South Dakota's bitcoin investor gubernatorial runoff and Georgia's succession race close on split-screen Tuesday
South Dakota's first gubernatorial runoff, pitting incumbent Gov. Larry Rhoden against self-made millionaire bitcoin (BTC) investor Toby Doeden, closed Tuesday evening with Rhoden holding a polling lead. The next confirmable milestone is the official county-by-county count, with Minnehaha County (home to Sioux Falls) and Pennington County identified as the key geographies. Georgia voters in the same session closed polls on the 13th Congressional District, where a successor to the late Rep. David Scott will serve only through January.
South Dakota's first gubernatorial runoff, pitting incumbent Gov. Larry Rhoden against self-made millionaire bitcoin (BTC) investor Toby Doeden, closed Tuesday evening with Rhoden holding a polling lead. The next confirmable milestone is the official county-by-county count, with Minnehaha County (home to Sioux Falls) and Pennington County identified as the key geographies. Georgia voters in the same session closed polls on the 13th Congressional District, where a successor to the late Rep. David Scott will serve only through January.
South Dakota runoff: how Rhoden lost the first round
Rhoden came to the governorship indirectly. Trump selected former Gov. Kristi Noem as Homeland Security secretary, and Rhoden stepped in as governor. When he ran statewide for the first time in the June primary, he could not clear the threshold to win outright. That opened the door to Tuesday's runoff.
Doeden's campaign draws on a Sioux Falls base. Minnehaha County delivered a first-place finish for him in June, and Pennington County on the state's western side added to that lead. Rhoden's polling advantage is clear, but an upset would require those same counties to turn out again in sufficient numbers.
The bitcoin investor framing is a campaign identity, not a policy proposal on the record. South Dakota has not elected a Democratic governor since the 1970s, when Gov. Richard Kneip served nearly two terms before President Jimmy Carter nominated him as ambassador to Singapore. Gov. Harvey Wollman finished the remaining six months of Kneip's term. The state's pattern since then makes the runoff effectively a Republican internal contest.
Georgia's 13th District: a short term, a longer line of succession
Rep. David Scott, who represented the southern and eastern Atlanta suburbs of Stockbridge, Conyers and Snellville for 12 terms, died in April at age 80. Scott was related by marriage to Braves slugger Hank Aaron. Tuesday's winner completes his term through January only.
Three candidates competed. Scott's daughter said her priority was finishing the year, directing district funds and seeing projects through to completion, with plans to retain Scott's staff locally and in Washington. Everton Blair, who said a confrontational town hall encounter with Scott prompted his campaign, ran on a generational-change argument. Former Mississippi judge Carlos Moore also competed. A bar tribunal suspended Moore for one year in 2024 after finding he mishandled a wrongful death settlement. When reporters raised that record, he pointed to Trump's 34-count indictment in New York.
What to watch next
Georgia state Rep. Jasmine Clark, a Democrat from Tucker, already holds the nomination for the full-term seat. She faces Republican Air Force veteran Jonathan Chavez in November. Trump lost the 13th District by about 43 points in 2024.
In South Dakota, the official count will show whether Doeden's Sioux Falls coalition held through a lower-turnout runoff, or whether Rhoden's establishment support consolidated enough to secure his first statewide win.
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Filed by the digital assets desk of MarketPR on July 29, 2026. Source: foxnews.com. Indicative figures are not investment advice.