The party currently has very weak electoral power in the state, controlling none of South Dakota's statewide or federal elected offices.

Important members in the history of the South Dakota Democratic Party include Dick Kneip, Jim Abourezk, George McGovern, Tom Daschle, Tim Johnson and Stephanie Herseth Sandlin.

Despite his landslide loss to Republican incumbent Richard Nixon, he continued to serve in the U.S. Senate for nine more years as his party came to power at the state level.

This time, they rode two decades of failed farm politics and favorite son McGovern's election bid to a slim one seat majority in the Senate, even slimmer tie breaking control in the House and a re-election win by Governor Richard F. Kneip.

[3] At about the same time in 1968, South Dakota Democrats gained a relatively small but increasingly active voting group when the Indian Civil Rights Act was passed.