The executive director of the South Dakota Democratic Party is leaving for a position in the Democratic National Committee.
Sam Parkinson is the Western Regional Representative by the Association of State Democratic Committees.
Thursday is his last day.
In his new role, Parkinson will work with state parties in the western region of the United States. He says his new role will help coordinate these states by helping them grow through fundraising, messaging and getting elected.
Parkinson says he’ll bring a South Dakota brand of Democrat to Washington DC.
“For a long time Democrats represented this state and represented it very well, but have fallen out of favor with the because of the perception of what a democrat is mostly leaning toward what’s coming out of DC,” Parkinson says. “A South Dakota Democrat is not always a Washington DC democrat and I think we’ve started to have that conversation here, starting to connect with folks and really speak to the issues.”
Parkinson says his focus going forward is recruiting candidates to run for office from the local level, like school boards and city council, with a focus on grooming candidates for Attorney General and Gubernatorial races. He points to the last governor’s race in South Dakota, where Democrat Billie Sutton lost by 11-thousand votes to Republican Kristi Noem.
“Looking at the governor’s race, specifically, just kind of the messaging we pushed out for that and bringing that to a couple of these other states like Wyoming, Idaho and Utah and trying to do some promoting of that,” Parkinson says. “Showing that there is a difference between state parties and the DNC and what be an east coast view to what Democratic politics is.”
Parkinson’s departure is part of a new transition of leadership within the party. Incoming chair Paula Hawks says the search for a new director will begin immediately.