Scrutinel— 2026 midterms

UpdatedAug 24, 2026, 5:12 AM UTC
To election day72 days
Simulations200,000

South Dakota — Governor

Currently held by a Republican · incumbent running

Democrat
Dan Ahlers
4%
Republican
Larry Rhoden
96%
ForecastLikely R
Projected margin
R+19.8
80% range
R+33.7 to R+5.9
Partisan lean
R+28.9
Uncertainty multiplier
1.80×

The 80% range comes from 200,000 simulations in which this race’s error is correlated with every other race through the national, state and demographic layers.

How the estimate is built
Fundamentals 100.0%
Polling average
no polls
Fundamentals
R+19.3
Blended
R+19.3
Similar-race shift
+1.5
Polling

No public polling of this matchup. The forecast rests on fundamentals plus the polling residuals of demographically and politically similar races — which is the normal case: most of the 435 House seats are never polled.

Fundamentals
Partisan lean
R+28.9
Elasticity
0.94
Incumbency
−5.0
Candidate experience
0.0
Fundraising
0.0
National environment
D+5.3
Expected margin
R+20.8

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