Gov. Rhoden succeeded to the office on Jan. 25, 2025. The scored record above covers South Dakota's outcomes during this continuous service, lagged per category (each category's lag was fixed before scoring).
Governors › South Dakota
South Dakota Under Larry Rhoden
Republican · Succeeded to office Jan. 25, 2025 · Now in 1st term
South Dakota under Gov. Rhoden is not yet scored — the attribution lag means the first scorable data hasn't been published.
The Executive Summary
Gov. Larry Rhoden (R) has held South Dakota's governorship since Jan. 2025; South Dakota has 0 scored categories so far — an overall rating needs 3. These are movements on the governor's watch — shared with the legislature and the economy — association, not causation.
Larry Rhoden
South Dakota · Republican · since Jan. 2025 · 1st term
Overall
Not yet scored
needs 3+ scored categories
| Category | Latest | Score vs. peers | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Honesty | — | Not numerically scored — see Integrity Record | |
| Spending discipline | — | Scoring rule in development | |
| Education scale score | 281.1 ’24 | Too early | |
| Air quality AQI | 36.5 ’24 | Too early | |
| Water quality % of systems with a violation | 6.4 ’25 | Too early | |
| Unemployment % | 2.1 ’25 | Too early | |
| Health coverage % of adults 18-64 uninsured | 10.7 ’24 | Too early | |
| Tax burden % of personal income | 3.8 ’24 | Too early | |
| Energy cost cents/kWh | 12.9 ’24 | Too early | |
| Cost of living index, US=100 | 88.6 ’24 | Too early | |
| Homicide age-adjusted deaths per 100,000 | 6.6 ’24 | Too early | |
| Teen births per 1,000 females 15-19 | 15.3 ’24 | Too early | |
| Wellbeing mean poor-mental-health days of 30 | 4.5 ’24 | Too early | |
| School food quality | — | Scoring rule in development | |
| School shootings | 0 ’24 | Context · 1/10yr | |
| Obesity % of adults | 37.0 ’24 | Too early | |
| Early literacy % of 4th-graders below basic | 39.9 ’24 | Too early | |
| Gun deaths age-adjusted deaths per 100,000 | 17.3 ’24 | Too early | |
| Food-aid access index (higher = easier access) | 0.6 ’23 | Too early | |
| Jobless-benefit access % of unemployed receiving UI | 19.2 ’24 | Too early |
Each score blends where the state stands today with its trend over this governor’s window, vs. the other states with comparable data — 49 in most categories, fewer wherever a state-year is missing. Scores are in standard deviations (σ) — how far above or below the other states this one sits, where 0 is the middle of the pack and ±1 is a wide gap. *thin data (under 3 points). Tap ? on any row for what it measures, its chart, and the source. All provisional while the term runs. Methodology v3.0
South Dakota’s debt on their watch
context — not this governor’s gradeWhen Gov. Rhoden took office in 2025, South Dakota’s state government owed $4.7 billion (fiscal 2024; Census). The latest published figure is $4.7 billion (fiscal 2024 — the Census survey runs about two years behind). A state’s debt is set by budgets a governor proposes and signs, a legislature that writes and amends them, bond votes, and the economy — it is shared, which is why it is context here and not part of the grade. Figures cover the state government only, not cities, counties or school districts — and they count bonded debt, not unfunded pension obligations, which are a separate and often large part of what a state owes. Source: Census Bureau.
And the promises beyond the bonds
Bonded debt is not the whole of what a state owes. Public pension plans in South Dakota have promised benefits valued at $18.3 billion against $14.6 billion actually held — an unfunded gap of $3.7 billion, 80% funded (2022, the latest year published). These promises accumulated over decades, under many governors and legislatures — the most inherited numbers on this page — and the figures cover defined-benefit pension plans sponsored by state and local governments for their employees, so local-government plans are included alongside the state’s own. Source: Federal Reserve.
Integrity Record
facts from official records — not a scoreHonesty is not numerically scored on this site. For a governor, the record that can fairly bear on it is the Adjudicated Record: findings by bodies that cannot reach a party-line verdict — a court of record, or a state body that is evenly bipartisan by rule. A final such finding caps the grade (it never raises it); nothing else here touches the number. The two ledgers that a member of Congress carries — votes against bills they endorsed, and spoken commitments tested against roll calls — do not apply to a governor, who casts no roll-call votes and leaves no uniform speech record; they are named here so their absence is a stated boundary, not a silent gap.
Adjudicated record
the only tier that can cap a gradeRecord search for Rhoden: 0 of 3 admitted sources connected, 0 qualifying events. The event feeds are not yet wired, so this searches no events today — a stated gap, not a finding of innocence. What is already fixed is the rule, published before any event: a cap applies only on a final finding from an admitted body (Tier 1 → F, Tier 2 → C-, Tier 3 → B).
- Admitted — Federal court judgments (deception-map offenses) (admitted by rule — event feed not yet wired)
- Admitted — SD courts of record (criminal judgments on the deception map) (admitted by rule — event feed not yet wired)
- Admitted — State Government Accountability Board (proposed, awaiting confirmation of the cited statute)
- excluded by rule — SD legislative impeachment / removal: a legislative majority is not an evenly-bipartisan adjudicator
What this measures: findings by courts and evenly-bipartisan bodies against Rhoden. What it does not: truthfulness of speech, campaign promises, or anything a partisan body decided — those are excluded on purpose. Dispute anything: challenge@politicalgrades.com. Read the rulebook.
Unemployment Rate, 2010–2025
South Dakota against all 49 other states · 2025 is an 11-month average — October 2025 was never collected (federal shutdown) South Dakota 50-state median Other 49 states
Annual-average unemployment rate — the headline economic series, charted in full. The shaded band is its scored window: it opens with the first full calendar year after the attribution lag, so a governor sworn in mid-year starts a year later than one sworn in that January. It tracks through the newest published data. The dashed line is the 50-state median, shown for context; scoring uses the median of the other 49 states. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics.
The Record
Show the Work
every category score, and how the overall is built from them| Methodology | v3.0, preregistered — directions and lags fixed before scoring; full dataset at /governors.json |
Each score blends two z-scores against the other states: where the state stands today (60%) and which way it moved over the category’s window (40%), capped at ±2.5σ. The trend is a fitted slope — log-linear, except where zero is a legal value (water quality), fitted linearly and reported in percentage points — measured against the median trend of the other states with enough data in the same window, 49 in most categories and fewer wherever a state-year is missing. Because standing carries the larger share, a positive score does not mean the trend improved: on 0 of the 0 scored categories on this page the two point opposite ways, which is why both columns are printed.
Cite this
South Dakota under Gov. Rhoden is not yet scored — the attribution lag means the first scorable data hasn't been published. — Political Grades, methodology v3.0, data through 2023–2025 by category. Provisional; trend-vs-peers scoring; relative movement, not causation.
Also Tracked in South Dakota
the state’s other officials on this site- Sen. John Thune (R) → South Dakota’s senator on the Congress board
- Sen. Mike Rounds (R) → South Dakota’s senator on the Congress board
- South Dakota’s House delegation — 1 member → each graded on their own legislative record