So if you picture the modern political battlefield
for a second, what comes to mind? It's loud.
Right. It is incredibly loud. It's performative.
Very performative. Attention is really the currency
of the realm right now. Exactly. It's all about
who can get the most engagement on X or who can
deliver the sickest burn on a primetime cable
news hit. Yeah. The conventional wisdom today
says that if you aren't making noise, you aren't
making policy. Which brings us to today's deep
dive. Because we are looking at a stack of sources
that tell a completely different story. A very
different story. We're digging into the career
of what you might call a workhorse. And I don't
mean that as just a cliché. Right. We have this
fascinating case study in front of us. A guy
who has seemingly crapped the code on how to
be a detail -obsessed policy nerd. A technocrat,
really. Yeah, a technocrat conservative in an
era of high -octane populism. And somehow, he
is winning his elections by these massive, almost
North Korean margins in a deep red state. It
is a statistical anomaly when you look at the
data. I mean, in a time where being labeled a
moderate or an institutionalist usually means
you're about to lose your primary. You mean you're
dead in the water. Exactly. But this figure totally
stands out. So we're talking about Dusty Johnson.
For you listening, he is the U .S. representative
for South Dakota's at -large congressional district.
The whole state. The whole state, yeah. And the
big news... The reason we are doing this deep
dive right now is that as of June 30th, 2025,
so last year, he officially announced his run
for governor. South Dakota for the 2026 election.
Right. And our mission today isn't just to talk
about a guy running for governor. No, definitely
not. If you look at the voting records and the
biographical data and just the sheer length of
the resume we've been reviewing, Johnson represents
a real test case. He really does. He is testing
whether a politician who cares more about, say,
the price of ethanol transport than the latest
culture war outrage, whether that guy can actually
inherit the Magier coalition without actually
being Magier. And that's the tension right there.
Because when we tear into his voting record later
in the show and we have the actual roll call
votes here, he has done things that, by all conventional
metrics, should have ended his career. Oh, absolutely.
I mean, he voted for the January 6th commission.
Yep. He voted against President Trump's border
emergency declaration. In almost any other district,
that is an automatic primary loss. It's game
over. Right. Just ask Liz Cheney. Or Peter Meijer.
Exactly. The political graveyard is full of Republicans
who took those exact same votes. It is a kill
zone. But Dusty Johnson didn't just survive those
votes, he actually thrived. So that is the central
question for you today. How do you walk through
the fire of the post -2020 Republican Party,
vote against the leader of your party on these
major institutional issues, and then come out
the other side with an endorsement from that
very same leader? It requires a very specific
toolkit. And to understand it, you really can't
just look at his time in Washington. No, you
have to go back. You have to go back to 1998.
To a kid in Pierre, South Dakota, who wasn't
dreaming of being a TV star. He was dreaming
of being a bureaucrat. So let's open the dossier.
Second one, the Wendekind. Let's get into it.
So Johnson is born in Pierre in 1976. And right
off the bat, the local product branding is very
strong here. Very strong. He graduates from T
.F. Riggs High School in 1995. And that matters
a lot in a state like South Dakota, because Pierre
is the capital, but it's also a small town. Right.
It's not a massive metropolis. No. So being from
Pierre means you intimately understand the specific
rhythm of the state government. It's the factory
town industry of your hometown. That makes total
sense. The government is the local business.
And clearly, he was the kid in class who actually
did the reading. Unquestionably. We're looking
at his time at the University of South Dakota,
political science degree in 1999. He's in the
Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He gets Omicron Delta
Kappa honors. But there is one specific accolade
in this early biography that really signals who
he's going to become. The Truman scholarship.
Yes. In 1998, he was named a Truman Scholar.
And we should pause there, because Truman Scholar
is one of those terms that gets thrown around
in political bios, but the implications of it
are profound for understanding his psychology.
