Jon Hansen

This candidate is participating in a 2026 battleground election. Click here to read more about that election.

Jon Hansen (Republican Party) is a member of the South Dakota House of Representatives, representing District 25. He assumed office on January 8, 2019. His current term ends on January 12, 2027.

In January 2025, Hansen was unanimously elected House speaker.^[1]^[2] He was born in Yankton, South Dakota. ^[3] He earned an associate degree in business administration from Southeast Technical Institute in 2009, a bachelor's degree in business management from the University of Sioux Falls in 2013, and a law degree from the University of South Dakota Knudson School of Law in 2016.^[4]

Hansen served as president of the Dell Rapids Chamber of Commerce from 2007 to 2010. In 2010, he was first elected to represent District 25 in the South Dakota House of Representatives. He was re-elected in 2012 and did not run in 2014 or 2016, but he was elected again in 2018, 2020, and 2022.

Hansen served as House majority whip from 2018 to 2020, and as speaker pro tempore from 2020 to 2023.

In 2022, Hansen sponsored a bill to put Amendment C on the ballot. Amendment C would have required that citizen initiatives or legislatively referred ballot measures that increase taxes or fees or that require the state to appropriate $10 million or more in the first five fiscal years receive a three-fifths (60%) supermajority vote. Voters rejected the amendment 67.4%-32.6%.

In 2024, Hansen was a co-chair of the Life Defense Fund, an organization that campaigned against Amendment G which would have established a right to abortion in the South Dakota Constitution.^[5] Voters defeated the amendment 58.6%-41.4% on November 5, 2024. Hansen is also the vice-president of South Dakota Right to Life, the state's chapter of the National Right to Life Committee.^[6]

Also in 2024, Hansen rallied against a proposed carbon pipeline project by Summit Carbon Solutions and opposed Referred Law 21, a veto referendum which would have upheld a Senate Bill 201.^[7] The law established certain regulations for carbon dioxide pipelines. Voters defeated the measure 59.4%-40.6%, repealing the law. In the 2024 Republican state legislative primaries, 14 incumbent lawmakers were defeated, including 11 who voted to approve Senate Bill 201.^[8]In January 2025, Hansen was a sponsor for House Bill 1052, which banned eminent domain for carbon dioxide pipelines. Gov. Larry Rhoden (R) signed it into law on March 6, 2025.^[9]^[10]

In April 2025, Hansen announced his plan to run for governor in 2026. According to South Dakota Searchlight, “Grassroots patriots from all across the great state of South Dakota are standing up and we are saying in record numbers, ‘No more corruption, no more waste and abuse, no more tax on our land and our liberties and our way of life. ... Today renews the coming of the end for all of that.”^[7] According to the South Dakota Searchlight, Hansen also said that as governor, he would cut government spending, create education choice grants, and issue an executive order to "define man and woman, end the woke and restore common sense."^[7]

Biography

Hansen earned an associate degree in business administration from Southeast Technical Institute in 2009, a bachelor's degree in business management from the University of Sioux Falls in 2013, and a law degree from the University of South Dakota Knudson School of Law in 2016. His career experience includes working as a lawyer in Dell Rapids, South Dakota.^[4] Hansen served as president of the Dell Rapids Chamber of Commerce from 2007 to 2010.

2026 battleground election

See also: South Dakota gubernatorial election, 2026 (June 2 Republican primary)

Ballotpedia identified the June 2, 2026, Republican primary election as a battleground election. The summary below is from our coverage of this election, found here.

Incumbent Larry Rhoden, Toby Doeden, Jon Hansen, and Dusty Johnson are running in the Republican primary for governor of South Dakota on June 2, 2026. If no candidate wins 35% of the vote, the top two vote-getters will advance to a July 28, 2026, runoff election.

Rhoden was formerly lieutenant governor and replaced former Gov. Kristi Noem (R) on January 25, 2025, when Noem became the secretary of homeland security under Donald Trump (R).^[11] South Dakota Searchlight's editor-in-chief Seth Tupper said: "[P]eople are viewing this as an open seat. Kristi Noem resigned, and yes, the Lieutenant Governor came in and you could call him an incumbent, sort of, not really, but kind of. ... And I think a lot of people underestimated Governor Rhoden's ability to campaign for this seat. ... [B]ut I don't think it caused anybody to say, oh, I'm not going to run now, because open seats don't come along very often, obviously, in South Dakota Republican politics."^[12]

Rhoden is the governor of South Dakota. He says, "I want to keep South Dakota strong – strong families, strong businesses, and strong institutions. I want to keep South Dakota safe – with low crime and respect for law enforcement. And I want to keep South Dakota free – freedom will continue to be our calling card as long as I am governor."^[13]

Doeden is a car dealership and rental property owner.^[14] He says, "As governor, I will stop the reckless spending and fight back against crushing property taxes so everyone can own a home, and work with President Trump to round up illegal immigrants and get deadly drugs off our streets."^[15]

Hansen is the speaker of the South Dakota House of Representatives and a lawyer.^[14] He says, "As Governor, [I] will lower your property taxes, root out corruption, stop wasteful government spending, preserve the South Dakota way of life, and keep South Dakota free, safe, and sane."^[16]

