Larry Rhoden


Larry Rhoden is an American politician, serving as the 39th and current lieutenant governor of South Dakota. A Republican, he previously served in both houses of the South Dakota Legislature.

Early life

Rhoden graduated from Sunshine Bible Academy in 1977 and served in the South Dakota National Guard from 1978 to 1985. Rhoden is a rancher by trade.

Career

Rhoden served in the South Dakota House of Representatives from 2001 to 2008, spending four years as majority leader. After being term-limited, Rhoden was elected to the state senate. In 2010, Rhoden ran for senate majority leader, but lost to Russell Olson.
Rhoden served on the Agriculture and Natural Resources committee and the State Affairs committee. He has backed bills to arm volunteers in schools, and sponsored a legislative finding saying that the "Founding Fathers freely and willingly abjured all legislative and executive authority to regulate gun ownership and usage… to individual citizens."

2014 U.S. Senate candidacy

Rhoden ran for a United States Senate seat in 2014, calling himself a "conservative voice for limited government." Rhoden spoke out against abortion, same-sex marriage, "career politicians," "activist judges," and immigration "amnesty." Rhoden signed a pledge to never raise taxes, and supports de-funding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Rhoden spoke at a conference organized by the conservative organization RedState, criticizing fellow candidate Mike Rounds's position on taxes. Rounds defeated Rhoden by a margin of 41,377 to 13,393 in the June 2, 2014 primary.

2018 gubernatorial election

Lieutenant governor

announced on June 20, 2018, that Rhoden would be her running mate as lieutenant governor. Noem had previously referred to the role of a prospective lieutenant governor, stating that "I would do it a little differently maybe than Daugaard and Michels have done it." She further stated that "I don’t see the lieutenant governor filling as big a role as Michels did. I'm just a believer that there are certain decisions the governor has to make, and so maybe it would be more of a traditional role than what we saw in the last administration."

Tenure

On May 5, 2020, Governor Noem announced that South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture Kim Vanneman would be resigning effective May 8, 2020, and that Rhoden was being named interim agriculture secretary.
On June 20, 2020, at the Republican State Convention, Rhoden was elected to be one of South Dakota's three Republican Presidential Electors along with Governor Kristi Noem and Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg.

Personal life

Rhoden lives in Union Center, South Dakota. He and his wife, Sandy, have four children.