South Dakota District 35’s Republican Primary: Who’s Best Positioned in the Four-Way Race?

South Dakota District 35’s Republican Primary: Who’s Best Positioned in the Four-Way Race?

By Jason Karimi | WeedPress

April 4, 2026

South Dakota House District 35 is one of the more interesting Republican primaries in the state this cycle because it is an open-seat race with four Republican candidates competing for two House nominations on June 2, 2026. The publicly listed GOP field is Dale Bartscher, Jason Fleming, Emmett Reistroffer, and Jace West. That means the core strategic question is not who can dominate the district outright; it is who can finish in the top two and survive to November in a district where Republicans already start from a strong structural position.  https://vip.sdsos.gov/candidatelist.aspx?ctl00_MainContent_grdCandidatesChangePage=5_50&eid=773 https://ballotpedia.org/Emmett_Reistroffer https://electionresults.sd.gov/resultsSW.aspx?map=DIST&type=LEG

That Republican structural edge is not theoretical. In the 2024 general election for District 35 House, the two Republican candidates received 8,778 and 8,586 votes, while the two Democratic candidates received 4,004 and 3,772. In plain English, that means the real war is in the Republican primary. Whoever comes out of June with one of the two GOP slots starts from a position of strength in November.  https://electionresults.sd.gov/resultsSW.aspx?map=DIST&type=LEG

Geographically, District 35 is the kind of seat where message and micro-coalitions matter. Candidate materials and district references consistently place the district in the Rapid City / Box Elder / Ellsworth Air Force Base orbit, with broader district references also pointing to Rapid Valley and surrounding east-Rapid-City growth areas. That matters because this is not a one-note rural social-conservative seat or a downtown ideological seat. It is a mixed district with military households, commuters, homeowners, newer-growth voters, church conservatives, and a slice of anti-establishment voters who may not be tied tightly to institutional GOP networks.  https://www.daleforsd.com/ https://www.westforsd.com/ https://statisticalatlas.com/state-upper-legislative-district/South-Dakota/State-Senate-District-35/Overview

My current consultant-style ranking, based on the public evidence I could verify, is this: Dale Bartscher is the safest bet to finish top two; Emmett Reistroffer has a slight edge for the second slot; Jace West is the most plausible spoiler who could absolutely jump into that second slot; and Jason Fleming is the least publicly defined candidate in the field. That is not a moral judgment and it is not a guarantee. It is a read on lane clarity, public infrastructure, and likely coalition fit.  https://www.daleforsd.com/ https://www.westforsd.com/ https://emmettforsd.squarespace.com/ https://ballotpedia.org/Jason_Fleming_%28South_Dakota%29

Why Dale Bartscher starts as the favorite

Dale Bartscher has the clearest, oldest, and most institutionally legible lane in the race. His own campaign site frames him around faith, family, and freedom, names District 35 as Rapid City, Box Elder, and EAFB, and emphasizes conservative values, pro-life politics, the 2nd Amendment, veterans, first responders, and continued growth. His biography is not just generic Republican résumé-padding either: his campaign’s “About” page presents him as a longtime pastor and family-policy activist, and separate coverage identifies him as a major anti-abortion and social-conservative figure in South Dakota politics.  https://www.daleforsd.com/ https://www.daleforsd.com/about https://dakotawarcollege.com/top-anti-abortion-lobbyist-right-to-life-director-dale-bartscher-announces-for-d35-house/

That matters because in a Republican primary, especially an open-seat one, older reliable primary voters and church-network conservatives are often the easiest voters to identify, contact, and turn out. Dale’s endorsements on his website from Attorney General Marty Jackley, Treasurer Joshua Haeder, and Commissioner Brock Greenfield reinforce that image: he is not merely running as a conservative; he is running as the socially conservative institutional choice with a network that reaches beyond the district. For a race where you only need one of two slots, that kind of institutional confidence is a major advantage.  https://www.daleforsd.com/

His campaign-finance organization also appears real and early. His Statement of Organization for Friends of Dale Bartscher was filed in June 2025 for SD House District 35, and a 2024 campaign-finance report for his committee showed a $10,000 contribution from South Dakota Right to Life. That is older than this race cycle’s final money picture and should not be overread, but it does confirm the existence of a serious movement infrastructure around him rather than a candidacy built out of thin air.  https://sdcfr.sdsos.gov/Document.aspx?DocumentID=98610&type=doc https://sdcfr.sdsos.gov/Document.aspx?DocumentID=84567&type=doc

