South Dakota's at-large congressional district special election, 2004

United States House of Representatives Special election in South Dakota, 2004

June 1, 2004

Nominee Stephanie Herseth Sandlin Larry Diedrich Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 132,420 129,415 Percentage 50.57 49.43

House Member before election Bill Janklow Republican Elected House Member Stephanie Herseth Sandlin Democratic

Elections in South Dakota
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The 2004 United States House of Representatives Special election in South Dakota took place on Saturday, June 1, 2004. Voters selected a representative for their single At-Large district, who ran on a statewide ballot.

In the regularly scheduled election in November 2004, freshman incumbent Stephanie Herseth and state Senator Larry Diedrich, who had run in the June 2004 special election earlier, faced each other in a rematch; Libertarian candidate Terry L. Begay also ran in this election.

Herseth again prevailed, this time by a wider margin of 53% to 46% despite President George W. Bush's dominant 59.9% to 38.4% over Senator John Kerry in South Dakota in the 2004 presidential election.

The 2004 United States House of Representatives special election in South Dakota was held on June 1, 2004 to select the successor to Republican Representative Bill Janklow who resigned on January 20, 2004 following a conviction of vehicular manslaugter after an accident that had occurred months earlier, creating an open seat and necessitating a special election. Each party held a nominating convention to choose their nominee for the special election. Republicans selected state Senator Larry Diedrich over Barbara Everist, also a member of the South Dakota State Senate, as their nominee^[2] while Democrats chose attorney Stephanie Herseth, who had unsuccessfully challenged Janklow in 2002.

The special election was closely watched by both parties in an effort to gain momentum going into the 2004 House elections. The Hill committees of both parties spent a combined total of two million dollars on advertising in South Dakota.^[3] This election was especially important considering that five months later in addition to this House seat, Democratic Senator and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle's, who was facing a tough race against former Representative John Thune (R), who had come within 524 votes of defeating South Dakota's other Senator in 2002, U.S. Senate seat would also be up for election.

Herseth benefitted from her high name recognition from her previous run as well as her relation to the prominent Herseth family (one notable member of whom includes her grandfather Ralph Herseth, a former Governor of South Dakota). However, Vice President Dick Cheney (R) came to the Mount Rushmore state in March to campaign for Diedrich.^[3]

Herseth ultimately narrowly prevailed over Diedrich. The both of them won their primaries held on the same day as the special election and would face off against each other in November. Some Democrats claimed this victory, as well as another one in a special election in Kentucky's 6th congressional district months earlier, were harbingers of major Democratic victories in November. However, instead Republicans would achieve a net-gain of three seats in the House and a net-gain of four in the Senate (including a victory in South Dakota).

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