Sonja Mentzer

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Sonja Mentzer

Democratic Party

Candidate, South Dakota House of Representatives District 11

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 5, 2024

Next election

June 2, 2026

Education

High school

Chamberlain High School

Bachelor's

South Dakota State University, 2001

Personal

Birthplace

Aberdeen, SD

Religion

Christian: Methodist

Profession

Director of operations

Contact

Personal Facebook

Personal Instagram

Personal LinkedIn

Sonja Mentzer (Democratic Party) is running for election to the South Dakota House of Representatives to represent District 11. She is on the ballot in the Democratic primary on June 2, 2026.^[source]

Biography

Sonja Mentzer was born in Aberdeen, South Dakota. She earned a high school diploma from Chamberlain High School and a bachelor's degree from South Dakota State University in 2001. Her career experience includes working as a director of operations. Mentzer has been affiliated with Wheelchair Express Sioux Falls.

Elections

2026

See also: South Dakota House of Representatives elections, 2026

General election

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

Democratic primary

Democratic primary for South Dakota House of Representatives District 11 (2 seats)

Sonja Mentzer (D) is running in the Democratic primary for South Dakota House of Representatives District 11 on June 2, 2026.

		Candidate
		Sonja Mentzer

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	There are no incumbents in this race.
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Republican primary

Republican primary for South Dakota House of Representatives District 11 (2 seats)

Incumbent Brian Mulder (R), incumbent Keri Weems (R), and John Kunnari (R) are running in the Republican primary for South Dakota House of Representatives District 11 on June 2, 2026.

		Candidate
		Brian Mulder
		Keri Weems
	Submit photo	John Kunnari

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Graham Oey (R)

Endorsements

Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.

2024

See also: South Dakota House of Representatives elections, 2024

General election

General election for South Dakota House of Representatives District 11 (2 seats)

Incumbent Brian Mulder and Keri Weems defeated Sonja Mentzer and Aaron Matson in the general election for South Dakota House of Representatives District 11 on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Brian Mulder (R)	29.7	6,235
✔		Keri Weems (R)	28.2	5,926
		Sonja Mentzer (D)	21.9	4,599
		Aaron Matson (D)	20.3	4,261

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 21,021
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

The Democratic primary election was canceled. Aaron Matson and Sonja Mentzer advanced from the Democratic primary for South Dakota House of Representatives District 11.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for South Dakota House of Representatives District 11 (2 seats)

Keri Weems and incumbent Brian Mulder defeated John Kunnari and Bill Linsenmeyer in the Republican primary for South Dakota House of Representatives District 11 on June 4, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Keri Weems	29.5	627
✔		Brian Mulder	29.5	627
	Submit photo	John Kunnari	29.0	617
	Submit photo	Bill Linsenmeyer	12.0	255

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 2,126
= 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 Mentzer in this election.

Campaign themes

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

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2024

Sonja Mentzer completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Mentzer's responses.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am a lifetime resident of South Dakota, as well as having lived in western Sioux Falls for the last twenty years. I love South Dakota, South Dakota holds all of my favorite people and memories. I love people, and getting to meet new people. I love adventure, South Dakota holds many memories for me of living out those adventures and exploring this great state. I have core memories of exploring and playing at my grandparents farm, watching rodeos, learning to water ski on the Missouri, snow ski at Terry Peak, hike different trails and parks, visit new places, eat new foods, and enjoy all that life has to offer.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• As the Director of Wheelchair Express I am absolutley concerned about accessibility to healthcare, the services needed for our states most vulnerable, and preventing any more of our nursing homes from closing.
• I am a strong supporter of our public schools, and believe we need to pay our educators a competitive wage, and make sure our schools have the resources to deliver the best education possible.
• Our state will always have ever changing concerns and areas that need addressed as we grow and change. Todays needs involve childcare cost and availability. The future of South Dakota in regards to pipelines, and can we balance such projects and still protect our land and livelihoods.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I believe our state needs to lead with policy that builds and supports our state residents and business, rather than limit. That we support encourage tourism, agritourism, EV stations along our interstates, as well as safe and sustainable practices.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

I think we are all looking for honesty and transparency, I understand that not all information can be public but if we can trust our elected officials to be honest in their roles, to be honest in their motives, to be transparent in their votes.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

The core responsibilities for a legislator should first and foremost listen to those they represent, take those concerns to Pierre, and advocate for them. That would include all of those individuals and not just those that share a political party. Those legislators should be present, do the work to be informed, and be able to answer to the people.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

I cleaned rooms at Super 8 for a year starting at age 14.

