BROOKINGS — “No primaries. The other candidate didn’t make the ballot,” Democrat Daniel “Dan” Ahlerss said in a recent interview with The Brookings Register. So, de facto, Ahlerss will be his party’s candidate to oppose the survivor of the GOP’s four-way fight for the governorship of South Dakota.
Ahlerss brings to the race six years of service in South Dakota state government: four years in the House of Representatives (January 2007-09 and January 2017-19) and two years in the Senate (January 2009-11).
Originally from Dell Rapids, Ahlers lived West River, in Rapid City, and then Gillette, Wyoming, most of his childhood. In his senior year in high school, he moved to Dell Rapids to help his grandparents. He attended Augustana University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in government and international relations. He met his wife Amy in high school and she also attended Augie. They have two teenage sons.
“When we got done (at Augustana), we decided to stay here instead of going to (Washington) D.C.,” Ahlers said. “So she got a job as the crime reporter at The Mitchell Daily Republic. I was still working for Menards, because at that time there weren’t a lot of job opportunities in South Dakota for a government major. And the state jobs were mostly accounting.
“So I worked for Menards and then I opened my own business in 1999 and ran a video store for 20 years.” He also started a coffee shop in Dell Rapids; was involved with the Chamber of Commerce for an after-school program; was involved with the historical society; and owned a couple of historical buildings. “So I was a pretty involved community member,” Ahlers said.
“In 2006, I was invited to run for the state Legislature and I won in a very conservative district (No.25),” he continued. “I did that for four years. They redistricted. … It was gerrymandering. Then I came back in 2016 … and served in 2017 and 2018. Then I was out after that. So I served six years total.”
“I was serving as the executive director for the state (Democratic) Party,” Ahlers continued. “I spent a good year trying to recruit candidates for a variety of offices. We were recruiting for the U.S. Senate, for the U.S. House, for governor. As time went on, more people were asking me why I wasn’t running. They thought I should be the candidate to run. I really felt my place was doing more of the organizing and the party-building at that point. But the voices became louder.
“So I initially had a conversation with my wife about it. That was in December (2025); she said, ‘No way.’ Things went on for another month and a half. Those voices continued to get louder. My wife could see that it was weighing on me. Then I got a call from Ken Martin, who’s the chair of the DNC (Democratic National Committee). He asked me the same question: ‘Why aren’t you running? You should be running.’”
It was time for another husband-wife conversation. “She did a 180 and said: ‘Go for it.’”
Bringing people together, getting things done
Looking to the electorate, Ahlers said voters are looking for “… transparency, people that are going to be straightforward with them; … who can get along and build coalitions and have a little authenticity.”
Ahlers said that in both his professional and political careers, he has “worked at building those coalitions, bringing people together from a variety of backgrounds and getting things done, whether it’s improving my hometown, growing a business, passing legislation, I’ve always been able to do that.” And he self-identifies as a “grass-roots person, someone who spent a lot of time knocking on doors as a legislator.”
The candidate noted that “Dakota Democrats” are not like their party members in California or New York: “There’s a commonsense approach at how we (Dakota Democrats) do things. … Democrats and Republicans in South Dakota share a lot of the same values; we have different ways of getting there. That’s the beauty of the political process.”
Health care top concern: affordability, access
In his meetings with voters and on the street rubbing elbows with his fellow South Dakotans, Ahlers is hearing that the affordability of health care and access to it, especially in rural areas, are top concerns.
“You’re seeing diminishing services in rural South Dakota,” Ahlers said. “But you’re also seeing the inability to get seen in a timely manner, even in urban areas. We’re losing medical professionals; we’re not keeping them here. Hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes are understaffed. We have nursing homes closing. The hospital in Winner is no longer doing childbirth. … Infant mortality rates in South Dakota are very, very high.”
He noted that South Dakota has “some programs that could be utilized better to retain those doctors and medical professionals in critical needs fields. There are a lot of tools that already exist.”
The No. 2. issue of concern is affordable housing: specific areas of concern are the young, first-time homebuyer and the elderly being able to stay in their homes.
“We have programs (to address these concerns),” Ahlers said. “We have to ask why they’re not working or why they’re not being utilized.”
— Contact John Kubal at [email protected].
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