Poll: Republican way ahead in South Dakota Senate race

Former South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds (R) remains on track to pick up the state's open U.S. Senate seat, in the new poll from Monmouth University.
Rounds has 45 percent support, comfortably ahead of Democratic candidate Rick Weiland at 31 percent. Former Republican Sen. Larry Pressler, who is now running again as a centrist independent, has 19 percent. The poll also found that in a two-way race, Rounds would still lead Weiland at 48 percent to 40 percent. The survey of likely voters was conducted from Oct. 24 to 27, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.7 percentage points.
The seat is currently held by Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson, who is retiring after three terms, in what has looked for most of this cycle like an easy gain for Republicans.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Weiland, a former FEMA official, has now accused national Democrats of sabotaging him and trying to help Pressler, who supported President Obama in both 2008 and 2012.
"There was some buzz earlier in the month that South Dakota’s Senate seat may be back on the toss-up board. It looks like that was a false alarm," writes polling director Patrick Murray.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Quiz of The Week: 21 – 27 June
Have you been paying attention to The Week's news?
-
The Week Unwrapped: How do you turn plastics into paracetamol?
Podcast Plus, what is the Wagner Group doing now? And why is it so hard to find a job after university?
-
The week's best photos
In Pictures A daring leap, a plastic protest, and more
-
Trump plans Iran talks, insists nuke threat gone
Speed Read 'The war is done' and 'we destroyed the nuclear,' said President Trump
-
Trump embraces NATO after budget vow, charm offensive
Speed Read The president reversed course on his longstanding skepticism of the trans-Atlantic military alliance
-
Trump judge pick told DOJ to defy courts, lawyer says
Speed Read Emil Bove, a top Justice Department official nominated by Trump for a lifetime seat, stands accused of encouraging government lawyers to mislead the courts and defy judicial orders
-
Mamdani upsets Cuomo in NYC mayoral primary
Speed Read Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani beat out Andrew Cuomo in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary
-
Supreme Court clears third-country deportations
Speed Read The court allowed Trump to temporarily resume deporting migrants to countries they aren't from
-
Judges order release of 2 high-profile migrants
Speed Read Kilmar Ábrego García is back in the US and Mahmoud Khalil is allowed to go home — for now
-
US assessing bomb damage to Iran nuclear sites
Speed Read Trump claims this weekend's US bombing obliterated Tehran's nuclear program, while JD Vance insists the US is 'not at war with Iran'
-
Trump's LA deployment in limbo after court rulings
Speed Read Judge Breyer ruled that Trump's National Guard deployment to Los Angeles was an 'illegal' overreach. But a federal appellate court halted the ruling.