Report Card Time on South Dakota’s State Lawmakers

September 2, 2022 Last Edit: March 19, 2026

Report Card Time on South Dakota’s State Lawmakers

Could South Dakota make the claim to be the most small-business-friendly state in the nation? As it does with Congress and state legislatures across the nation, NFIB notifies elected officials of the bills important or detrimental to the solvency of Main Street, mom-and-pop enterprises. It then follows their votes and tallies them to show who the true friends of small business are from those who just say they are. NFIB graded South Dakota lawmakers on five bills of vital importance to Main Street taken during the 2021-2022 session. Remarkably, 23 senators out of 35 scored 100% pro-small-business voting records, six had 80%, one had 60%, and information on five was inconclusive. In the State House, 10 legislators had 100% records, 39 had 80%, 11 had 60%, five had 40%, and information on 5 was inconclusive. A brief description of the five bills and every senator’s and state representative’s vote on them can be read here. “When 86% of a state legislature has a 60% or better voting record on small-business issues, I believe South Dakota can make a claim to be the most small-business-friendly state in the nation,” said Lindsey Riter-Rapp, South Dakota state director for NFIB. “This quality has never been more important, never been timelier, because never before in our nation’s history have small businesses been hit with so much at the same time: Inflation, possible recession, labor shortages, supply-chain disruptions, and a Congress that wanted to slap a small business surtax on them before NFIB helped beat that back. I’m proud that our Legislature didn’t abandon small businesses in their hour of need and passed such beneficial laws as protecting them from frivolous lawsuits.”

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