Larry Rhoden

Larry Robert Rhoden (born February 5, 1959) is an American politician and businessman serving since 2025 as the 34th governor of South Dakota.

A member of the Republican Party, Rhoden served from 2001 to 2009 as a member of the South Dakota House of Representatives, from 2009 to 2015 and from 2017 to 2019 as a member of the South Dakota Senate, and from 2019 to 2025 as the 39th lieutenant governor of South Dakota. He ran for U.S. Senate in the 2014 election, losing in the Republican primary to Mike Rounds. In January 2025, he became governor after Governor Kristi Noem resigned to become United States Secretary of Homeland Security.

Rhoden was born and raised on a farm. He grew up attending church, and graduated from Sunshine Bible Academy in 1977. After high school, he served in the South Dakota National Guard from 1978 to 1985. While his children were young, he served as a church trustee and on the local school board, and led the board of directors for the area Cenex.

Rhoden served in the South Dakota House of Representatives from 2001 to 2008, including four years as majority leader. After being term-limited, he was elected to the state senate. In 2010, Rhoden ran for senate majority leader, but lost to Russell Olson.

Rhoden served on the Agriculture and Natural Resources and the State Affairs Committees. He backed bills to arm volunteers in schools, and sponsored a legislative finding that the "Founding Fathers freely and willingly abjured all legislative and executive authority to regulate gun ownership and usage… to individual citizens."

Rhoden ran for the U.S. Senate in 2014, calling himself a "conservative voice for limited government". He spoke out against abortion, same-sex marriage, "career politicians", "activist judges", and immigration "amnesty". Rhoden signed a pledge to never raise taxes, and supported de-funding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Rhoden spoke at a conference organized by the conservative organization RedState, criticizing fellow candidate Mike Rounds's position on taxes. In the June 2 primary, Rounds defeated Rhoden, 41,377 votes to 13,393.

On June 20, 2018, Republican gubernatorial nominee Kristi Noem announced that Rhoden would be her running mate. Noem had said the role of a lieutenant governor, "I would do it a little differently maybe than Daugaard and Michels have done it... I don’t see the lieutenant governor filling as big a role as Michels did. I'm just a believer that there are certain decisions the governor has to make, and so maybe it would be more of a traditional role than what we saw in the last administration."