WeedPress: The Paper Trail

Related: The District Math: How Primary Elections Actually Decide Legislative Power in South Dakota

There is no cannabis question on South Dakota’s Nov. 3 ballot. The four statewide measures are proposed constitutional amendments: a trigger that could end the state’s Medicaid expansion requirement, a clarification that voters must be U.S. citizens, an unclaimed-property trust fund, and a 60 percent approval requirement for future constitutional amendments.¹

The election still matters for medical cannabis in a less obvious way. The 105 legislators elected Nov. 3 will convene January 12, 2027.² Any change to the medical cannabis law will have to go through them. The program had 20,040 patients in the Department of Health’s September count.³

Here is what to watch.

What the last Legislature did on cannabis

Two 2026 bills show how close some cannabis votes have been.

HB 1065 would have narrowed the medical-purpose affirmative defense in SDCL 34-20G-51. As passed by the House, it would have limited the defense to qualifying patients registered with the Department as cardholders or nonresident cardholders, and to registered designated caregivers, at the time of the alleged offense. Their conduct also would have had to comply with chapter 34-20G. The bill would also have repealed SDCL 34-20G-53, which says a person does not need a registry card to raise the defense.⁴ The House passed it 53–13 on February 17. On March 2, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee deferred it to the 41st legislative day, 4–3, which ended the bill for the session.⁵

HB 1160 would have repealed the Medical Marijuana Oversight Committee, which state law directs to evaluate patient access, prices and testing.⁶ The House passed it 41–26 on February 23. On March 9, a Senate motion to pass it failed 15–19.⁷

Four of the seven members of the 2026 Senate committee that deferred HB 1065 are not Senate candidates this fall. Of the four senators who voted to defer the bill, Tamara Grove lost her June primary and Jamie Smith is not on the November ballot. Of the three who voted against deferring it, Carl Perry and Curt Voight lost their primaries.⁸ The other three members, Sydney Davis, Tim Reed and Kevin Jensen, are the only Senate candidates listed in their districts for Nov. 3.⁹

Most seats have no listed general-election contest

Under the Secretary of State’s candidate list, 21 of 35 Senate seats and 13 of 70 House seats have no more candidates than seats this year.¹⁰ Voters in those districts have no listed general-election contest for those seats.

Among the contested seats, the list below focuses on close recent margins, open seats and candidates with recorded votes on HB 1065 or HB 1160. “Recorded votes” means floor or committee roll calls only. Candidates who have not served in the Legislature have no such record. WeedPress searched SDPB’s 2026 “Meet the Candidates” pages for the candidates below for “cannabis,” “marijuana” and “hemp”; none of those terms appeared, and some pages had no questionnaire answers.¹¹

Races to watch

House District 15 (Sioux Falls), two seats. In 2024, the second seat was decided by nine votes: Erik Muckey (D) 4,364, Joni Tschetter (R) 4,355.¹² On the ballot: Kadyn Wittman (D), June CopperStad (D), Joni Tschetter (R) and Andre Zachariahs (R).¹³ Wittman, an incumbent, voted no on HB 1065 and yes on HB 1160.¹⁴

Senate District 15 (Sioux Falls), open. Sen. Jamie Smith is not on the ballot. Erik Muckey (D), now a House member, faces Brenda Lawrence (R), who lost this seat to Smith in 2024, 5,050 to 4,580.¹⁵ Muckey voted no on HB 1065 and yes on HB 1160.¹⁶

Senate District 26. Rep. Rebecca Reimer (R) defeated Sen. Tamara Grove in the June primary, 1,210 to 1,062. She faces former Sen. Shawn Bordeaux (D).¹⁷ The seat has changed parties recently: Bordeaux won it in 2022, 3,483 to 2,495, and Grove took it in 2024, 4,328 to 3,221.¹⁸ Reimer voted yes on HB 1065 and yes on HB 1160. As a House member in 2022, Bordeaux voted against HB 1004, which would have prohibited cardholder cultivation. As a senator in 2024, he voted against SB 191, a bill restricting medical cannabis use for people on probation or conditional release.¹⁹

Senate District 27, three candidates. Anthony Kathol (R), Rep. Peri Pourier (independent on the ballot) and Celestine Stadnick (D).²⁰ The Legislature’s 2026 member roster lists Pourier as a Republican. In 2024, Kathol lost this seat by 286 votes, 3,803 to 3,517.²¹ Pourier was excused on the HB 1065 House vote and voted yes on HB 1160. In the House she also voted against HB 1004 in 2022 and SB 191 in 2024.²²

