South Dakota has a population of just 895,000 people.
Its most famous political figures are its Trump loving, COVID-friendly Governor Kristi Noem and its two insurrection-supporting Senators John Thune and Mike Rounds.
With leaders like that, perhaps it’s no wonder that, in the age of Trump and #FilthyRonna McDaniel, the South Dakota GOP has followed the national party in openly embracing sex offenders and groomers—all while deflecting and distracting about innocent librarians and Drag Queens.
This November, the South Dakota GOP managed to field not one, but two candidates—both of whom appeared on the November 8 ballot—who are now under arrest for vicious and violent sex crimes.
Republican arrested for second-degree rape in South Dakota
On Tuesday November 8, Republican candidate Bud Marty May lost to his mom in a bid for one of South Dakota’s two House seats in District 27.
His mom, who finished second in a field of four, was re-elected to her seat. Bud Marty May finished in last place.
On Tuesday November 13, the failed GOP candidate was arrested for raping a woman in a bathroom stall at a bar.
As South Dakota’s Rapid City Journal reported:
Bud Marty May, 37, of Kyle is being held with no bond at the Pennington County Jail in Rapid City for second-degree rape, which South Dakota law defines as rape through the use of force, coercion, or threats of immediate and great bodily harm against the victim or other persons within the victim’s presence, accompanied by apparent power of execution. He was booked into the jail at 4:03 a.m. Sunday.
The victim told police that May told her: “I am six-eight, white. It is all consensual.” When questioned by police he denied the crime at first, but then claimed, “it was a simple hug.”
Republican arrested for grooming and incestuous child rape in South Dakota
Bud Marty May’s arrest comes just days after another Republican candidate in South Dakota—44-year old Joel Koskan—was arrested for grooming and raping a young child before deciding to run for a South Dakota Senate seat. As Keloland.com reports:
According to a signed probable cause statement, a family member of Koskan’s said that he gave long hugs and had her sit on his lap starting at a young age. A camera in her room allegedly allowed Koskan to watch her. The alleged victim said Koskan touched her regularly and touching, she says, led to sexual intercourse. The probable cause statement signed by Division of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Brandon Neitzert says that “probable cause exists to show” that Koskan committed rape, sexual contact with a child under the age of 16 and aggravated incest.
The alleged grooming behavior by Koskan took place between the years 2014 and 2020.
The South Dakota GOP was apparently OK with all this, choosing not to ask Koskan to withdraw from the race.
A day after he appeared in court on his sex crimes charge, Koskan lost his race to Democrat Shawn Bordeaux.
See also: Republican donor “implicated” in child pornography investigation
The recent scandals involving active GOP candidates in South Dakota, come just months after the state’s richest man—T. Denny Sanford—was “named as the implicated individual in a criminal investigation involving child pornography.”
As Propublica noted in 2020:
Sanford has close ties to top state and federal political figures, including Sen. John Thune, whose wife has worked for a Sanford-affiliated organization, and the state’s former attorney general and senate majority leader, both of whom now work for Sanford.
Charges against Sanford, who has an estimated net worth of $3.4 billion—and who has shown a long-term, deep-pocketed support of the South Dakota GOP—were ultimately not pursued.
Why has Governor Kristi Noem made the South Dakota GOP such a magnet for sex offenders?
The answer’s simple. In the Party of Trump, Matt Gaetz and #GymJordan, you can’t maintain pretensions at running for national office unless you’re willing to court the entire MAGA coalition of racists, fascists, greedy rich people, religious extremists, plus the party’s growing contingent of perverts, sex predators and pedophiles.
The three examples above all happened in a state that’s home to fewer than 900,000 people—and represent the tip of the iceberg in terms of the rampant rape, sexual abuse, harassment and pedophilia that has become acceptable to many in the GOP in the age of Trump.
I would like to, once again, salute the work of Twitter user @cajsa, who I interviewed here in December 2021. Her list of #RepublicanSexualPredators is available online as a Google doc to any journalists or documentarians who want it.
Further reading: In April 2021, I wrote about Trump and alleged sex trafficker Matt Gaetz here. In May 2021, I wrote about the ever-growing list of Republican and Trump-connected child rapists, sex traffickers, pedophile enablers and child porn offenders here. In August 2021, I wrote a follow-up to that article here. In April 2022, I wrote about RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel’s role in enabling sexual abusers here. In July, wrote about Jim Jordan’s long career in turning a blind eye to sex crimes here. In September, I wrote about three #RepublicanSexualPredators who made headlines in August 2022.
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