South Dakota's Democratic Party is shutting down all its offices

Things are looking pretty bad for South Dakota's Democrats.

The party is closing its last two offices in the state by the end of September, South Dakota Democratic Party Chair Paula Hawks tells the Argus Leader. The move will leave Democrats without a physical office in the entire state — a dire turn for a party that nearly won the governor's seat last year.

Hawks revealed the decision to party leaders in a Thursday email, saying renting office space was the SDDP's biggest expense, per The Associated Press. The party reported spending $2,400 on rent and about $14,000 on salaries in July, the Argus Leader reports. The SDDP couldn't cover those expenses despite receiving $10,000 per month from the Democratic National Party, seemingly indicating a major drop in donations. Hawks chalked the losses up to "extreme mismanagement and lack of oversight."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

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.

Sign up

It's a major blow for a state that had a Democratic senator until the beginning of 2015. Sen. Tim Johnson (D) was elected three consecutive times before he retired and was replaced by Sen. Mike Rounds (R) in the 2014 election, while Sen. John Thune (R) replaced a Democrat in 2005. Rounds and Thune both handily beat their Democratic opponents by more than 20 points in their last Senate races, and yet just last year, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) only won her race by a little over 10,000 votes.