Yeah, break that down for us. What does being
a Truman Scholar actually tell us about a college
student? Because it's not just making the Dean's
List. Not at all. The Harry S. Truman Scholarship
isn't just an academic award for getting straight
A's. It is a highly competitive, federally funded
scholarship granted specifically to U .S. college
juniors who demonstrate leadership potential
and a firm commitment to public service. So it's
a very specific track. It is essentially a recruiting
tool for the future leaders of the government
bureaucracy. So this isn't for the person who
wants to go to Wall Street and make a billion
dollars. No. If you see Truman Scholar on a resume,
it usually means this person is a serious policy
wonk who intends to spend their entire life inside
the machinery of government. It signals a belief
that government can actually work. Exactly. It
shows a belief that government can work if you
just have the right smart people pulling the
levers. Which is such an interesting contrast
to the modern populist vibe of, you know, burn
the whole system down. Completely. He starts
his career with a credential that essentially
says, I believe in the system. And the sources
show he did exactly that. As a Truman scholar,
he went out to D .C. to work for the U .S. Department
of Agriculture. Getting that federal experience
early. Right. And then he gets his master of
public administration from the University of
Kansas. He is literally stacking up these credentials
that scream competent administrator. And he puts
those administrative credentials to use. Almost
immediately. In 2003, he works as a senior policy
advisor for then Governor Mike Rounds. But the
real leap, the moment he stops being just a staffer
and becomes an actual player, is in 2004. The
Public Utilities Commission? Did you see? Now
I know what you listening are probably thinking.
You were promised a fascinating political deep
dive, and now we are talking about utility rates.
I know it sounds like the absolute driest, most
sedate job in all of government. But stick with
us here, because the sources suggest this was
actually a political masterstroke. This is really
where the Dusty Johnson brand is born. Absolutely.
He gets elected to the PUC in 2004. And we have
to highlight the key stat here. He was the youngest
utilities commissioner in the entire nation at
that time. The youngest in the nation. That is
such a bold move. You're in your late 20s and
you are regulating electricity and telephone
rates. Right. Why would a 28 -year -old political
upstart want to be a utilities commissioner?
Why not run for the state legislature where you
can give big speeches? You really have to look
at the power dynamics of a rural state like South
Dakota to understand it. Okay. In a major city,
you might not think about your utility regulator
unless the power goes out. But in South Dakota,
This is an agricultural economy. Right. Farming
is everything. Exactly. So who regulates the
rates for grain drying? The PUC. Who regulates
the cost of electricity to pump water for heavy
irrigation? The PUC. So by taking this boring
job, he is actually inserting himself directly
into the balance sheet of every single farm in
the state. Precisely. Who is responsible for
whether or not a farmer can get broadband internet
to run their modern precision agriculture equipment?
It's the PUC. Wow. So Dusty Johnson wasn't out
there debating flag burning or school prayer.
He was debating how much it costs to run a family
farm. That is a crucial distinction. It's kitchen
table politics, but even more specific than that,
it's barn politics. Barn politics, I like that.
And he excelled at it. He became the chairman
of the PUC by 2007. And he wasn't just sitting
there keeping the lights on. He was highly active.
Right. I saw that in the notes. In 2010, he leads
this delegation to meet with the FCC commissioners
regarding the national broadband plan. He's down
in D .C. arguing with federal regulators about
the definition of broadband for rural providers.
Which, again, sounds highly technical. But if
you are living in a town of 400 people and Netflix
is buffering constantly. Or, more importantly,
you can't upload your crop yield data to the
futures market. Exactly. The guy who is fighting
to fix that infrastructure is a hero to you.
And he did it without ever having to take a stance
on a polarizing social issue. This is the absolute
foundation of his problem -solver brand. It's
almost a shelter from the political storm. You
can't really get primaried from the right. on
electricity rates in the same way you can on
immigration or taxes. Precisely. It insulated
him completely. The lights either turn on or
they don't. The internet works or it doesn't.
It is a binary metric of success that everyone
agrees on. And that transition from youngest
commissioner to a serious policy heavyweight
sets him up perfectly for his next role. Because
in 2011, he resigns from the PUC. But he doesn't
quit public service. No, he goes deeper inside.
Which brings us to segment two, the operator.
In 2011, Governor Dennis Daughert takes office
and he taps Dusty Johnson to be his chief of
staff. Now, chief of staff is a title that can
mean a lot of different things depending on the
specific administration. Right. Sometimes it's
just a glorified scheduler. Sometimes it's a
political hatchet man who just handles the dirty
work. But the description of his role during
the Daughert administration in our sources is
really telling. The material refers to him as
the, quote, chief operating officer for much
of state government. The COO. Exactly. A COO
model implies he was actually running the machinery
day to day. He was supervising cabinet secretaries,
overseeing policy advisors, and managing the
governor's core initiatives. So he's not just
the guy guarding the door to the Oval Office,
so to speak. He's the guy making sure the gears
are actually turning. Think about the level of
detail that requires. You have to know the budget
constraints of the Department of Transportation.
