Senator John Wiik chosen to lead South Dakota GOP

January 17, 2023

Mike Tanner

PIERRE, S.D. – District 4 State Senator John Wiik of Big Stone City has been chosen to lead South Dakota’s Republican Party for the next two years.

Wiik was chosen for the chairmanship position over the weekend at the Republican Party’s Central Committee meeting in Pierre.

Wiik replaces longtime Chairman Dan Lederman of Dakota Dunes, who chose not to run for re-election.

In a statement, Wiik said, “It is time for me to go to work. I have talked to a lot of people, and we are going to improve communication, fundraising, etc. We are going to do everything we talked about up here when I decided to run for this office. We are going to connect with people and counties, and we are going to have a connected party. We are going to work on goals, achieve those goals, and we are going to have an even better party than we do now.”

Additionally, the committee chose State Representative Mary Fitzgerald of Saint Onge to serve as vice chair.

Wiik is in his third term as a State Senator. He also served one term in the House of Representatives (2015-2016).