South Dakota

	South Dakota
	Campaign Data Electoral votes 3 Strategy Democrats: Irrelevant Republicans: Relevant Wealth 23452000 USD Party Affiliation Democrats: Democrats: 32%% Republicans: Republicans: 47%% Independents: Independent: 21%% Political Views Liberal: 16% Moderate: 45% Conservative: 39% Other Data Gender makeup Male: 50% Female: 50% Racial makeup White: 95% Black: 1% Hispanic: 0% Asian: 0% Other: 4% Age 18 to 29: 19% 30 to 44: 28% 45 to 59: 28% 60+: 24 Income <15k: 12% 15-30k: 18% 30-50k: 26% 50-75k: 22% 75-100k: 14% >100k: 9%

South Dakota is one of the 50 states the candidates try to win for their presidency.

Overview

This article is a stub. You can help Political Machine Wiki by expanding it.

Strategies

South Dakota has only three electoral votes, making it a less-than-attractive goal for investments of time and money. It will usually vote for the Republican candidate and any sort of GOP activity in the state will probably secure their victory there. However, its relative insignificance makes it unlikely that your opponent will draw any sort of resources into South Dakota. That makes it a relatively easy state to win even when playing as a Democrat:

Per default, awareness of the candidates will be comparatively low, especially since the Republican candidate will most likely never visit South Dakota. Unlike some other red states, South Dakota also features a few relevant key issues that can help Democrats, especially farm subsidies, which are well liked among all voter groups. Note that SD is almost 50 percent Republican, so it is important to address issues that all voter groups (including Republicans) support. Appealing to the farm vote in a speech and running an ad on a issue that works for you can thus be a possible way to secure the three electoral votes from the Mount Rushmore State. That can be done in less than a single turn, if your stamina is sort of high.

The Democratic strategy will most likely be unfruitful if a GOP player chooses to visit South Dakota and engages in any sort of awareness-boosting activity, thus activating the commanding plurality of Republican voters. For the Dems to win the votes, GOP awareness has to stay low, so it is advisable to target SD late in the game if it still seems winnable. That being said, a go for SD normally only useful if the Dem candidate is on a winning track anyway, or doesn't see other good opportunities to gain EVs in more populated states. You can also think of it as a diversion for the other candidate, who will have to spend time and money as well in order to get back the state.