Equality Wins!

By investing over $30,000 in primary and general election campaigns, 14 of the 39 Lesbian/Gay/Bi-Sexual/Transgender (LGBT) friendly candidates funded and 44 endorsed by EqSD PAC won their races in this historic election year. Worth noting is 6 of the 7 candidates that Equality South Dakota PAC endorsed during the primary election went on to win in the general election.

State Senate

• District 17 - Incumbent Ben Nesselhuf, Democrat, ended up with a 18.8 point lead over his opponent.
  
• District 31 - Lead Mayor Tom Nelson*, Republican, won this Senate seat by 8.5 points. He prevailed over LGBT friendly Nyla Griffith who was also endorsed by EqSD PAC.
  
• District 34 - Craig Tieszen, Republican, won 70% of the votes cast in his district.

State House

• District 2 - Elaine Elliott*, Democrat, won by a 10 point margin.
• District 8 - Mitch Fargen, Democrat, was the top vote getter, 29%, in his 4 way race.
• District 9 - Incumbent Richard Engels, Democrat, will serve another term in the House.
• District 11 - Darrell Solberg*, Democrat, is facing a possible recount. Unofficial results from the Secretary of State's office show Darrell ahead of his opponent by 140 votes.
• District 13 - Incumbent Bill Thompson and newcomer Susy Blake, both Democrats, came in first and second place, respectively.
• District 14 - Incumbent Marc Feinstein, Democrat, narrowly defeated his opponent for a second time.
• District 15 - Martha Vanderlinde*, Democrat, beat her closest competitor by almost 9.5 points.
• District 18 - Magazine publisher Bernie Hunhoff, Democrat, was the top vote getter with 34% in this four way race.
• District 26A - Larry Lucas*, Democrat, beat his sole opponent by a 34 point margin.
• District 27 - Newcomer Kevin Killer*, Democrat, was the top vote getter in his district.

Sadly, Democrat Greg Kniffen lost his bid for District 12 House. "Despite Greg Kniffen's loss, the fact that he ran as an openly gay man and was not attacked about that or his positions speaks volumes about how far this state (or at least Sioux Falls) has come.  Greg lost because he is not yet well known enough and he's in a Republican district. He did us all proud with his work on the issues and meeting people," said Todd Epp, Equality South Dakota PAC Chair.

“We could easily have achieved a 100% success rate simply by backing obvious winners. "Our goal was to back well-qualified candidates who could be strong advocates for equality in Pierre, and that meant taking some risks. We looked for candidates who exhibit courage, leadership and integrity, and we expected that our support would propel some of them to victory," says PAC member and Republican former legislator Don Frankenfeld of Rapid City. "Our future efforts will benefit from a careful postmortem."

EqSD PAC is exceedingly proud of all the candidates it endorsed in 2008, win or lose.

* Endorsed by EqSD PAC during the primary election in May.

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