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Tony Venhuizen
2025 - Present
2027
0
Tony Venhuizen (Republican Party) is the Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota. He assumed office on January 30, 2025. His current term ends on January 6, 2027.
Venhuizen (Republican Party) ran for re-election to the South Dakota House of Representatives to represent District 13. He won in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Governor of South Dakota Larry Rhoden (R) appointed Venhuizen as Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota on January 30, 2025. This filled the vacancy created by Rhoden's ascension to Governor.[1]
Biography
Tony Venhuizen graduated from Armour High School in 2001.[2] Venhuizen earned a bachelor's degree in history and political science from South Dakota State University and a law degree from the University of South Dakota.[2][3] His career experience includes working as the chief of staff to Governor Kristi Noem, the chief of staff and the director of policy and communications to former Governor Dennis Daugaard, the campaign manager of Daugaard's 2010 gubernatorial campaign, and an attorney.[2][4][1][5] Venhuizen served on the South Dakota Board of Regents, the Blue Ribbon Task Force, and the Dakota Corps scholarship board.[3][6]
Political career
Below is a list of offices within Ballotpedia’s scope. Offices outside of that scope will not be listed. If an update is needed and the office is within our scope, please contact us.
Venhuizen's political career includes the following offices:
- 2025-present: Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota
- 2023-2025: South Dakota House of Representatives District 13
- 2020-2021: Chief of Staff to the Governor of South Dakota
- 2014-2019: Chief of Staff to the Governor of South Dakota
Elections
2024
See also: South Dakota House of Representatives elections, 2024
General election
General election for South Dakota House of Representatives District 13 (2 seats)
John Hughes and incumbent Tony Venhuizen won election in the general election for South Dakota House of Representatives District 13 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | John Hughes (R) | 51.5 | 7,735 |
| ✔ |  | Tony Venhuizen (R) | 48.5 | 7,270 |
| Total votes: 15,005 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for South Dakota House of Representatives District 13 (2 seats)
John Hughes and incumbent Tony Venhuizen defeated Brad Jankord and Penny BayBridge in the Republican primary for South Dakota House of Representatives District 13 on June 4, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | John Hughes | 34.3 | 1,197 |
| ✔ | | Tony Venhuizen | 34.1 | 1,192 |
| Brad Jankord | 26.4 | 922 | ||
| Penny BayBridge | 5.2 | 183 | ||
| Total votes: 3,494 | |||
| = 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 Venhuizen in this election.
2022
See also: South Dakota House of Representatives elections, 2022
General election
General election for South Dakota House of Representatives District 13 (2 seats)
Incumbent Sue Peterson and Tony Venhuizen won election in the general election for South Dakota House of Representatives District 13 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Sue Peterson (R) | 50.0 | 5,879 |
| ✔ | | Tony Venhuizen (R) | 50.0 | 5,879 |
| Total votes: 11,758 | |||
| = 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 House of Representatives District 13 (2 seats)
Tony Venhuizen and incumbent Sue Peterson defeated incumbent Richard Thomason and Penny BayBridge in the Republican primary for South Dakota House of Representatives District 13 on June 7, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Tony Venhuizen | 37.2 | 2,226 |
| ✔ | | Sue Peterson | 31.9 | 1,911 |
 | Richard Thomason | 21.3 | 1,276 | |
| Penny BayBridge | 9.6 | 576 | ||
| Total votes: 5,989 | |||
| = 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
Tony Venhuizen did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
2022
Tony Venhuizen did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 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.
State legislative tenure
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
In 2024, the South Dakota State Legislature was in session from January 9 to March 26.
- Legislators are scored on their stances related to the Rapid City business community.
- Legislators are scored on their votes related to business.
- Legislators are scored on their votes on conservative issues.
- Legislators are scored on bills related to reproductive health issues.
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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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.
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
Venhuizen was assigned to the following committees:
- House Appropriations Committee, Vice Chair
- House Appropriations Committee
- House Legislative Procedure Committee
- Appropriations Committee
- Joint Legislative Procedure Committee
See also
| South Dakota | State Executive Elections | News and Analysis |
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External links
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Candidate South Dakota House of Representatives District 13 |
Officeholder Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Dakota News Now, “Rhoden selects Tony Venhuizen as lieutenant governor" accessed January 31, 2025 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "appt" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Office of Gov. Dennis Daugaard, "Cabinet and Staff Biographies," archived September 6, 2017
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 South Dakota Board of Regents, "Tony Venhuizen," accessed April 22, 2023
- ↑ Argus Leader, "Venhuizen to succeed Johnson as chief of staff," November 6, 2014
- ↑ South Dakota Legislature, "Representative Tony Venhuizen - 2023 -Detail," accessed April 22, 2023
- ↑ Keloland Media Group, "Tony Venhuizen talks about the second time that he served as a S.D. governor’s chief of staff," April 26, 2021
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Larry Rhoden (R) |
Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota 2025-Present |
Succeeded by - |
| Preceded by - |
South Dakota House of Representatives District 13 2023-2025 |
Succeeded by Jack Kolbeck (R) |
| Preceded by - |
Chief of Staff to the Governor of South Dakota 2020-2021 |
Succeeded by Aaron Scheibe (R) |
| Preceded by - |
Chief of Staff to the Governor of South Dakota 2014-2019 |
Succeeded by - |
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