House District 10 (Sioux Falls), two open seats. In 2024, the second seat was decided by 189 votes.²³ Rep. Bobbi Andera (R) finished third in the June primary, and Rep. Erin Healy (D) is not on the ballot. The candidates are John Pohlman (R), Kimberly Petterson (R), Adam Bair (D) and Kathleen Brudvig (D). None was a member of the 2026 Legislature, so none cast votes on HB 1065 or HB 1160.²⁴

House District 32 (Rapid City), two seats. In 2024, the two winners finished 22 votes apart, and the second seat was decided by 564: Nicole Uhre-Balk (D) 4,133, Steve Duffy (R) 4,111, Brook Kaufman (R) 3,547.²⁵ On the ballot: Uhre-Balk, Duffy, Zachary Martin (R) and Samuel Hare Sr. (I).²⁶ Duffy voted yes on HB 1065; Uhre-Balk voted no. Both voted yes on HB 1160.²⁷

House District 26A. Rep. Eric Emery (D) faces Ron Frederick (R). Both were on the 2024 ballot, when Emery received 1,531 votes to Frederick’s 904 in a three-way race.²⁸ Emery voted no on HB 1065 and yes on HB 1160.²⁹

House District 28A. Rep. Jana Hunt (R) faces Chastity “Chas” Jewett (D). Hunt won in 2024, 2,562 to 1,892. In 2022 the seat was decided by 43 votes.³⁰ Hunt voted yes on HB 1065 and no on HB 1160.³¹

Senate District 10 (Sioux Falls). Sen. Liz Larson (D) faces Michael Dupic (R). Larson won in 2022, 4,488 to 3,429, and was unopposed in 2024.³² Larson voted yes on HB 1160 in the Senate. She voted against SB 191 in 2024.³³

What the votes do and don’t tell you

A single roll call is a narrow window. HB 1160 did not split along the same lines as HB 1065. Wittman, Muckey, Emery and Uhre-Balk, who voted against HB 1065, all voted for HB 1160, the oversight-committee repeal bill, as did Duffy, Reimer and Pourier. Larson voted for HB 1160 in the Senate. My read: don’t treat a yes or no on HB 1160 as a simple measure of where a candidate stands on medical cannabis.

Ballot-measure history is a rough guide, too. Initiated Measure 26, which legalized marijuana for medical use, passed in 2020 with 291,722 yes votes to 125,478 no. Initiated Measure 29, which would have legalized recreational use, possession and distribution of marijuana, failed in 2024, 189,824 to 237,129.³⁴ Those results do not show how any individual candidate would vote on medical cannabis bills.

How to follow the results

Results will be posted on the Secretary of State’s election-results site, electionresults.sd.gov. The state canvass is scheduled for Nov. 10, and Nov. 13 is the last day for legislative candidates to file a recount petition.³⁵

WeedPress plans a results follow-up on Nov. 4.

Related coverage

• The July 28 Runoff Is Small Enough for Cannabis Voters to Matter. Here’s the Math, South Dakota.
• HB 1160 Went Down in the Senate: South Dakota’s MMOC Repeal Bill Fails After Smoke-Out
• South Dakota Hearing on HB 1065: Medical Cannabis “Affirmative Defense” Change — 7:45 a.m. Monday (Capitol Room 412)
• The District Math: How Primary Elections Actually Decide Legislative Power in South Dakota
• HB 1065 Heads to the Floor: The Primary Gap in South Dakota’s Medical Cannabis Politics

Notes

¹ S.D. Searchlight, 2026 Voter Guide: South Dakota General Election (Amendments I, J, K and L), https://southdakotasearchlight.com/voter-guides/2026-general-election/.

² Press Release, S.D. Legis. Rsch. Council, 2027 Legislative Page Applications (2026), https://mylrc.sdlegislature.gov/api/Documents/PressRelease/307562.pdf.

³ S.D. Dep’t of Health, Medical Cannabis Data, September 2026 (Oct. 1, 2026), https://doh.sd.gov/programs/medical-cannabis/.

⁴ H.B. 1065, 101st Leg. Sess. (S.D. 2026) (House Engrossed), https://mylrc.sdlegislature.gov/api/Documents/303625.html; S.D. Codified Laws §§ 34-20G-51, -53, https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/34-20G-51.

⁵ H.B. 1065, 101st Leg. Sess. (S.D. 2026), House roll call 83775 (53–13, Feb. 17, 2026), Senate Health & Hum. Servs. Comm. roll call 84387 (4–3, Mar. 2, 2026), https://sdlegislature.gov/Session/Bill/26828.

⁶ S.D. Codified Laws § 34-20G-93, https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/34-20G-93.

⁷ H.B. 1160, 101st Leg. Sess. (S.D. 2026), House roll call 84111 (41–26, Feb. 23, 2026), Senate roll call 84711 (15–19, Mar. 9, 2026), https://sdlegislature.gov/Session/Bill/27182.

