Democrats back a former Republican for South Dakota’s US House seat

SIOUX FALLS — Democrats, who do not hold any statewide elected offices in South Dakota, say they’ve found a good candidate for the U.S. House: a former Republican.

The state party announced during a press conference Wednesday that Sheryl Johnson, a Sioux Falls retiree, volunteer and mother of four, is running for the party’s nomination for U.S. House. The state’s only House seat is currently held by Republican Rep. Dusty Johnson.

The South Dakota Democratic Party said in a news release that Sheryl Johnson “was a Republican for decades, but got tired of a party that used to be about freedom and now wants to control everything including who people can marry, how and when they can have kids, which books schools can use and give tax breaks to the wealthy instead of helping our kids.”

The party said Sheryl Johnson became a Democrat about 10 years ago “after realizing the party aligned much closer to her values of caring about people.”

Sheryl Johnson said she’s running because she believes federal lawmakers only complain about what’s happening at the U.S.-Mexico border instead of fixing the immigration system. She also wants to stop the “attacks on women’s health,” saying reproductive health is a discussion that should stay between mothers and their doctors without government interference.

She alleged that Rep. Dusty Johnson “no longer listens to his constituents in South Dakota and only does what the Republican Party tells him to do.”

“We need a working mom in D.C., who knows how to get things done and work together on what’s best for our country and South Dakota,” she said.

Rep. Dusty Johnson responded with a statement to South Dakota Searchlight: “Voters deserve a choice. I’m confident South Dakota voters will again embrace my conservative record of getting things done.”

Sheryl Johnson grew up in Iowa. Her grandparents ran a dairy farm and her dad was an ag loan officer at a bank and a part-time farmer. She spent 12 years as an education assistant at Roosevelt High School and four years as a military wife while her husband was deployed during Operation Desert Storm. For three years, she lived at Camp Lejeune, a Marine Corps base in North Carolina. She also worked in retail management for several years.

South Dakota Searchlight is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. South Dakota Searchlight maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seth Tupper for questions: info@southdakotasearchlight.com. Follow South Dakota Searchlight on Facebook and Twitter.