South Dakota · 2026 Elections

Offices to Be Filled in 2026

State, federal, legislative, county, party, district, and judicial offices included in the 2026 election cycle.

Primary Election

Offices nominated at the June 2 Primary

Partisan offices
Office	Term	Nomination
U.S. Senator	6 years	Primary Election
U.S. Representative	2 years	Primary Election
Governor and Lieutenant Governor	4 years	Primary / post-primary nomination process
State Senate (35 seats)	2 years	Primary Election
State House (70 seats)	2 years	Primary Election
County commissioner	4 years	Primary Election
County auditor	4 years	Primary Election
County sheriff	4 years	Primary Election
County register of deeds	4 years	Primary Election

Party offices

Party bylaws determine whether delegates to state party conventions and precinct committeemen and committeewomen are elected at the Primary Election. The Republican Party will elect these party offices in 2026; the Democratic and Libertarian parties will not.

Other Nominations

Convention, district, and General Election offices

State Conventions

Constitutional and statewide offices

Political-party conventions nominate candidates for Public Utilities Commissioner, Attorney General, Secretary of State, State Auditor, State Treasurer, and Commissioner of School and Public Lands.

Nonpartisan Primary

Special district directors

Water development district directors and applicable Heartland Consumer Power District directors may be nominated through a nonpartisan election process.

General Election

Conservation district supervisors

Conservation district supervisor nominations are made for the General Election. Each district publishes its own notice of offices to be filled.

Retention

Supreme Court justice

A South Dakota Supreme Court justice may appear on the General Election ballot for an eight-year retention term.

One public office

South Dakota law generally prohibits a candidate's name from appearing on the same election ballot for more than one public office, subject to statutory exceptions.

Current Documents

Official forms and resources

Current documents from the official SDSOS Elections pages are stored with this redesigned page for reliable access.