It didn’t take long for Walz to criticize the actions of U.S. Homeland Security secretary and Republican former South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem.
“If you had to pick somebody who’s the antithesis of the South Dakota I know, it would be that,” he said.
The two served in Congress, cosponsoring bills together before 2018, when each was elected to lead their respective states.
Their relationship soured during the COVID-19 pandemic when they took divergent approaches, and further deteriorated when Noem described Walz as a “radical” in her role as a Trump surrogate during last year’s presidential campaign.
Walz, speaking of his preparation to appear in South Dakota, said “I had to decide what I was going to wear.”
“When you’re a governor and you’re in South Dakota, do you dress as a fireman? You dress as a cowgirl?” he said.
The joke was a dig at Noem. She donned firefighting gear at a U.S. Coast Guard training facility, for example, and wore a cowboy hat for an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“I know it’s petty, but some people just bring out the petty,” Walz said.
Advice for SD Democrats
He laid out his connections to South Dakota once the laughter died down. He grew up nearby in Nebraska. He hunted pheasants in Winner, saw drive-in movies in Lake Andes and “spent too much time” at a bar called the Longbranch in Burke.
Walz also prodded current South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden, who recently signed a bill that will allow the concealed carry of pistols on college campuses by gun owners with enhanced permits. Walz described that as one of the Republican talking points about South Dakota being “the freest state in the nation.”
“I think some of you may have a difference of opinion in that. I ran into an OB-GYN that says that’s not true,” Walz said, referencing South Dakota’s near-total abortion ban.
Walz told Democrats that Republicans who paint them as “elites” are cutting taxes for the wealthy and reducing support for student aid programs and Medicaid while “tearing apart” rural communities and mass-detaining undocumented immigrants.
“Is our immigration system broken? Yes. But our moral system sure as hell should not be with throwing people in camps,” he said, a reference to a detention center for migrants in the Florida Everglades that President Trump calls “Alligator Alcatraz.”
“The people building prison camps are never the good guys in history,” Walz said.
He urged Democrats to work on issues of importance to rural and working class South Dakotans, like Medicaid and Medicare, and to work with labor unions.
“There’s a direct correlation between the strength of the middle class and economic security with the number of people who are in labor unions,” he said.
He also suggested the national Democratic Party should pay more attention to places like South Dakota if it expects to build a coalition durable enough to compete outside of its traditional strongholds and battleground states. “A few million dollars” could make a difference and help South Dakota build the Democratic bench, he said.
“I hear people say ‘there are no Democrats in South Dakota,’” Walz said. “But there’s a hell of a lot in this room.”
Party expects more candidates in 2026
The McGovern Day dinner is the state party’s largest annual fundraiser. Regular tickets cost $125. Meet-and-greet tickets cost twice that.
“We haven’t had a McGovern Day dinner this big at least since I’ve been around,” said Shane Merrill, chair of the state party.
The party leaned into Walz’s fame for more than ticket sales. Vermillion brewery XIX whipped up a batch of “Walz on Tap” blonde ale, sold by the can at cocktail stations and by the four-pack in a silent auction.
Cans of “Walz on Tap” are on display for a silent auction at the 2025 McGovern Day dinner on July 13, 2025, in Sioux Falls. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight)
The enthusiasm was tempered by reality. South Dakotans registered as independents or without any political affiliation outnumber Democrats. Republicans have the most registrants and hold every statewide office, all three of the state’s congressional seats, and all but nine of the seats in the 105-member Legislature.
Democrats have faced criticism during recent South Dakota election cycles for not fielding candidates, sometimes for offices as high as Congress. Before the speeches started Saturday, state party Executive Director Dan Ahlers said that won’t be a problem in 2026.
“I need two of me to interview all the people who want to run,” he said.
The party already has candidates for U.S. Senate (Julian Beaudion), secretary of state (Terrence Davis) and U.S. representative, although Ahlers said that candidate won’t announce until the fall. Nineteen-year-old Robert Arnold has announced his candidacy for governor, and Ahlers said he expects another hopeful to announce for that race, as well.
Later, speaking from the stage, Ahlers declared “we can no longer be content with a few seats at the table. We need to run the table.”
“It shouldn’t be enough to field a good Democratic candidate,” he said. “We need to elect Democratic candidates.”
State Sen. Liz Larson, D-Sioux Falls, said she’s proud to have been the first female state Senate minority leader, but told the audience that it took time to get there. She lost in her first run for office in 2020, but “knocked on thousands of doors” and won on her second and third go-rounds.
Democrats believe, she said, “that you’re no better than anybody else, and we’re all in this together.”
“That is a politics worth showing up for,” Larson said.
