Direct democracy circumvents one-party rule in South Dakota

Sioux Falls, SD — When your roots are too deep in red soil to move and Republicans have imposed Roundup on your party, the question is: Now what? For our combative little band of Dakotans, the answer is direct democracy. The tool is unwieldy. It can explode in your hands. But it’s all we have out here on the prairie. And it’s a lot more than you might think. Despite fierce opposition from our Republican-leaning legislature (94-11) and Kristi Noem, our puppy-killing governor, direct democracy has given us a progressive minimum wage adjusted for inflation, Medicaid expansion, a cap on short-term loan interest rates, campaign finance reform, ethics reform and more.

We are now opening democracy centers across the state to recruit and train volunteers for our biggest year yet. This fall, we put abortion rights and grocery tax repeal on the ballot. We helped get open primaries on the ballot, and other direct democracy groups put recreational marijuana on the list. There is a huge fight brewing that we hope will bring the potential of direct democracy to the forefront and create a threat that the Visigoths of the Republican Party cannot ignore, a threat that will reawaken frustrated red-state progressive forces from the Dakotas to Florida and everywhere in between.

The fight here in South Dakota to highlight the potential of direct democracy in all of America’s Republican states appears to have been born out of the national pro-life movement’s decision to look to our state as their best chance for a victory they desperately need. Since Roe was scathingly criticized and women’s rights were thrown at the mercy of Republican state politicians, pro-life zealots have been stunned by their defeats at the hands of the people. In South Dakota, the smallest Republican state that has called on the people to stand up for women, they see their best chance yet for a victory. If they lose here, they will have to admit that Dobbs’ “let the states decide” formula has failed. The people will not stand for that, even in South Dakota, so you must turn to Congress for a national ban on abortion, and pray to God that this is too much even for them.

That the national personal rights forces seeking to ban everything from artificial insemination to birth control are determined to make a stand here in South Dakota has been clear from day one. When our 500 volunteers took to the streets in November 2022 to collect signatures to put abortion rights on the 2024 ballot, they were met with a “Decline to Sign” campaign that included everything from organized, blatant harassment that required a temporary restraining order to paid advertising spreading lies about our amendment and urging Dakotans not to sign. That was followed by “emergency” legislation rushed through the state legislature to allow people who had already signed our petitions to withdraw their signatures and try to push us below the required threshold to get on the ballot. In addition, the fate of our petition and its 55,000 signatures would depend on just 723 signatories, randomly selected by our Secretary of State for vetting purposes, as required by law. If just a few hundred of those signatories could be persuaded to withdraw their names, our entire petition would be rejected.

In a move so blatant that even our Secretary of State, a strong supporter of Right to Life, called it a scam, the “Decline to Sign” harassers called each and every one of those 723 signatories, pretending they were calling from her office, asking people if they realized they had been tricked into signing and could withdraw their signature. Although dozens of these people called the Secretary of State to complain, no one asked to withdraw their signature, even for us. So our petition was easily approved for the 2024 ballot.

Now begins our chance to prove the potential of direct democracy. Against a determined, generously funded opposition, we will be forced to prove on a shoestring that when given the opportunity to vote directly and free of party bias, people will do the progressive thing. Since virtually all of our money is understandably going to states where putting abortion rights on the ballot can help elect Harris/Walz or win the House and save the Senate, our guerrilla effort will have to be funded by the people. But if we succeed, there will be no stronger proof of the thesis that our small group, Dakotans for Health, believes so strongly.

In 1898, South Dakota was the first state in the United States to allow voters to bypass politicians and put questions directly to the people. Today, when politicians are so poorly regarded, the opportunity to bypass them and go directly to the people seems greater than ever. Representative democracy cannot represent what the people really want.

In one-party states like ours, the extreme orthodoxies of the dominant party compel loyalty through the threat of defeat in the primary, regardless of the wishes of the electorate. In every state, big money in politics is tied to true voter preferences. And in both cases, we believe there are important once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for direct democracy to restore the balance. If 90% of the people don’t like loan sharks charging usurious interest rates, but lawmakers still carry water for their campaign donors instead of standing up for the people, then go around them. If a large majority of the people support expanding Medicaid, but one-party politicians insist on towing their party line, then go around them.

We in South Dakota think big. We envision a future filled with democracy centers, where citizen volunteers are involved. We look to a future where direct democracy has poured oil on the frozen tin man that our representative democracy has become by showing politicians that when they don’t, we will.

This fall, on the issue of abortion rights, the most important personal freedom issue in our lifetime, we will see how well our theory holds up under heavy fire. If we win, people will hear more from us. If not, people will still hear more from us, because we believe that direct democracy must become the conscience of representative democracy, and we will fight until that happens.

Rick Weiland is the founder of Dakotans for Health, the official sponsor of the Reproductive Freedom Amendment on the ballot in South Dakota this fall. Weiland previously served as senior advisor to former U.S. Senator and South Dakota Senate Leader Tom Daschle.