Johnson represents South Dakota's At-Large Congressional District. He says, "It’s time for a new chapter—a chapter that drives South Dakota to a brighter future where we build better schools and safer communities, a chapter that governs with conservative principles to create new jobs, new businesses, and new opportunities in every community, and a chapter where being a workhorse, not a show horse, still means something."^[17]

Property taxes are a major campaign issue setting the candidates apart. Both Rhoden and Johnson, who present as moderate Republicans according to University of South Dakota professor Julia Hellwege, propose reforms to the system.^[14] Rhoden suggests that counties could decide on replacing property taxes with a half-cent sales tax increase.^[18] Johnson's proposal would exempt first-time homebuyers from paying property taxes for two years and provide a $400 property tax credit to owner-occupied properties via a planned increase in the statewide sales tax.^[18] Hansen, who belongs to the populist branch of the Republican Party, also proposes a property tax relief program for owner-occupied single-family dwellings via the increased statewide sales tax.^[19]^[20]^[21] Doeden wants to immediately eliminate property taxes.^[18] According to Hellwege, Doeden is running a populist campaign and describes himself as a political outsider, which could possibly shift the other candidates rightward on this and other issues.^[14]^[22]

In South Dakota, the gubernatorial nominee is selected in the primary. The gubernatorial nominee then chooses a lieutenant gubernatorial running mate, and they run together on a single ticket in the general election.

Committee assignments

2025-2026

Hansen was assigned to the following committees:

2023-2024

Hansen was assigned to the following committees:

2021-2022

Hansen was assigned to the following committees:

House Judiciary Committee, Chair
House Legislative Procedure Committee, Vice chair
House State Affairs Committee
Joint Legislative Procedure Committee

2019-2020

Hansen was assigned to the following committees:

2013-2014

At the beginning of the 2013 legislative session, Hansen served on the following committees:

South Dakota committee assignments, 2013
• Judiciary, Vice Chair
• Legislative Procedure
• State Affairs

2011-2012

In the 2011-2012 legislative session, Hansen served on the following committees:

South Dakota committee assignments, 2011
• Judiciary
• Transportation

Elections

2026

South Dakota gubernatorial and lieutenant gubernatorial election, 2026 (June 2 Democratic primary)

South Dakota gubernatorial and lieutenant gubernatorial election, 2026 (June 2 Republican primary)

General election

The primary will occur on June 2, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. Additional general election candidates will be added here following the primary.

General election for Governor of South Dakota

Terry Gleason is running in the general election for Governor of South Dakota on November 3, 2026.

		Candidate
	Submit photo	Terry Gleason (Independent)

	There are no incumbents in this race.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Allison Renville (Independent)

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Governor of South Dakota

Dan Ahlers and Robert Arnold are running in the Democratic primary for Governor of South Dakota on June 2, 2026.

		Candidate
		Dan Ahlers
		Robert Arnold

	There are no incumbents in this race.
= 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.
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for Governor of South Dakota

Incumbent Larry Rhoden, Toby Doeden, Jon Hansen, and Dusty Johnson are running in the Republican primary for Governor of South Dakota on June 2, 2026.

		Candidate
		Larry Rhoden
		Toby Doeden
		Jon Hansen
		Dusty Johnson

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Polls

See also: Ballotpedia's approach to covering polls

Polls are conducted with a variety of methodologies and have margins of error or credibility intervals.^[23] The Pew Research Center wrote, "A margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level means that if we fielded the same survey 100 times, we would expect the result to be within 3 percentage points of the true population value 95 of those times."^[24] For tips on reading polls from FiveThirtyEight, click here. For tips from Pew, click here.

Below we provide results for polls from a wide variety of sources, including media outlets, social media, campaigns, and aggregation websites, when available. We only report polls for which we can find a margin of error or credibility interval. Know of something we're missing? Click here to let us know.

South Dakota gubernatorial election, 2026 polls
Poll	Dates	Doeden	Hansen	Johnson	Rhoden	Undecided	Sample size	Margin of error	Sponsor
Emerson College	March 7, 2026–March 9, 2026	18	14	28	17	23	413 LV	± 4.8%	Nexstar
Public Opinion Strategies	March 2, 2026–March 5, 2026	16	10	33	28	12	400 LV	± 4.9%	Larry Rhoden's campaign
Mason-Dixon Polling and Strategy	Oct. 16, 2025–Oct. 20, 2025	15	10	28	27	21	502 RV	± 4.5%	Chiesman Center for Democracy at the University of South Dakota and South Dakota News Watch
Mason-Dixon Polling and Strategy Note Attorney General Marty Jackley (R) received 18%.	April 9, 2025–April 14, 2025	4	2	28	27	20	500 RV	± 4.5%	Chiesman Center for Democracy at the University of South Dakota and South Dakota News Watch
Note: LV is likely voters, RV is registered voters, and EV is eligible voters.

Candidate spending

This section contains campaign finance figures from candidates submitted to the South Dakota Secretary of State in this election. It does not include information on spending by satellite groups. Click here to access the reports.

Endorsements

Hansen received the following endorsements. To send us additional endorsements, click here.

State Sen. Lauren Nelson (R)
State Sen. MyKala Voita (R)
State Rep. Julie Auch (R)
State Rep. Spencer Gosch (R)
State Rep. Leslie J. Heinemann (R)
State Rep. Jana Hunt (R)
State Rep. Travis Ismay (R)
State House Majority Leader Scott Odenbach (R)
State Rep. Marty Overweg (R)