Why Emmett Reistroffer has the best argument for the second seat

Emmett Reistroffer’s biggest asset is not institutional support; it is distinct political identity. His campaign launch framed him as a local business and public-policy professional promising “no-bull leadership,” taxpayer relief, public safety, fiscal responsibility, accountability, and transparency. That is a real lane. It is not the church-network lane Dale occupies, and it is not the younger military-biography lane Jace West is building. It is the outsider reform / liberty-adjacent populist lane. In a four-way top-two primary, having a sharply legible lane is often more valuable than having a long résumé.  https://emmettforsd.squarespace.com/ https://dakotawarcollege.com/release-emmett-reistroffer-announces-campaign-for-south-dakota-house-district-35/ https://www.southdacola.com/blog/2025/10/emmett-reistroffer-announces-campaign-for-south-dakota-house-district-35/

Emmett also brings an unusual issue profile to a Republican legislative primary. Public coverage and his own campaign materials tie him to Genesis Farms and to cannabis-policy advocacy framed around patient access, regulation, testing, and public safety rather than chaos or libertarian cosplay. That gives him crossover appeal with liberty-minded Republicans, regulated-market conservatives, and anti-establishment voters who want a candidate willing to deviate from stale talking points without sounding like a left-liberal. That is a narrow lane, but in a four-way primary a narrow lane can be enough if it is consolidated.  https://www.kotatv.com/2025/10/15/south-dakota-cannabis-executive-running-district-35-state-house-representatives-seat/ https://emmettforsd.squarespace.com/

His committee was also organized relatively early. The Statement of Organization for Emmett Reistroffer for SD was filed in July 2025 for SD House District 35. That does not prove he is winning, but it does suggest he is not a last-minute vanity filer. He has been building for a while, and that matters in a local race where donor asks, door-knocking, and network repetition can make the difference between third place and second.  https://sdcfr.sdsos.gov/Document.aspx?DocumentID=98658&type=doc

The weakness in Emmett’s candidacy is tone discipline. His fundraising text, as political communication, is earnest but overlong. It tries to validate viability, celebrate momentum, solicit money, and emotionally reassure supporters all at once. That suggests real hustle but also a candidate still trying to prove he belongs. The upside is that this often reads better in person than it does on paper. The downside is that if he keeps talking like a man seeking validation instead of a man projecting command, he risks ceding some harder-edged Republican voters to Dale or some softer biography voters to Jace. The factual basis for this paragraph is his publicly visible campaign launch and structure; the strategic judgment here is my own inference.  https://emmettforsd.squarespace.com/ https://sdcfr.sdsos.gov/Document.aspx?DocumentID=98658&type=doc

Why Jace West is the most dangerous spoiler

Jace West has the strongest human story in the field. His campaign site leans heavily into biography: poverty, homelessness, addiction inside the family, Air Force service, Ellsworth, homeownership, and becoming a first-generation college graduate. His platform then translates that biography into issues like affordability, property-tax reform, criminal-justice reform, skepticism toward special-interest economic development, and direct advocacy for Ellsworth airmen, veterans, and their families. That is not boilerplate. It is a highly district-specific profile in a seat connected to Ellsworth and east-side growth.  https://www.westforsd.com/

Jace’s key strategic asset is that biography often outperforms ideology in low-information legislative races. Plenty of voters will not memorize issue grids, but they will remember “the Ellsworth veteran who overcame a rough background and gets what working families deal with.” If he is strong in person, if he is disciplined, and if he gets enough visibility among military and younger household voters, he could leapfrog Emmett. That is why I do not view him as a distant third; I view him as the most plausible candidate to scramble the expected finish. The factual predicate comes from his campaign materials; the electoral inference is mine.  https://www.westforsd.com/ https://www.instagram.com/p/DWVfSMRDYER/

His main problem is scale and proof of infrastructure. I could verify his Statement of Organization from December 2025, and I could verify his campaign site, but I could not verify as much public money, endorsement, or network evidence as I could for Dale, and I could not verify as sharp an outsider brand as Emmett’s. That does not mean he lacks a field effort. It means that based on the public record I could actually see, his candidacy currently looks more like a promising coalition-in-waiting than a visibly consolidated machine.  https://sdcfr.sdsos.gov/Document.aspx?DocumentID=98875&type=doc https://www.westforsd.com/

Why Jason Fleming currently ranks fourth

Jason Fleming’s issue is not that I found bad information; it is that I found very little defining information at all. He appears in the official and Ballotpedia candidate listings for the District 35 Republican primary, but I did not verify a campaign site, a clear issue frame, a visible public coalition, or a developed narrative comparable to the other three. In consultant terms, that is dangerous. In a four-way race, undefined is usually fatal unless there is a hidden offline machine the public cannot yet see. Based on the public evidence available to me, he is the least legible candidate in the field.  https://vip.sdsos.gov/candidatelist.aspx?ctl00_MainContent_grdCandidatesChangePage=5_50&eid=773 https://ballotpedia.org/Jason_Fleming_%28South_Dakota%29

