South Dakota Secretary of State Monae Johnson, a Republican who lost her own party's nomination in June, crossed party lines Saturday to endorse the Democratic candidate running to succeed her, drawing swift condemnation from GOP leaders in one of the reddest states in the country.
Johnson issued a written statement backing Terrence Davis, the Democratic nominee for secretary of state, over Republican nominee Heather Baxter, a state representative who defeated Johnson at the June Republican convention by a margin of 59 percent to 40 percent. The endorsement, first obtained by Dakota News Now and reported by the Daily Caller News Foundation, landed six weeks before the November 3 general election in a state President Trump carried with 63 percent of the vote in 2024.
Johnson framed her decision as a matter of competence and temperament, not party loyalty. In her statement, she said she has spent more than a decade in the secretary of state's office and urged voters across the political spectrum to back Davis.
"That is why I am asking South Dakotans, Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, independents, and everyone in between, to look beyond the letter beside a candidate's name, examine the record and temperament of the candidates seeking this responsibility, and vote for Terrence Davis for Secretary of State."
The endorsement amounts to an incumbent officeholder telling her own party's voters to hand the office to the opposition, after those same voters rejected her bid for renomination three months earlier.
Baxter wasted no time responding. In a statement to POLITICO on Saturday, she cast the convention result as a clear mandate and pushed back on Johnson's suggestion that party labels are irrelevant.
"In June, Republican delegates considered the record and nominated me over incumbent Secretary of State Monae Johnson, 59 percent to 41 percent. That was not confusion. That was self-government in action."
"The letter beside a name is not decoration. It tells voters what governing philosophy they will carry into the office that runs our elections and business services."
Baxter sharpened her language further in a separate statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. She said Johnson's move was predictable, given their disagreements over the direction of the office, and then went further, questioning the sincerity of some Republicans in the state.
"It's not surprising she'd rather back someone who won't change what she's built. Pseudo Republicans have long infiltrated the party, changing their voter registrations from Democrat to Republican. South Dakota's illusion of ruby red is being exposed!"
When asked what Johnson's endorsement could signal to campaigns beyond South Dakota, Baxter described the situation as a notable case of "an outgoing officeholder crossing party lines to back the opposing party's nominee, in a race where their own party ousted them in a primary/convention." She called it a question of whether Johnson is acting as a "sore loser or good-faith institutionalist."
Rep. Jon Hansen, speaker of South Dakota's Republican-controlled House, condemned the endorsement in a post on X.
"South Dakota Republican Secretary of State, after being defeated at the Republican party convention in her reelection bid, is endorsing the Democrat candidate. Huge mistake! Do NOT hand our elections over to the Democrats! Vote REPUBLICAN Heather Baxter for Secretary of State!"
Hansen's alarm reflects the stakes of the office. Secretaries of state oversee election administration and business filings, responsibilities that carry real weight in an era when election integrity remains a top concern for Republican voters. Baxter's campaign website, according to the Daily Caller report, emphasizes championing election integrity.
Davis, the Democratic nominee, posted his response on Facebook Saturday, striking a conciliatory tone.
"I am deeply grateful to have the support of South Dakota Secretary of State Monae Johnson. Monae and I come from different political parties. We will not agree on every issue. That is exactly why her confidence in me means so much."
His campaign did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller's request for comment. Johnson's office also did not respond.
A third candidate, Libertarian nominee Tamara Lesnar, will also appear on the November 3 ballot. No statements from Lesnar were reported.
The timeline matters. In June, Republican delegates chose Baxter over Johnson by a decisive 59-to-40 margin. Johnson lost the nomination inside her own party's process, the same process she now asks voters to override by backing a Democrat. That sequence undercuts her framing of the endorsement as a principled, above-politics judgment call. It looks, at minimum, like an officeholder who lost a fair fight and decided the rules no longer apply.
South Dakota is not a swing state. Trump's 63 percent in 2024 underscores how far outside the mainstream of state Republican politics Johnson's endorsement falls. For a sitting GOP secretary of state to publicly urge voters to elect a Democrat to run the state's elections, in a state that red, is an extraordinary breach, whatever Johnson's stated reasons.
Baxter's "pseudo Republicans" charge points to a broader tension simmering in deep-red states: whether some officeholders who run as Republicans actually govern like ones. Johnson's cross-party endorsement, coming after her own party's voters told her it was time for a change, will only sharpen that debate heading into November.
When the voters of your own party reject you and you respond by endorsing the other side, the word for that is not "integrity", it is a grudge dressed up in a press release.
