Help us improve in just 2 minutes—share your thoughts in our reader survey.
Bruce Whalen
Bruce Whalen (Republican Party) ran for election to the South Dakota State Senate to represent District 27. He lost in the Republican primary on June 4, 2024.
Biography
Bruce Whalen was born in Rushville, Nebraska. Whalen served in the U.S. Army from 1981 to 1991. He earned a bachelor's degree from Oglala Lakota College in 2004. Whalen's career experience includes working as the director of property and procurement with the Oglala Sioux Tribe.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: South Dakota State Senate elections, 2024
General election
General election for South Dakota State Senate District 27
Incumbent Red Dawn Foster defeated Anthony Kathol in the general election for South Dakota State Senate District 27 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Red Dawn Foster (D) | 52.0 | 3,807 |
| Anthony Kathol (R) | 48.0 | 3,518 | ||
| Total votes: 7,325 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for South Dakota State Senate District 27
Incumbent Red Dawn Foster defeated Gerald Cournoyer Jr. in the Democratic primary for South Dakota State Senate District 27 on June 4, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Red Dawn Foster | 72.9 | 401 |
| Gerald Cournoyer Jr. | 27.1 | 149 | ||
| Total votes: 550 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for South Dakota State Senate District 27
Anthony Kathol defeated Bruce Whalen in the Republican primary for South Dakota State Senate District 27 on June 4, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Anthony Kathol | 60.0 | 689 | |
 | Bruce Whalen | 40.0 | 460 | |
| Total votes: 1,149 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Whalen in this election.
2022
See also: United States Senate election in South Dakota, 2022
General election
General election for U.S. Senate South Dakota
Incumbent John Thune defeated Brian Bengs and Tamara Lesnar in the general election for U.S. Senate South Dakota on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | John Thune (R) | 69.6 | 242,316 |
 | Brian Bengs (D) | 26.1 | 91,007 | |
 | Tamara Lesnar (L) | 4.2 | 14,697 | |
| Total votes: 348,020 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Clayton Walker (Independent)
Democratic primary election
The Democratic primary election was canceled. Brian Bengs advanced from the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate South Dakota.
Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. Senate South Dakota
Incumbent John Thune defeated Bruce Whalen and Mark Mowry in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate South Dakota on June 7, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | John Thune | 72.2 | 85,613 |
| Bruce Whalen | 20.3 | 24,071 | |
 | Mark Mowry | 7.4 | 8,827 | |
| Total votes: 118,511 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
Libertarian convention
Libertarian convention for U.S. Senate South Dakota
Tamara Lesnar advanced from the Libertarian convention for U.S. Senate South Dakota on April 23, 2022.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | Tamara Lesnar (L) |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Bruce Whalen did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
2022
Bruce Whalen completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2021. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Whalen's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
The recent “look to” figure in my life is my Father-In-Law, Charles Hancock. He sought Jesus and it showed in his attitude and convictions. I was immediately accepted by him as a son and that helped me understand how God can adopt me as His son.
I do recommend reading of the Federalist Papers.
“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” by Wesley and Mendelssohn
I believe States have the challenge of opposing the federal government when the federal government steps beyond the boundaries issued through few and enumerated duties by States having meeting of minds.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Note: Whalen submitted the above survey responses to Ballotpedia on December 17, 2021.
December 15 submission
I was raised from birth on the Pine Ridge Indian Agency in South Dakota. At the age of 14, my mother moved us to Salt Lake City, Utah. To say the least it was a culture shock to me and opened my world to what the Pine Ridge Indian Agency severely lacked. More importantly I learned the importance of work and how economies are developed through productivity of People. I resided in Salt Lake City, Utah and Portland, Oregon between 1976 and 1999. My experience in private employment and Military service were a stark contrast to working in Tribal Government and as liaison to federal and state agencies. I was the South Dakota Republican Nominee for United States House of Representatives in 2006. Elected Representatives hold two primary duties: Securing Our Rights and Keeping The Republic. This is my attitude. Please contribute to the Whalen for U.S. Senate Campaign and vote for me in the June Primary and November General Elections in 2022. Under God the People rule,
Bruce W. Whalen, Sr.- Securing the Rights of American Citizens. We believe, as stated in the Declaration of Independence, that all people are created equal, "that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." And all people must be treated equally under the law. We believe our Founders created a Constitutional Republic that evokes rule of law to safeguard our freedoms exactly as written in the Constitution.
- Keeping The Republic. Ben Franklin announced that a Constitutional "Republic" was ratified, "If you can keep it." America is losing its focus to keep the Republic by giving Congress Plenary Powers over itself. America needs to reject being declared as Domestic Dependents and becoming incompetent.
- Under God, The People Rule. We believe according to Judeo-Christian values. The Constitution establishes religious liberty, the freedom of speech and the right to keep and bear arms.
• Human life begins at the point of conception and defense thereafter is afforded Due Process.
• All people are created equal, "that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights" and must be treated equally under the law.
• The Constitution establishes religious liberty and the right to keep and bear arms.
• A strong national defense is necessary to secure our rights and defend against foreign powers.
• In freedom of speech and encourage robust debate that shall not be confined to oppressive political correctness.
• Our Founders created a Constitutional Republic that evokes rule of law to safeguard our freedoms exactly as written in the Constitution.
• In fair trade, trade that secures our rights, limiting taxation on our productivity and limiting regulations that burden American productivity.
• We believe that men and women in law enforcement, emergency response and the medical profession deserve our gratitude and demand that their ability to lawfully serve our communities is not impeded and does no harm.
• Election Integrity is critical in securing our rights and that only every legal vote must count.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Note: Whalen submitted the above survey responses to Ballotpedia on December 15, 2021.
Campaign website
Whalen's campaign website stated the following:
| “ |
|
” |
| —Bruce Whalen's campaign website (2022)[3] | ||
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on December 17, 2021
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Bruce Whalen for US Senate, “Campaign Platform: A List of Core Values,” accessed June 27, 2022