You have to know the personnel issues in the
Department of Social Services. You have to know
how to negotiate with the legislature to get
the governor's agenda passed. Right. So if you
are a voter in South Dakota looking at him right
now in 2026 for governor, you are looking at
a guy who has technically already run the government.
That is the argument he is undoubtedly making
on the campaign trail. He has seen the job from
the inside. He knows where the bodies are buried
or at least where the files are stored. And he
did that operational work for four solid years
until 2014. And then comes the pivot. Yeah. He
leaves the Dugard administration. And his successor
there is Tony Van Hoosen, by the way. But Johnson
doesn't go straight to running for office himself
yet. No, he goes into the private sector. He
joins Vantage Point Solutions in Mitchell, South
Dakota as vice president. Which, again, fits
the broader narrative perfectly. Tell us about
Vantage Point Solutions, because this isn't just
a situation where he goes to a white shoe law
firm to cash out. No, not at all. Vantage Point
Solutions is an engineering and consulting firm
heavily involved in broadband and telecommunications.
Interesting. So think about the thread here.
He regulates broadband at the PUC. He oversees
the state's infrastructure as chief of staff.
And now he goes directly to the private sector
to actually help build out that rural infrastructure.
It really does feel like he was systematically
checking boxes on a perfect candidate bingo card.
It does. Public service. Check. Executive management.
Check. Private sector business experience. Check.
It completely rounds out the resume. It insulates
him from the standard criticism that he's a career
politician who has never signed the front of
a paycheck. His career up to that point had been
overwhelmingly public facing. Right. But it gives
him that businessman credential that conservative
voters value so highly. So by 2018, he is completely
ready. The seat opens up. Kristi Noem, who was
the U .S. representative at the time, decides
to run for governor. A path Dusty is now replicating
almost step for step, by the way. Exactly. And
Dusty throws his hat in the ring for Congress.
Which brings us to segment three. The Congressman.
The 2018 election was his real introduction to
the national stage, but it was also a major test
of his local strength. He had a competitive primary.
He had to beat Chantel Krebs, who was the secretary
of state, and Neil Tapio, a state senator. And
he won that primary with nearly 47 percent of
the vote in a three way race. Which is very strong.
And then he cruises through the general election
against the Democrat Tim Yorkman with over 60
percent. Once he gets to Washington in 2019,
he does not waste any time defining his political
identity. And this is crucial for you to understand
his trajectory. He didn't join the Freedom Caucus.
He didn't join the bomb throwers or the cable
news regulars. He joined the Problem Solvers
Caucus. Yes. Immediately upon arrival. For anyone
listening who might hear that name and think
it's just a generic campaign slogan. What does
the Problem Solvers Caucus actually signify in
D .C.? The Problem Solvers Caucus is a formal
bipartisan group. It's composed of roughly equal
numbers of Democrats and Republicans committed
to finding common ground on legislation. So it's
a structured voting block. Exactly. By joining
it, and by also becoming the chair of the Republican
Main Street Partnership, Johnson was planting
a very specific flag. What was the message? He
was saying, I am a pragmatist. I am here to govern,
not to agitate. It's the brand of the adult in
the room. Precisely. And often, in media shorthand,
that brand is viewed as moderate or centrist.
And in today's GOP, moderate can sometimes be
a very dirty word. It can get you labeled a rhino.
Republican in name only. But here's the fascinating
thing about Dusty Johnson. His voting record
isn't necessarily liberal at all. It's just procedural.
And despite that moderate branding look at his
electoral dominance. Oh, the numbers we have
here are wild. Let's look at 2020. He has a primary
challenger, Liz Marty May. He beats her 77 percent
to 23 percent. A blowout. And then in the general
election, he gets 81 percent of the vote. 81%.
That is a staggering number. You just don't see
that in contested federal elections. And then
2022 comes along. Now this is post -January 6th.
The political climate has shifted dramatically.
Very much so. He gets a primary challenge from
his right, Taffy Howard, and she is coming at
him specifically on his voting record, which
we will get to in a minute. This really should
have been his vulnerable moment. But it was closer,
relatively speaking. But he still won 59 percent
to 40 percent. In a primary, a nearly 20 point
win is still highly decisive. It's a mandate.
