Erik Muckey

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Erik Muckey
Image of Erik Muckey
South Dakota House of Representatives District 15
Tenure

2025 - Present

Term ends

2027

Years in position

0

Compensation

Base salary

$13,436/year

Per diem

$166/day for legislators who reside more than 50 miles away from the capitol

Elections and appointments
Last elected

November 5, 2024

Education

High school

Corsica High School

Bachelor's

University of South Dakota, 2014

Graduate

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2020

Personal
Birthplace
Platte, S.D.
Religion
Christian
Profession
Executive Director
Contact

Erik Muckey (Democratic Party) is a member of the South Dakota House of Representatives, representing District 15. He assumed office on January 14, 2025. His current term ends on January 12, 2027.

Muckey (Democratic Party) ran for election to the South Dakota House of Representatives to represent District 15. He won in the general election on November 5, 2024.

Muckey completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Erik Muckey was born in Platte, South Dakota. He earned a high school diploma from Corsica High School, a bachelor's degree from the University of South Dakota in 2014, and a graduate degree from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, in 2020. His career experience includes working as an executive director.[1]

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 House of Representatives elections, 2024

General election

General election for South Dakota House of Representatives District 15 (2 seats)

Incumbent Kadyn Wittman and Erik Muckey defeated Joni Tschetter and Brad Lindwurm in the general election for South Dakota House of Representatives District 15 on November 5, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Kadyn Wittman
Kadyn Wittman (D)
 
26.5
 
4,551
Image of Erik Muckey
Erik Muckey (D) Candidate Connection
 
25.4
 
4,364
Image of Joni Tschetter
Joni Tschetter (R)
 
25.3
 
4,357
Image of Brad Lindwurm
Brad Lindwurm (R) Candidate Connection
 
22.8
 
3,918

Total votes: 17,190
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

The Democratic primary election was canceled. Incumbent Kadyn Wittman and Erik Muckey advanced from the Democratic primary for South Dakota House of Representatives District 15.

Republican primary election

The Republican primary election was canceled. Brad Lindwurm and Joni Tschetter advanced from the Republican primary for South Dakota House of Representatives District 15.

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Muckey in this election.

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

Erik Muckey completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Muckey's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

I'm a sixth-generation South Dakotan whose life and work has focused on serving the needs of my community and state and helping people achieve their full potential. With my wife, Sadie, I'm a proud resident of downtown Sioux Falls and excited to work hard, work smart, and work together for our neighbors in District 15 as a Representative in the South Dakota Legislature.

For the past decade, I have led Lost&Found as its CEO, building one of the most effective organizations in our state focused on addressing youth and young adult suicide. Through this work, I led efforts to pass bipartisan legislation during the 2023 Legislative Session that brought $2 million in new funding to prevent youth suicide—the state’s leading cause of death for South Dakotans under the age of 29.

Today, I also own a small business, PASQ, that aids rural communities across South Dakota with strategic planning, board development, and nonprofit management services. Combined with past service as an Adjunct Instructor of Economics for the University of South Dakota and lived experience in a household of rural educators, I bring unique perspective, valuable experience, and a track record of effective collaboration to the South Dakota Legislature.

Our community and our state are ready for a new generation of leadership in Pierre, and I would be honored to be your Representative in the South Dakota Legislature.
  • State investment in public education is essential for the success of the next generation of South Dakotans and for the reduction of local taxpayer burden.
  • Caring for our community means ensuring healthcare is accessible to all South Dakotans, regardless of their zip code, lived experience, or socioeconomic status.
  • We will strengthen our state’s economy and meet workforce shortages by addressing issues keeping South Dakotans from their potential.
I have spent 14 years advocating for the needs of South Dakotans impacted by suicide risk and death. As the co-founder and CEO of Lost&Found, I have successfully lobbied the South Dakota Legislature for bipartisan investment to curb the leading cause of death for South Dakotans under the age of 29: suicide.

I have also extensively researched the South Dakota K-12 education funding formula and its impact on school districts across the state, as well as previous service as an agricultural market researcher. Through these experiences, I bring a wealth of knowledge and understanding of the way our state funds and supports education and agriculture.

No matter the issue, I'll be a passionate advocate for our community in Pierre.
Elected officials need to have a listening ear, deal with their work honestly and with integrity, seek to understand before being understood, put in the hard work, and put their community, state, and country above party affiliation.

These principles will guide how I serve as a legislator.
Serving in the South Dakota Legislature requires someone who is willing to work hard, work smart, and work together for the good of the communities and state we serve.

I've always believed that being a legislator means rising above petty partisanship to govern effectively for the state of South Dakota. That means focusing on real issues and creating real policy that meets the needs of our state's residents, not grandstanding or disrupting or sewing discord simply to prove a point.

You deserve effective representation in Pierre, and our responsibility to you as legislators is to listen, understand real problems, deliver real solutions and support, and continue to learn from you as policy is put into action.

That's what you can expect me from as a legislator.
When we work harder, work smarter, and work together, good things happen. I want to leave a legacy of policies that help South Dakotans from every background with the opportunity to build a life for six generations in our state, like my family has.

I learned these values at a young age when I first heard the story of how my parents came home to Corsica after receiving their teaching degrees at the University of South Dakota. They had many choices and opportunities in front of them, but one thing brought them home: a farm accident.

My grandfather’s accident ultimately led to my parents choosing to make a life in the rural South Dakota community that our family had known for generations. My father took on farming—mostly alone—while both he and my mother began their decades-long teaching careers. Like many families in the 1980s, our family found themselves no longer on the land—but they didn’t leave the community.

Instead, my parents cared for aging family members, raised their two kids to understand the value of community service, and invested their lives into helping others discover their potential through education—all while serving in numerous leadership roles in our church, school, and community. No matter the challenge, they met it head on by working harder, smarter, and together.

That's why I'll focus my time as a legislator on education, healthcare, and economic opportunity and seek to ensure our state sustainably supports every South Dakotan, regardless of zip code.

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


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.


Erik Muckey campaign contribution history
YearOfficeStatusContributionsExpenditures
2024* South Dakota House of Representatives District 15Won general$54,243 $0
Grand total$54,243 $0
Sources: OpenSecretsFederal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete

Scorecards

See also: State legislative scorecards and State legislative scorecards in South Dakota

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.













See also


External links

Footnotes

  1. Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on June 22, 2024


Leadership
Speaker of the House:Jon Hansen
Majority Leader:Scott Odenbach
Minority Leader:Erin Healy
Representatives
District 1
District 2
District 3
District 4
Kent Roe (R)
District 5
Matt Roby (R)
District 6
District 7
District 8
District 9
District 10
District 11
District 12
District 13
District 14
District 15
District 16
District 17
District 18
District 19
District 20
District 21
District 22
District 23
District 24
District 25
District 26A
District 26B
District 27
District 28A
Jana Hunt (R)
District 28B
District 29
District 30
District 31
District 32
District 33
District 34
District 35
Republican Party (64)
Democratic Party (6)