SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Through the first weeks of March, attack ads have been playing on South Dakota televisions, and a truck with a video display has been driving near the Capitol in Pierre.
The ads claim that a group of state-level lawmakers from different states are sabotaging the goals of President Donald Trump, and one of the targets of these ads is Republican South Dakota State Senator Tim Reed.
KELOLAND News spoke with Reed on Thursday, who gave his thoughts on why he was targeted. It comes down to a bill he sponsored — SB154.
The bill is an act to prohibit pharmaceutical manufacturers from interfering in contracts between 340B entities and pharmacies.
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The 340B Drug Pricing Program was established in 1992 and requires pharmaceutical manufacturers to provide discounts on certain drugs to eligible organizations with the goal of serving low-income and uninsured patients.
“We had a bill that overwhelmingly passed both chambers here and was also signed by the governor that was against Big Pharma,” said the Senator from Brookings. “They were discriminating with a 340B program and they were stopping our local pharmacies, mostly our small town pharmacies, from able to participate in the program. And we all know how important those rural pharmacies are.”
Reed said this bill was why the group behind the ads — Building America’s Future — is attacking him.
“The attack ads had nothing to do with the actual, you know, the actual bill that, again, overwhelmingly passed,” Reed said.
Building America’s Future is a dark money group in national politics. Its sources of funding are not publicly available, though The New York Times has reported that it has raised over $100 million, and The Wall Street Journal reports that one if its dozen donors is billionaire-turned-Trump-official Elon Musk.
“The organization’s — it’s dark money. You don’t know who’s all involved with it,” said Reed. “I know, being involved with these types of bills before, that a lot of time it’s backed by big pharmaceutical companies.”
Reed said he hadn’t exactly expected a national attack campaign against him when he brought the bill, but he also said he isn’t shocked.
“I’ve been involved with a few other bills that are trying to hold the Big Pharma accountable,” said Reed. “They’ve made huge profits, and here they’re trying to squeeze, you know, our rural hospitals and pharmacies for even more money.”
As for the effect, Reed says he has gotten comments from people and calls from constituents, but most of those have been supportive. “Within the legislature, everybody knew that what [the ads] were saying wasn’t true and really had nothing to do with the bill,” he said. “I’ve heard from across the state people that are upset at the attack ads.”
One thing that stood out to Reed about the attacks was the timing, appearing in the past two weeks.
“The bill passed, I think it was over two weeks ago, and the governor signed it here a few days ago,” said Reed. “They continue to run the ad — the bill passed overwhelmingly. So it was really a failure on their part.”
