Electoral Circumstances

Last Election

In the last election (2010) Senator Thune ran unopposed for the first time since direct elections were instituted in South Dakota in 1913.

2016 Election Outlook

When looking at the 2016 primary election it is safe to assume that the republican party would not have any other candidates that they would want to run in place of or against Senator Thune.

General election has the possibility of being a different story.  I am not saying that Senator  Thune is in any kind of hot seat.  On the contrary he is actually in a very safe Senate seat, the only thing worth mentioning is the possibility of him running for a higher office.  There has been talk of Senator Thune being a potential President or Vice President nominee, I for one believe it would be more likely to see him as a Vice President.  The evidence comes from recent news that South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard is to sign the repeal of state's so-called "Daschle Law", which prevents South Dakota politicians who are currently in office and up for reelection to run for any other office then the one they are currently elected to.  The law came about in 2002 when then Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle was being considered for a 2004 Presidential Candidate, which is how the law got its unofficial nickname.  Since the law is looking as though it will be repealed it begs the question of why?  The current consideration is that Senator Thune may be getting his ducks in a row, so to speak, in order to make a push for higher office.

2012 Vote

The state of South Dakota is consistently a "red state" meaning that typically the states three electoral college votes go to the Republican candidate.  This is a commonality seen in presidential elections as well as senatorial elections.

Campaign Finances

According to both Crowdpac as well as Opensecrets, both very reliable fact based information websites, Senator Thune has an astonishing $9.7 million Cash-on-Hand to begin his next campaign.  The fact that he ran unopposed in 2010 was a huge monetary boost, in 2016 he will now be running (given he might be running for a higher office than SD Senator) as a two term senator who two years prior to the election has nearly $10 million to start himself off.  At this time there are no announced challengers to run against Senator Thune in any party.

Major Issues

It is tough to give an exact account of what issues or themes will shape the 2016 election for Senator Thune due to the amount of time between now and November 8th, 2016 but one could surmise that Economy will definitely play some roll in the campaign platform for 2016.  Other possible policy issues or themes could be healthcare, foreign policy, and the Keystone XL pipeline.