Equality Wins!

Seven of the 11 Lesbian/Gay/Bi-Sexual/Transgender (LGBT) friendly candidates endorsed by EqSD PAC won their primary races on June 3.

Lead Mayor Tom Nelson won the 3 way Republican primary for District 31 Senate with 38% of the vote. He faces Democrat and LGBT friendly candidate Nyla Griffith in the general election.

Four candidates running for House seats were the top vote getters in their districts:

• Darrell Solberg, Sioux Falls Democrat, received 41% of the District 11 votes;
• Martha Vanderlinde, Sioux Falls Democrat, received 56% of the District 15 votes;
• Larry Lucas, Mission Democrat, received 63% of the District 26A;
• Kevin Killer, Pine Ridge Democrat, received 31% of the votes in a 4 way District 27 race.

Two EqSD PAC endorsed candidates also move on to the general election:

• Elaine Elliott, Aberdeen Democrat, received 39% of the District 2 votes;
• Jeff Nelson, Rapid City Democrat, received 40% of the District 33 votes.

EqSD PAC will endorse and provide funds to selected legislative candidates in the November general election who it believes have progressive views on LGBT issues. General election candidates have until June 10 to return their surveys to EqSD PAC.

“Our ratio of elective successes to failures seems about right to me,” says PAC member and Republican former legislator Don Frankenfeld of Rapid City. “We could easily have achieved a 100% success rate simply by backing obvious winners. But our goal was to back well-qualified candidates who could be strong advocates for equality in Pierre, and that meant taking some risks. In the general election, we will continue to look for candidates who exhibit courage,leadership and integrity, and we expect that our support will propel some of them to victory.”

Sadly, four candidates did not win their races. We are exceedingly proud to have endorsed them.

Following the primary election, EqSD PAC will endorse and provide funds to selected legislative candidates in the November general election who it believes have progressive views on LGBT issues. General election candidates have until June 10 to return their surveys to EqSD PAC.