General election · 3 November 2026

State Senate, District 17

One candidate on the ballot. This race is unopposed.

Race type
Unopposed
Candidates
1
Surveys returned
0 of 1
Race receipts
$58,917
Sydney Davis

Sydney Davis

Sitting legislator

RepublicanBallot order 1

Where they stand on data centers

67%protective votes — 2 of 3 tracked roll calls

Split record

Survey: no response recorded

The position above is drawn from roll-call votes only. This candidate has not answered the questionnaire in their own words.

Ask them to answer

Money — a signal, never a position

$58,917Total receipts reported
$13,600Matched a flag (A–D)
  • AData center and Big Tech industry$2,000
  • BUtility, power and energy interests$1,350
  • CThe PAC funnel$10,250

Flagged donors on recordSouth Dakota Republican Forward $10,000 [C]; Steve DelBianco $1,000; Applied Digital Corporation $1,000; NextEra Energy Resources Develop $500; South Dakota Ethanol Producers PAC $500; DUSTY PAC $250; Steve Willard $200

Spent for them by others

Independent expenditure. This is not the candidate’s money and they do not control it.

  • FIndependent expenditure spent for them$29,254

Committee: Friends of Sydney Davis.

Receipts were collected by hand from the filed forms, so this lists only the donors that matched a flag, not the full itemized list. The named donors here come to $13,450 against a $13,600 flagged total. A flag means a donor matched a category. It is not a finding that anything improper happened.

How to reach them

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What the flags mean

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.

How the score is built

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.

Correct the record

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.