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The GOP primary for the Senate seat in South Dakota's LD-4, a contest between Establishment freshman State Representative Stephanie Sauder of Byrant and long-time State Representative Fred Deutsch of Florence resulted in Sauder besting Bryant by a margin of 64 votes
This win in the race to succeed State Senator and State GOP Chair John Wiik was one of few victories for the establishment faction of the state GOP in an otherwise disastrous cycle for said faction
LD-4, which contains rural areas surrounding Watertown, was one of the more marquee primaries of the cycle and part of the bigger conflict between the establishment and insurgent Freedom Caucus factions for control of the South Dakota GOP.
Deutsch, a member of the far-right of the party, had previously obtained national recognition in early 2016 when he introduced one of the earliest anti-trans bathroom bills in the country; the bill passed both chambers but was vetoed by Governor Dennis Daugaard.
In a more regional than idiological contest, Sauder prevailed in the election with 1,868 votes to Deutsch's 1,804, a margin of roughly 2%, or 64 raw ballots in an election with a meager turnout of just 18%.
Sauder won rural Clark and Hamlin Counties (where Hamlin contains Sauder's home of Bryant). In contrast, Deutsch won the district's more western counties such as Roberts, Deuel and Grant, with the latter two containing population centers such as Clear Lake and Milbank.
Deutsch would also win his home county of Codington but his failure to win over western Codington and poor margins in Roberts cost him the race, with Deutsch only barely carrying his home town of Florence with 55% of the vote.
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