Billie Sutton is a rare breed in South Dakota these days.
Maybe a one-of-a-kind breed: a Democrat who actually worries Republicans if he shows interest in a state-wide campaign.
And actually poses a serious threat to win.
There used to be a number of those Democrats in the state, familiar names who are either gone or busy now with life beyond politics.
Tom Daschle lives near D.C. and works in consulting. Tim Johnson is retired and living with his wife, Barbara, in Sioux Falls. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin continues her work as president of Augustana University in Sioux Falls.
Jim Abourezk is 90, living in Sioux Falls.
Dick Kneip died in 1987 and George McGovern in 2012.
Who’s left among Democrats to pose a serious statewide threat to Republicans? Billie Sutton.
Don’t get me wrong. There are credible, worthy Democratic candidates other than Sutton. I think of them as the 30- to 40-percenters, figuring that’s about what they’d get in a statewide race against a solid Republican.
Sutton is more like a 40- to 50-percenter, and maybe slightly higher, in the right race against the right Republican.
But he’s not interested in another statewide campaign. For now.
Harder losses keep political defeat in perspective
It has been almost four years since he came the closest of any Democrat in decades to winning the governor’s chair. (Kristi Noem, you can breathe a sigh of relief here.) And it took a full-court press from national Republicans — including visits by Donald Trump and Mike Pence — and especially local networking by Sen. John Thune and his staff and other notable in-state Republicans to help Noem come from behind to win.
Which was an understandably hard loss for Sutton.
But he has suffered losses in his life that were much worse, much harder. At 23, after competing with the University of Wyoming rodeo team, he was ranked in the top 30 in saddle-bronc riding on the professional circuit, and heading up. But at a rodeo in North Dakota, a bronc reared up in the chute and came back down on Sutton, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.
Even harder than that, Sutton says now, was when he and his wife, Kelsea, suffered the death of their baby girl, Lenore, shortly after she was born in 2020.
“After we lost Lenny, it was hard to think about anything other than that,” Sutton says. “Somehow a part of me felt kind of guilty if it (politics) even entered my mind.
It does enter his mind. Or others bring it up, frequently. But Sutton is focusing on Kelsea, their 5-year-old son, Liam, his banking job in Burke, his many community service positions, building a new home, and managing a leadership institute that aims to help young South Dakotans excel.
Oh, and one more thing. Two, actually. Twin babies, on the way.
After the shattering loss of Lenny, Sutton said people reached out to him and to Kelsea in ways that reshaped their grief and helped them endure the loss as they moved forward in their lives.
Then a friend reached out with a priceless offer
“It happened with me with my injury, and when we lost Lenny,” Sutton says. “There’s a lot of people out there who went through different challenges so similar but so unique, too.”
The Suttons were moving on as well as they could when doctors advised them that, because of health problems, Kelsea shouldn’t get pregnant again.
“Basically they agree with what we already knew, that it would be a serious health risk for her to be pregnant again,” Sutton says. “And we wanted Liam to have a sibling.”
That’s when someone reached out with a life-altering surprise.
“Then this developed, where Kelsea’s friend came and offered to be a surrogate,” Sutton says. “We had embryos left. So we tried IVF embryo transfers a couple of times, unsuccessfully. Then it worked. Once our carrier was pregnant, then the issue was easy. I’m not going to run (for office) when I have something like this going on. No way.”
That something is amazing. The friend is 24 weeks pregnant. With twins.
There’s a noticeable lilt in Billie Sutton’s voice when he talks about that. But he isn’t just focused on their own surrogate pregnancy. He worked against a bill in the South Dakota Legislature this year that would have required people who have children through surrogacy to adopt those children.
“You’d have to adopt your own child?” Sutton said.
The bill made it through a House committee but was rejected by a vote on the House floor.
Sutton said if lawmakers “keep messing around with surrogacy” it might inspire him to get more active politically sooner than he’d planned. Otherwise, he’s “pretty content” with a really full life in Burke and twins on the way.
Siblings for Liam. What a thrill.
Another campaign is likely, someday
That doesn’t mean that Sutton has lost his interest in politics or is ruling out a run in the future. I think such a run is almost guaranteed.
I asked if he would be interested in running for governor in 2026. Presuming she wins reelection this year as is likely and doesn’t hook on with a GOP presidential ticket, Gov. Noem will be finishing her second term in 2026. She would be barred by the South Dakota Constitution from running for a third term consecutively.
Lots of Democrats, and some Republicans, would love to see Sutton run in 2026. But Sutton says “we’ll have to see. With two babies, and working on building a house, and our jobs and community commitments — Kelsea does more with that than I do — who knows?” he says.
“There’ll be a time when we’ll think about it again and have to make a decision, based on what feels right for our family and right for the time,” Sutton says.
He has plenty of time. He’s just 37, to turn 38 in March. And right now, there’s that house to build, those jobs and community service duties to tend, and those babies on the way.
Along with his investment work at the bank, Sutton deals with human resource issues and sits on the board of directors. He still works with his parents on the family ranch. And he serves on a recovery group formed after a tornado hit Burke a few years back and is president of the rodeo club, which hosts a professional rodeo and junior rodeo every year, among other events.
His leadership institute has been working with 12 to 15 young leaders chosen from scores of applicants.
“These are passionate, hard-working people who want to make a difference in their communities and their state,” Sutton says. “It’s a privilege to work with them. It’s encouraging to see them answer a call to service.”
Sutton answered that call 12 years ago by running for the South Dakota Senate from District 21. He won four times, served four two-year terms, two of them as Senate Democratic leader, then ran for governor in 2018.
It’s pretty clear he has another campaign or two in him. Right now, though, he has plenty to focus on besides politics and another run for office.
Take his son, for instance. Liam is already showing the family know-how with horses and in the sports Billie loved while growing up, including wrestling.
“It started out tough for him. He was inexperienced. Then the last three tournaments he’s won 10 in a row and three championships,” Sutton says. “I guess he got my competitive spirit. He seems to like it. And it’s sure fun to watch.”
All of which makes it pretty easy for Billie Sutton to set politics aside, at least for a while.