And then he turns around in 2024 and wins the
general with 72 percent. So he is essentially
bulletproof electorally. But why? Because when
we look at segment four, the tightrope walk.
His voting record is not what you would expect
from someone with that level of support in a
deep red state. No, it certainly isn't. And this
is where we really have to give you the nuance
of the situation. Right. Dusty Johnson has established
a record of what I would call independent institutionalism.
He has taken votes that directly defied President
Trump and the Madge movement specifically on
issues of executive power and the democratic
process. We have to talk about the elephant in
the room. or rather the elephant that trampled
the room, the Trump years. This is where the
case study of Dusty Johnson gets incredibly complicated.
Because up until 2019, you could argue he's just
a standard chamber of commerce conservative.
But then he gets to Congress and almost immediately
he starts taking votes that seem designed to
antagonize the leader of his party. Let's look
at the timeline from the sources. March 2019,
he has been in Congress for maybe eight weeks.
He is fresh off the boat. President Trump declares
a national emergency to fund the border wall
because Congress wouldn't appropriate the cash
he wanted. Now, to be clear here, Johnson supports
the wall. The sources note he has an A rating
from strict immigration groups. He's not a fan
of open borders. Correct. He absolutely wants
the wall built, but he votes with the Democrats
to override President Trump's veto of the measure
that would have revoked that emergency declaration.
Whoa. So he voted to stop Trump from using emergency
powers to build the wall. Why? If you want the
wall, why vote to stop the guy building it? Because
Johnson is an institutionalist first. The source
material highlights his core argument here. The
Constitution says Congress holds the purse strings,
Article 1. The power of the purse. Exactly. If
the president can just declare an emergency to
spend money that Congress specifically did not
approve, the executive branch essentially becomes
a king. Right. Johnson was arguing essentially,
I want the wall, but I don't want a king. That
is a very nuanced law school classroom type of
argument. It is. It is a process over outcome
argument, which is rare today. And usually those
nuanced process arguments get you absolutely
shredded in Republican primary. They get you
labeled a rhino immediately. Your opponents just
say, oh, he cares more about process than securing
the border. And he was one of only 14 Republicans
to take that vote. That is a very lonely island
to be on. He stayed against the vast majority
of his own conference. So how did he survive
that? I think it comes down to his communication
style back home. What did he do? He didn't go
on a liberal cable network and say Trump is a
danger to democracy. He went back to South Dakota
and held town halls and said, look folks, if
we let a Republican president do this today,
a Democratic president is going to do it tomorrow
for gun control or climate change. We have to
protect the checkbook. Ah, he made it about the
future threat of Democrats. That is incredibly
smart politics. It is highly disciplined. He
framed it as a conservative defense of the Constitution,
not a personal attack on Trump. But then the
difficulty ramped up significantly. The 2020
election aftermath. The ultimate litmus test
for the modern GOP. The certification. When the
lawsuit, Texas versus Pennsylvania, was filed
at the Supreme Court to contest the election
results, a majority of Republican members of
Congress signed an amicus brief supporting it.
They formally put their names on the document
saying throw out these votes. But Dusty Johnson
did not. He sat it out. He did not sign the brief.
And then on January 6th, when it came time to
certify the Electoral College votes, he voted
to certify the results in both Arizona and Pennsylvania.
He formally accepted the election outcome. And
that alone was enough to end careers for some
Republicans. Just acknowledging Biden won was
considered a massive betrayal in some circles.
But he went even further. May 2021, the January
6th commission. This is perhaps his most striking
vote. There was a bill to establish an independent
bipartisan commission to investigate the storming
of the Capitol. And just to be clear, this is
not the select committee that Nancy Pelosi eventually
set up. This was the original bipartisan proposal.
Right. And most of the GOP leadership had turned
against it by the time the vote actually happened.
Kevin McCarthy was actively whipping against
it. But Dusty Johnson was one of only 35 Republicans
who joined all the Democrats to vote yes. He
voted for the commission. He wanted the investigation.
I stopped cold when I saw this in the data. Why
would he take that risk? He argued that the country
needed to know the truth. He called it a dark
day and said we shouldn't just sweep it under
the rug. And he also voted to keep Liz Cheney
in leadership. He did. During the second vote
to oust her as Republican conference chair, he
voted to keep her in her post. OK, so let's stack
this all up. He denied Trump his emergency wall
funding. He validated the 2020 election results.
