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David Wheeler (South Dakota)
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2025 - Present
2026
0
David Wheeler is an officeholder of the South Dakota 3rd Judicial Circuit. He assumed office on April 25, 2025. His current term ends on January 5, 2026.
Wheeler (Republican Party) ran for re-election to the South Dakota State Senate to represent District 22. He won in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Wheeler resigned from the South Dakota State Senate District 22 on April 25, 2025 after being appointed to the Third Judicial Circuit in South Dakota.[1]
Biography
David Wheeler was born in Huron, South Dakota. Wheeler earned a bachelor's degree in political science, an M.P.A., and a J.D. from the University of South Dakota. His career experience includes working as a lawyer with the law firm of Blue, Wheeler, & Banks.[2]
Committee assignments
Note: This membership information was last updated in September 2023. Ballotpedia completes biannual updates of committee membership. If you would like to send us an update, email us at: editor@ballotpedia.org.
2023-2024
Wheeler was assigned to the following committees:
- Senate Commerce and Energy Committee, Chair
- Senate Commerce and Energy Committee
- Senate Government Operations and Audit Committee, Vice Chair
- Senate Government Operations and Audit Committee
- Senate Judiciary Committee
- Senate Legislative Procedure Committee
- Senate State Affairs Committee
- Joint Legislative Procedure Committee
2021-2022
Wheeler was assigned to the following committees:
- Senate Commerce and Energy Committee, Vice chair
- Senate Government Operations and Audit Committee, Vice chair
- Senate Judiciary Committee
Sponsored legislation
The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.
Elections
2024
See also: South Dakota State Senate elections, 2024
General election
General election for South Dakota State Senate District 22
Incumbent David Wheeler defeated Jim Schmidt in the general election for South Dakota State Senate District 22 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | David Wheeler (R) | 73.2 | 7,271 |
| Jim Schmidt (D) | 26.8 | 2,666 | ||
| Total votes: 9,937 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
The Democratic primary election was canceled. Jim Schmidt advanced from the Democratic primary for South Dakota State Senate District 22.
Republican primary election
The Republican primary election was canceled. Incumbent David Wheeler advanced from the Republican primary for South Dakota State Senate District 22.
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Wheeler in this election.
Pledges
Wheeler signed the following pledges.
2022
See also: South Dakota State Senate elections, 2022
General election
General election for South Dakota State Senate District 22
Incumbent David Wheeler won election in the general election for South Dakota State Senate District 22 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | David Wheeler (R) | 100.0 | 6,581 |
| Total votes: 6,581 | |||
| = 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
The Republican primary election was canceled. Incumbent David Wheeler advanced from the Republican primary for South Dakota State Senate District 22.
2020
See also: South Dakota State Senate elections, 2020
General election
General election for South Dakota State Senate District 22
David Wheeler won election in the general election for South Dakota State Senate District 22 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | David Wheeler (R) | 100.0 | 7,397 |
| Total votes: 7,397 | |||
| = 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
The Republican primary election was canceled. David Wheeler advanced from the Republican primary for South Dakota State Senate District 22.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
David Wheeler did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
2022
David Wheeler did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
2020
David Wheeler did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
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.
Scorecards
A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.
Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.
Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of South Dakota scorecards, email suggestions to editor@ballotpedia.org.
2024
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2024, click [show]. |
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In 2024, the South Dakota State Legislature was in session from January 9 to March 26.
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2023
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2023, click [show]. |
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In 2023, the South Dakota State Legislature was in session from January 10 to March 27.
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2022
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2022, click [show]. |
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In 2022, the South Dakota State Legislature was in session from January 11 to March 28.
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2021
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2021, click [show]. |
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In 2021, the South Dakota State Legislature was in session from January 12 to March 29.
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2016 Republican National Convention
- See also: Republican National Convention, 2016
Wheeler was an RNC delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention from South Dakota. All 29 delegates from South Dakota were bound by state party rules to support Donald Trump at the convention.[3] As of July 13, 2016, Trump had approximately 1,542 delegates. The winner of the Republican nomination needed the support of 1,237 delegates. Trump formally won the nomination on July 19, 2016.
Delegate rules
Delegates from South Dakota to the 2016 Republican National Convention were elected at a state convention in March 2016 and allocated after the South Dakota presidential primary election on June 7, 2016. All delegates from South Dakota were bound by state party rules on the first ballot at the national convention to support the candidate to whom they were allocated.
South Dakota Primary results
| South Dakota Republican Primary, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | Delegates | |
 Donald Trump |
67.1% | 44,867 | 29 | |
| Ted Cruz | 17% | 11,352 | 0 | |
| John Kasich | 15.9% | 10,660 | 0 | |
| Totals | 66,879 | 29 | ||
| Source: The New York Times and South Dakota Secretary of State | ||||
Delegate allocation
South Dakota had 29 delegates at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Of this total, three were district-level delegates (representing the state's single congressional district) and 23 served as at-large delegates. South Dakota's district and at-large delegates were allocated on a winner-take-all basis; the plurality winner of the statewide primary vote received all of the state's district and at-large delegates.[4][5]
In addition, three national party leaders (identified on the chart below as RNC delegates) served as bound delegates to the Republican National Convention. The RNC delegates were required to pledge their support to the winner of the state's primary.[4][5]
See also
2024 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Dakota News Now, "Gov. Rhoden appoints State Senator to 3rd Judicial Circuit Court," April 26, 2025
- ↑ Huron Plainsman, "Wheeler announces bid for State Senate," November 24, 2019
- ↑ South Dakota GOP, "SDGOP elects Delegates and Alternates for the Republican National Convention," March 21, 2016
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Republican National Committee, "2016 Presidential Nominating Process," accessed October 6, 2015
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 CNN.com, "Republican National Convention roll call vote," accessed July 20, 2016 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "rollcallvote" defined multiple times with different content
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by - |
South Dakota 3rd Judicial Circuit 2025-Present |
Succeeded by - |
| Preceded by Jim White (R) |
South Dakota State Senate District 22 2021-2025 |
Succeeded by Brandon Wipf (R) |
