[4] Prior to the South Dakota primaries, the 2020 Libertarian National Convention was held on May 22–24, 2020, selecting Jo Jorgensen, Psychology Senior Lecturer at Clemson University, as their presidential nominee.

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic South Dakota has only one congressional district because of its small population compared to other states.

It hasn't voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon B. Johnson carried it in 1964, against the backdrop of his nationwide landslide victory.

Even South Dakota Senator George McGovern failed to carry his home state as Democratic nominee in the Republican landslide of 1972.

[30] A sparsely populated state with a rural and conservative lifestyle, South Dakota has an agrarian populist streak[31] to which Trump made direct appeals.