Letter to the Editor: Vote for Jon Hansen

As middle aged, working class, rural South Dakota landowners, our eyes were not opened to politics until 2022 when Summit Carbon Solutions became a familiar household name. SCS wanted to run a dangerous Co2 pipeline through our family farmland in Lake County, against our wishes, seeking eminent domain for private gain to line the pockets of wealthy grifters.

We suspect we were not the only South Dakotan’s awakened and drawn into politics because of the proposed Co2 pipeline. It’s been said that it takes something to personally affect you before you wake up and pay attention to what’s happening around you. Summit Carbon Solutions was our wake up-call.

It was May 2023, at the first landowner rally in Leola, where we first met Jon Hansen and realized he was a man that would stand up and fight for the people of South Dakota. Jon was one of the speakers at that first rally. It was Jon Hansen who led the debate for the landowners in opposition to the pipeline against Elizabeth Burns Thompson, a strong Co2 pipeline supporter and Co2 pipeline employee at the time, in a featured debate in Brookings in August 2023. It was Jon Hansen, as Speaker of the House, who sponsored, fought for, and successfully passed House Bill 1052. He sponsored this bill that stops the use of eminent domain for a pipeline transporting carbon oxide so that no other landowners must fear the threat of eminent domain for a dangerous Co2 pipeline.

We are supporting Jon Hansen because he represents the core values of faith, family, and freedom. We are proud to support a governor candidate who understands that our strength lies in our homes and local communities, not in government bureaucracy. Jon will protect the unborn, stand up for parental rights in education, protect our constitutional freedoms, demand conservative and fiscally responsible spending, and support an environment where faith-based organizations can thrive.

We encourage fellow South Dakotans to join us in supporting Jon Hansen for Governor. Jon is the common-sense leader our state needs to ensure a bright future for our children and grandchildren.