South Dakota's At-large congressional district
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The South Dakota at-large congressional district covers the entire state of South Dakota. It was created in 1982, after South Dakota lost its 2nd District.
It is represented in the United States House of Representatives by Stephanie Herseth.
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[edit] 2002 election
Herseth ran for the seat in the 2002 election and lost to Bill Janklow.
[edit] 2004 special election
Janklow resigned his seat effective January 20, 2004, after he was convicted of manslaughter, triggering a special election. Herseth was selected as the Democratic nominee for this special election and she beat GOP candidate Larry Diedrich with 51 percent in a close-fought election on June 1, 2004. Herseth's victory, briefly gave the state its first all-Democratic congressional delegation since 1937.
[edit] 2004 general election
Both Herseth and Diedrich were selected to represent their parties in the general election in November, campaigning continued after the special election. In the November general election, Herseth was elected to a full term with 53.4 percent of the vote, an increase of a few percentage points compared with the even closer June special elections. The vote margin in June was about 3,000 votes, by November it had grown to over 29,000.
Herseth thereby became the first woman in state history to win a full term in Congress.
Both elections were hard-fought and close compared to many House races in the rest of the United States, and the special election was watched closely by a national audience. The general election was also viewed as one of the most competitive in the country, but was overshadowed in the state by the highly competitive Senate race between Tom Daschle and John Thune.
[edit] External links
| South Dakota's congressional districts |
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| 1 2 3 The 2nd and 3rd districts are obsolete See also: South Dakota's past & present Representatives, Senators, and Delegations United States congressional districts - Congressional apportionment - Redistricting - Gerrymandering - Dakota Maps |
