PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — Jon Hansen of Dell Rapids reportedly has been chosen by South Dakota House Republicans in a private vote on Friday night as the chamber’s speaker for the 2025-26 session.
Hansen succeeds Hugh Bartels of Watertown, who had defeated him two years ago. Bartels was term-limited and couldn’t run again.
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The speaker serves as presiding officer of the House and decides where representatives sit, which committees they serve on and which committee hears each piece of legislation.
Hansen had been speaker pro tem, the chamber’s No. 2 presiding officer during the 2021-22 term. Traditionally the speaker pro tem ascends to speaker during the following term if re-elected. But Bartels interrupted that tradition.
On Friday night, Hansen finished ahead of Mike Stevens of Yankton, who was speaker pro tem during the 2023-24 term.
Scott Odenbach of Spearfish reportedly was chosen by South Dakota House Republicans as their new majority leader for the 2025-26 term Friday night. He succeeds Will Mortenson of Fort Pierre.
Hansen and Odenbach opposed SB201, the CO2 pipeline legislation that the South Dakota Legislature passed and Governor Kristi Noem signed. Opponents however referred the pending law to a statewide vote. On Tuesday, voters rejected it, with 59% saying no.
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Odenbach’s Liberty Tree PAC donated money to dozens of Republican legislative candidates who opposed SB201. Fourteen Republican incumbents lost in the June primaries, in part because many of them had voted to pass SB201.
Karla Lems of Canton, another SB201 opponent, was chosen by South Dakota House Republicans as speaker pro tem in the private vote, and Marty Overweg of New Holland, also a SB201 opponent, was picked as assistant majority leader.
Hansen, an ardent opponent of abortion, also helped lead the fight against Amendment G that would have added abortion rights to the South Dakota Constitution. Voters on Tuesday rejected Amendment G, with 59% saying no.