He voted to investigate the Capitol riot. And
he supported the woman who became Trump's arch
nemesis, Liz Cheney. By all conventional political
physics, Dusty Johnson should be a former congressman
right now. He should be working at a think tank
or a lobbying firm. But then we look at the timeline
again. June 2020. Donald Trump formally endorses
him. He calls him, quote, a phenomenal advocate
for the people of South Dakota. How does that
happen? How do you vote against the leader of
the party on the most sensitive loyalty issues
and still get the phenomenal advocate stamp of
approval? I think it comes down to how Johnson
frames these votes and perhaps more importantly
his sheer utility to the party. Utility in what
way? Johnson doesn't make it personal. He never
attacked Trump's character in the press. He attacked
the procedure. And simultaneous to that, he is
working incredibly hard on the things that actually
matter to South Dakota voters and to the administration's
policy goals. Like agriculture infrastructure
trade? Essentially, yes. When Trump needed a
vote on the USMCA trade deal, Johnson was there
whipping for it. When the administration needed
help drafting complicated ag policy, Johnson
was the expert, they called. So in politics,
utility often trumps purity. It really does.
He was simply too useful to purge. That is a
fascinating insight. He made himself completely
indispensable on the boring stuff so he could
afford to have a conscience on the constitutional
stuff. That is a perfect way to put it. And that
brings us perfectly to segment five, policy nuance.
Because if you only look at those specific Trump
votes, you might think, oh, he's just a secret
Democrat. Right. But when you look at his actual
policy work from the sources, that theory falls
apart completely. He's not a liberal. Let's look
at the Respect for Marriage Act in 2022. This
was the bill to codify same -sex marriage into
federal law and Johnson voted against it. He
voted no Along with South Dakota senators Thunen
rounds This is a key data point for you to consider
if he were a squish or a liberal in disguise
This would be the exact vote to flip on it was
a popular bill nationally But his rationale was
very specific and very conservative was the argument
he made He argued that the bill didn't provide
sufficient protections for religious beliefs.
He explicitly stated, if Congress is going to
codify the Supreme Court's gay marriage decision,
the religious protections need to be airtight.
And they weren't. He also made a federalism argument,
right? He basically said this isn't Congress's
business to begin with. Exactly. During his twenty
twenty two campaign, he argued that marriage
is fundamentally the business of the states.
He pointed to the full faith and credit provision
of the Constitution. Right. Arguing that states
already have to recognize legal acts from other
states. So federal law simply wasn't necessary.
He dismissed it as a political show bill orchestrated
by Nancy Pelosi. So on social issues, he sticks
to a pretty traditional conservative line. Religious
liberty and states rights. He is not crossing
the aisle on culture war issues in the same way
he does on institutional ones. Correct. He is
highly reliable where the base expects him to
be reliable on core social values. But then look
at his economic policy. Yeah. This is where the
problem solvers populist side really comes out.
Yes, the antitrust legislation. In 2022, he voted
for the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act.
That is a mouthful. What does it actually do?
It's essentially an antitrust package. It was
designed to crack down on massive corporations
for anti -competitive behavior. Wait, a Republican
voting to crack down on corporations? That sounds
pretty unusual. It used to be highly unusual,
but the party is shifting on economics. And he
was one of only 39 Republicans to vote for it.
So he's willing to go after big business when
he thinks they're monopolistic. Which perfectly
fits the Main Street branding. He's pro -business,
but he's pro -competition. It's a nuanced position
that separates him from the old -school laissez
-faire corporate Republicans. He is acknowledging
that sometimes big companies get too big and
actually hurt the little guy, the farmer, the
small business owner in Pierre. It's a prairie
populism almost. Prairie populism. I love that.
And we can't ignore his committee of scientists.
They tell the whole story of his priorities in
D .C. Agriculture is the obvious one. Subcommittees
on nutrition oversight commodity exchanges. Crucial
for South Dakota. Absolutely. And transportation
and infrastructure. Aviation highways, railroads.
That directly matches his old PUC background.
And the select committee on the Chinese Communist
Party. That's a massive one. Tell us about that
committee because it sounds intense. That is
a very high profile, highly strategic assignment.
It was set up to investigate the economic and
security threat posed by the CCP. So it's not
a joke assignment. Not at all. Being put on that
committee shows that House leadership fundamentally
trusts him with sensitive, high -level geopolitical
work. It's a serious committee for serious members.
