General election · 3 November 2026

State House, District 8

2 candidates on the ballot, listed in certified ballot order.

Jon Nelson

Not a sitting legislator

RepublicanBallot order 1

Nothing on record.Jon has never held legislative office, so there are no roll calls to score.

Survey: no response recorded

With no voting record and no returned questionnaire, this page has nothing from them on data centers. Voters have no stated position to weigh.

$28,740Total receipts reported

$740Matched a flag (A–D)

Flagged donors on recordSD Ethanol Producers Pac $500 [B]; Dusty PAC $240 [C]

Committee: Jon Nelson For District 8.

A flag means a donor matched a category. It is not a finding that anything improper happened.

Not a sitting legislator

RepublicanBallot order 2

Nothing on record.Todd has never held legislative office, so there are no roll calls to score.

Survey: no response recorded

With no voting record and no returned questionnaire, this page has nothing from them on data centers. Voters have no stated position to weigh.

$17,170Total receipts reported

$1,500Matched a flag (A–D)

Flagged donors on recordMatthew Paulson $1,000; Leading South Dakota PAC $500

Committee: Friends of Todd Wilkinson.

A flag means a donor matched a category. It is not a finding that anything improper happened.

A · Data center and Big Tech: The industry itself, its lobbyists, and the trade group that testified for the 50-year tax break.
B · Utility, power and energy: Utilities, generators, transmission and the ethanol bloc — interests whose revenue rises with data center load.
C · The PAC funnel: Money arriving through a political action committee rather than directly.
D · Named individuals: People named in the underlying investigation.
E and F · Outside money: Large national spending and independent expenditure made for a candidate. Never the candidate’s own money, and never added to their receipts.

Roll calls on 2026 data center bills are tracked. A vote counts as protective when it sided with residents on cost, water, or local control.

Candidates with no legislative service have no score. That is shown as an absence, never as a zero.

Full roll calls and bill text: the legislative scorecard.

Every figure here traces to a state-published filing. If something is wrong, we want to fix it fast.

Candidates may submit a questionnaire response at any time; it is published verbatim beside the voting record.

Email corrections through the Elections page.