What the district microterrain probably looks like

Without live precinct-level Republican primary returns or internal canvass data, the smartest way to model District 35 is by geographic microterrain, not fake precision. The district’s public descriptions point to three big political zones: a church-and-habit-voter conservative bloc, a military / Ellsworth / Box Elder bloc, and an anti-establishment / practical outsider bloc scattered through growth corridors and east-Rapid-City-adjacent households. In that framework, Dale’s natural base is the first bloc, Jace’s natural base is the second, and Emmett’s natural base is the third, while Jason remains too undefined publicly to assign a reliable home turf.  https://www.daleforsd.com/ https://www.westforsd.com/ https://statisticalatlas.com/state-upper-legislative-district/South-Dakota/State-Senate-District-35/Overview

If I were drawing the race on a whiteboard, I would say Dale wants older regular Republican primary voters, church conservatives, pro-life activists, and the “safe hands” voters who like seeing Jackley-tier endorsements. He does not need to be exciting; he needs to look inevitable. His danger zone is not ideological opposition so much as overconfidence or the possibility that two non-Dale candidates each lock in a fresher emotional bond with different slices of the district.  https://www.daleforsd.com/ https://www.daleforsd.com/about https://dakotawarcollege.com/top-anti-abortion-lobbyist-right-to-life-director-dale-bartscher-announces-for-d35-house/

Jace’s best geography is the Ellsworth/Box Elder/military-family universe and the broader “building a life here” household vote. If he can become the obvious candidate of younger veterans, service families, and aspirational working households, he has a real path. But he cannot win by trying to imitate Dale’s movement-conservative lane or Emmett’s outsider-reform lane. He has to own the lane of the candidate whose biography feels most organically tied to District 35’s military and affordability pressures.  https://www.westforsd.com/ https://www.instagram.com/p/DWVfSMRDYER/

Emmett’s best geography is less literal and more attitudinal. He likely performs best with anti-insider Republicans, liberty-leaners, voters irritated by Pierre’s clubbiness, and people open to a candidate who sounds practical rather than pious. If he is smart, he does not try to out-church Dale or out-veteran Jace. He should run straight at the voters who want a Republican fighter with a policy edge and an outsider tone. His path succeeds if enough voters decide they want one seat held by the establishment conservative and the other by the independent-minded reformer.  https://emmettforsd.squarespace.com/ https://dakotawarcollege.com/release-emmett-reistroffer-announces-campaign-for-south-dakota-house-district-35/ https://www.kotatv.com/2025/10/15/south-dakota-cannabis-executive-running-district-35-state-house-representatives-seat/

That last point is important. In a two-seat primary, voters do not always think in winner-take-all terms. Many voters unconsciously build a ticket in their heads. One slot can go to the “movement conservative” and one slot can go to the “fighter” or the “military guy.” That dynamic is exactly why I currently rate Dale as the safest bet, while the true live question is whether the district’s second choice will be Emmett’s outsider lane or Jace’s military-biography lane.  https://ballotpedia.org/Emmett_Reistroffer https://electionresults.sd.gov/resultsSW.aspx?map=DIST&type=LEG

So who is best positioned right now?

If the primary were held today, my best call is Dale Bartscher and Emmett Reistroffer as the current top-two favorites, with Jace West as the most plausible candidate to disrupt that outcome. Dale has the clearest network and the strongest ideological machine. Emmett has the sharpest outsider brand and the cleanest second-seat theory. Jace has the best biography and the most obvious upside if his field work is stronger than his current public footprint suggests. Jason Fleming, based on what I could verify, still has the most work to do simply to become legible.  https://www.daleforsd.com/ https://emmettforsd.squarespace.com/ https://www.westforsd.com/ https://ballotpedia.org/Jason_Fleming_%28South_Dakota%29

The most concise consultant summary is this: Dale owns the organized social-conservative lane. Emmett is trying to own the outsider reform lane. Jace is trying to own the military-family upward-mobility lane. Jason is still publicly undefined. In a four-way race for two slots, that usually means Dale starts with the inside track, and the second seat becomes a contest between the candidate with the clearest anti-establishment brand and the candidate with the most emotionally resonant life story. Right now, that is Emmett versus Jace.  https://www.daleforsd.com/ https://emmettforsd.squarespace.com/ https://www.westforsd.com