It is not a place for showboating. And then on
the lighter side, we absolutely have to mention
the Congressional Motorcycle Caucus. Oh yes,
you have to have the Motorcycle Caucus. Does
he actually ride? The source material notes he's
a member. And it certainly helps the image, you
know, the policy nerd with the glasses who can
also hop on a Harley on the weekends. It adds
a layer of relatability that shouldn't be underestimated
in a rural state like South Dakota. It really
humanizes him. It says, I might read 400 page
legislative bills for fun, but I also enjoy the
open road. So that brings us to the present,
or rather the near past. Segment six, the future.
The culmination of everything we've analyzed
today. June 30th, 2025, Dusty Johnson officially
announces he is running for governor of South
Dakota for the 2026 election. It really feels
like the closing of a loop, doesn't it? It does.
He started as the COO of the state under Dogard.
He went to Washington, built a massive legislative
network, survived the wildest parts of the Trump
years, kept his approval ratings sky high. And
now he wants to come home and actually run the
show as the executive. And if you look at the
trajectory. It makes perfect logical sense. He's
effectively applying for a promotion to a job
he arguably already did as chief of staff 10
years ago. But now he's coming back with federal
experience, a national profile, and a massive
war chest. And let's be honest, he's also offering
a pretty stark contrast to the current administration
in South Dakota. Yeah. Kristi Noem has been a
very high profile national media figure. Dusty
Johnson seems to be offering a return to well
boredom. I think competence is the word his campaign
would prefer to use. Fair enough. If we had to
speculate based strictly on the data and the
history we've reviewed today, what kind of governor
would he actually be? Based on the PUC era and
his time as chief of staff. Exactly. The source
material points to a governor who would be extremely
detail oriented. He is not going to be a governor
who just signs bills for the photo op and cuts
ribbons. He's going to be in the weeds. Very
much in the weeds. He's going to be looking at
the operational efficiency of state agencies.
He's going to be obsessed with broadband maps
and rural utility rates. A manager in chief.
Yes, a true technocrat executive and politically.
I think we can expect him to be quite independent
minded. He's proven that already. He has proven
he isn't afraid to buck the National Party trends
if he genuinely thinks it's right for South Dakota
or right for his reading of the Constitution.
But as we saw with the marriage vote, he will
likely remain staunchly conservative on social
issues and religious liberty. It's a very powerful
combination. Competence plus conservatism plus
independence. It's a formidable platform in a
state like South Dakota. Yeah. And frankly, it's
a platform that is very hard for an opponent
to attack. Yeah. How do you run negative ads
attacking a guy for being too competent? Or for
reading the bills too closely. You really can't.
So what does this all mean for you, the listener?
Let's wrap this up. We started by calling him
a pragmatic maverick. And I think that title
holds up entirely after going through the evidence.
Dusty Johnson is a study in contrasts. He's a
Phi Delta Theta fraternity member who became
a Truman scholar. He's a guy who rides with the
motorcycle caucus, but nerds out on antitrust
filing fees. He's a Republican who survived the
Trump era while voting for the January 6th commission,
but then votes against federal marriage codification
on strict federalist grounds. It's a highly complex
picture. And maybe that is exactly the point.
We get so used to politicians being flat, two
-dimensional caricature. E -cable news talking
points. Right. But Dusty Johnson feels three
-dimensional. He does. And as he moves toward
the governorship in 2026, it raises a really
provocative question for the rest of the country.
What's the question? In an era of performative
politics where it often feels like the loudest,
most outrageous voice always wins, Johnson is
betting his entire career on boring competence
and specific nuanced constitutional stances.
He is betting that voters actually do want nuance.
Exactly. He's betting that the exhausted majority
we always hear about is real and actually votes.
So does he? Did this success prove that voters
are genuinely hungry for this kind of leadership?
Or is Dusty Johnson's specific brand of popularity
just a unique quirk of South Dakota politics
that simply can't be replicated anywhere else?
That is the big question to mull over as 2026
approaches. It really is. If you want to dive
deeper into this specific brand of politics,
I'd encourage you to look up the Problem Solvers
Caucus Roll Calls and see who else is trying
to make that institutionalist brand work in today's
climate. It's a fascinating group to watch. Absolutely.
Well, that is the story of Dusty Johnson. Thanks
for joining us on this deep dive. We'll catch
you next time.