We cannot continue to kick the can down the road, forcing future generations to pay for our bad spending habits.”

When asked if he had anything he wanted to say to the Augustana community, Dusty Johnson said, “While I am a proud University of South Dakota alum, Augustana University is a great place to receive your education – in fact, there are three Augustana alumni on my staff. Be confident in the direction you’re going and know you have a strong support system in the Augustana community.” 

Sheryl Johnson is the democratic nominee for South Dakota’s representative seat in Congress. Though Sheryl Johnson has no past political experience, she has worked in education and as a retail manager. Sheryl Johnson is a proud mother of four daughters, a prominent part of  her campaign.

“It’s time to send a South Dakota mom to Congress and bring some much-needed mom sense to our government,” Sheryl Johnson said.

Health care is central to Johnson’s campaign. She believes all South Dakotans should have easy and affordable access to medical and mental health care. 

Sheryl Johnson also seeks to guarantee personal freedom for women across the states to make their own reproductive decisions. She plans on pushing for laws that support pregnant women and reduce unwanted pregnancies.  

“I am committed to guaranteeing the personal freedom for women across the United States to make their own reproductive decisions without government interference,” Johnson wrote on her website. 

Sheryl Johnson seeks to expand landowner rights and stop abuse of eminent domain for private gain. 

The Democratic nominee supports legislation that strengthens landowners’ rights to challenge eminent domain actions – she strongly opposes Referred Law 21, as she claims it was written by special-interest lobbyists and that the bill strips away local control without providing protections against carbon dioxide pipelines for communities.

“Your land, your decisions,” the Democratic representative said.

Sharing similar concerns to her opponent about border security, Sheryl Johnson argues borders must be secure to keep the U.S. safe. 

She also believes in what she calls “common sense” laws for legal and lawful entry into the U.S. 

Other key issues for Sheryl Johnson are rural development, economic growth, education, the environment and infrastructure investment. 

Sheryl Johnson says she is running to change D.C. politicking.

“I’m tired of the out-of-touch career politicians acting like a bunch of spoiled, selfish children, refusing to work together and get things done,” Sheryl Johnson said. “They don’t seem to know that their job is to serve ‘we the people,’ not the interests of their big money donors!”