⁸ S.D. Legis. Rsch. Council, Roll Call 84387 (Davis, Grove, Reed and Smith, yea; Jensen, Perry and Voight, nay), https://sdlegislature.gov/Session/Vote/84387; S.D. Sec’y of State, 2026 Primary Election Results, State Legislature (Dist. 3: Washnok 2,509, Perry 1,443; Dist. 26: Reimer 1,210, Grove 1,062; Dist. 33: David Johnson 2,410, Voight 2,241), https://electionresults.sd.gov/resultsSW.aspx?eid=773&map=DIST&type=LEG.

⁹ S.D. Sec’y of State, 2026 General Election Candidate List (accessed Oct. 27, 2026), https://vip.sdsos.gov/candidatelist.aspx?eid=774.

¹⁰ Id. (counting districts where the number of candidates does not exceed the number of seats).

¹¹ SDPB News, 2026 South Dakota Legislative Candidate List (Sept. 10, 2026) (linking candidate pages), https://www.sdpb.org/2026-09-10/2026-south-dakota-legislative-candidate-list (WeedPress review of candidate pages for the races below, Oct. 27, 2026).

¹² S.D. Sec’y of State, 2024 General Election Results, State Legislature, https://electionresults.sd.gov/resultsSW.aspx?eid=684&map=DIST&type=LEG.

¹³ Candidate List, supra note 9.

¹⁴ Roll Call 83775, https://sdlegislature.gov/Session/Vote/83775; Roll Call 84111, https://sdlegislature.gov/Session/Vote/84111.

¹⁵ Candidate List, supra note 9; 2024 General Election Results, supra note 12.

¹⁶ Roll Calls 83775 and 84111, supra note 14.

¹⁷ 2026 Primary Election Results, supra note 8; Candidate List, supra note 9.

¹⁸ S.D. Sec’y of State, 2022 General Election Results, State Legislature, https://electionresults.sd.gov/resultsSW.aspx?eid=471&map=DIST&type=LEG; 2024 General Election Results, supra note 12.

¹⁹ Roll Calls 83775 and 84111, supra note 14; H.B. 1004, 97th Leg. Sess. (S.D. 2022), House roll call 71634 (41–29, Jan. 24, 2022) (Bordeaux, Rep. Dist. 26A, nay), https://sdlegislature.gov/Session/Vote/71634; S.B. 191, 99th Leg. Sess. (S.D. 2024), Senate roll call 79749 (29–4, Feb. 20, 2024) (Bordeaux, Sen. Dist. 26, nay), https://sdlegislature.gov/Session/Vote/79749.

²⁰ Candidate List, supra note 9; S.D. Legis. Rsch. Council, 2026 Session Members (Pourier, R-27), https://sdlegislature.gov/api/SessionMembers/Session/71.

²¹ 2024 General Election Results, supra note 12.

²² Roll Calls 83775 and 84111, supra note 14; Roll Call 71634, supra note 19; S.B. 191, 99th Leg. Sess. (S.D. 2024), House roll call 80236, https://sdlegislature.gov/Session/Vote/80236.

²³ 2024 General Election Results, supra note 12 (Andera 4,234; Nelson 4,045); 2026 Primary Election Results, supra note 8 (Pohlman 948; Petterson 908; Andera 862).

²⁴ Candidate List, supra note 9; 2026 Session Members, supra note 20.

²⁵ 2024 General Election Results, supra note 12.

²⁶ Candidate List, supra note 9.

²⁷ Roll Calls 83775 and 84111, supra note 14.

²⁸ Candidate List, supra note 9; 2024 General Election Results, supra note 12.

²⁹ Roll Calls 83775 and 84111, supra note 14.

³⁰ Candidate List, supra note 9; 2024 General Election Results, supra note 12; 2022 General Election Results, supra note 18 (Lesmeister 1,890; Lyon 1,847).

³¹ Roll Calls 83775 and 84111, supra note 14.

³² Candidate List, supra note 9; 2022 General Election Results, supra note 18; 2024 General Election Results, supra note 12.

³³ Roll Call 84711, https://sdlegislature.gov/Session/Vote/84711; Roll Call 79749, supra note 19.

³⁴ S.D. Sec’y of State, 2020 General Election Results, Ballot Questions (IM 26), https://electionresults.sd.gov/resultsSW.aspx?type=BQ&map=CTY&eid=422; S.D. Sec’y of State, 2024 General Election Results, Ballot Questions (IM 29), https://electionresults.sd.gov/resultsSW.aspx?type=BQ&map=CTY&eid=684.

³⁵ S.D. Searchlight, supra note 1 (Important dates).