Do you believe that it’s beneficial for state legislators to have previous experience in government or politics?

The legislature is designed to be made up of regular folks representing all of us, from different backgrounds, bringing different ideas and prespectives. If we all show up having lived that same experiences we would never ask more of each other, we would not dive deeper into finding solutions to problems, or other ways of doing something.

Do you believe it’s beneficial to build relationships with other legislators? Please explain your answer.

We need to absolutely work together to be most effective.

Both sitting legislators and candidates for office hear many personal stories from the residents of their district. Is there a story that you’ve heard that you found particularly touching, memorable, or impactful?

There have been so many outpouring of stories and personal concerns on the door steps during my door knocking in this campaign. The stories that have been the most memorable are those that are clearly struggling and trying to access the available programs, or those who are suffering without any knowledge that programs exist to help. It is the stories of people retiring early to be full time care givers of a spouse, being buried in medical debt and barely making ends meet. The stories of smart, caring individuals that were met with some horrible health problems that prevent them from driving, working, or living the life they had imagined for themselves, to be heavily burdened in an appeals process as they are trying to access disability programs.
It is the stories from child care providers and teachers who give everything they have to invest in our kids. How they would just want the support to do the jobs they so very much want to do. Teachers feeding kids lunch, either in buying lunches or bringing snacks, or microwavable mac and cheese cups to have on hand.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

Vaccines for Healthy Families
Planned Parenthood

What committees interest you?

There is not a single committe that does not interest me, but my top picks would be Education, Health & Human Services, and Transportation.

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.

Campaign finance summary

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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.

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Sonja Mentzer campaign contribution history

Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024	South Dakota House of Representatives District 11	Lost general	$12,454	$0
Grand total			$12,454	$0
Sources: OpenSecrets,  Federal Election Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

See also

2026 Elections

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Footnotes

[show]

Current members of the South Dakota House of Representatives

Leadership

Speaker of the House:Jon Hansen

Majority Leader:Scott Odenbach

Minority Leader:Erin Healy

Representatives

District 1

Nicholas Fosness (R)

Logan Manhart (R)

District 2

David Kull (R)

John Sjaarda (R)

District 3

Al Novstrup (R)

Brandei Schaefbauer (R)

District 4

Dylan Jordan (R)

Kent Roe (R)

District 5

Josephine Garcia (R)

Matt Roby (R)

District 6

Aaron Aylward (R)

Tim Czmowski (R)

District 7

Roger DeGroot (R)

Mellissa Heermann (R)

District 8

Tim Reisch (R)

Tim Walburg (R)

District 9

Tesa Schwans (R)

Bethany Soye (R)

District 10

Bobbi Andera (R)

Erin Healy (D)

District 11

Brian Mulder (R)

Keri Weems (R)

District 12

Amber Arlint (R)

Greg Jamison (R)

District 13

John Hughes (R)

Jack Kolbeck (R)

District 14

Tony Kayser (R)

Taylor Rehfeldt (R)

District 15

Erik Muckey (D)

Kadyn Wittman (D)

District 16

Karla Lems (R)

John Shubeck (R)

District 17

Chris Kassin (R)

William Shorma (R)

District 18

Julie Auch (R)

Mike Stevens (R)

District 19

Jessica Bahmuller (R)

Drew Peterson (R)

District 20

Jeff Bathke (R)

Kaley Nolz (R)

District 21

Jim Halverson (R)

Marty Overweg (R)

District 22

Lana Greenfield (R)

Kevin Van Diepen (R)

District 23

Spencer Gosch (R)

Scott Moore (R)

District 24

Will Mortenson (R)

Mike Weisgram (R)

District 25

Jon Hansen (R)

Leslie Heinemann (R)

District 26A

Eric Emery (D)

District 26B

Rebecca Reimer (R)

District 27

Elizabeth May (R)

Peri Pourier (R)

District 28A

Jana Hunt (R)

District 28B

Travis Ismay (R)

District 29

Terri Jorgenson (R)

Kathy Rice (R)

District 30

Tim Goodwin (R)

Trish Ladner (R)

District 31

Mary Fitzgerald (R)

Scott Odenbach (R)

District 32

Steve Duffy (R)

Nicole Uhre-Balk (D)

District 33

Phil Jensen (R)

Curt Massie (R)

District 34

Heather Baxter (R)

Mike Derby (R)

District 35

Tina Mulally (R)

Tony Randolph (R)

Republican Party (65)

Democratic Party (5)