Dan Ahlers, a former Democratic legislator from Dell Rapids, said he won't be distracted by scandals and partisan politics if he's elected to the U.S. Senate.

Ahlers kicked off his Senate campaign in his hometown of Dell Rapids on Monday, speaking for 20 minutes about his priorities in agriculture, the economy, education and affordable health care. Ahlers is seeking the seat currently held by U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds.

Ahlers, 45, said he has a reputation of working with Republicans as a legislator and positioned himself as a potential senator who will put South Dakotans before political party. The country can't afford to be divided by racial, religious or party lines and South Dakotans suffer as Congress is mired in distractions, he said.

Although he didn't name Rounds during the speech, Ahlers concluded his speech with a few pointed questions.

"Who do you want representing you?" Ahlers said. "Do you want the career politician or the community advocate? Do you want someone who listens to their party or someone who listens to you? Do you want someone who fights with colleagues or someone who fights for you?"

Rounds hasn't yet announced whether he'll seek re-election next year, but he has held several fundraisers in recent months. State Rep. Scyller Borglum, R-Rapid City, is challenging Rounds to be the Republican Senate candidate on the ballot next November.

More:Scyller Borglum, Republican legislator from Rapid City, announces U.S. Senate candidacy

Senate run inspired by tough childhood

During his announcement, Ahlers went into detail about his difficult childhood and how it shaped his positions as an elected official. His father lost his job and his parents moved the family to Wyoming to find work when Ahlers was a child. Ahlers said he remembers going to bed hungry and going to school wearing worn out clothes that didn't fit. He moved back to Dell Rapids when he was 17 to live with his grandparents, but his parents' determination to keep going during difficult times has stuck with him.

Ahlers served in the South Dakota House of Representatives in 2007-08 and 2017-2018 and in the state Senate in 2009-2010. He narrowly lost in his re-election bid in November, receiving 101 fewer votes than Rep. Tom Pischke, R-Dell Rapids, to represent the district for 2019-2020.

Ahlers said working on legislation to prevent "lunch shaming" students who couldn't afford school lunches brought back his childhood memories of being given lunch tickets in a different color than his classmates' tickets because his family couldn't afford lunch, embarrassing him because the tickets told his classmates he was poor.

"These experiences gave me the strength, compassion and humility to understand the importance of the consequences of the decisions that I make as a leader in this community," Ahlers said, "to know that when I vote, when I make that decision on your behalf, that there's a connection between me and you and that that vote could have an impact on whether or not you have a job tomorrow, whether or not you have food on your table, and that matters."

Ahlers closed his Dell Rapids video store earlier this year after 20 years in business and he currently serves as the president and interim administrator of the Dell Rapids Chamber of Commerce. He also works as a substitute teacher in the Dell Rapids school district. He holds a bachelor's degree in government and international relations from Augustana University.

In reaction to Ahlers' announcement on Monday, South Dakota Republican Chair Dan Lederman said Ahlers checks the Democrats' boxes of "being ambiguous" on abortion and Second Amendment stances and will bring the state further to the left by promoting a "socialist agenda."

"I'm not sure if Ahlers needs another doomed political campaign as much as he needs some career counseling," Lederman said.

Priorities include trade, education, health care

The United States needs better, more fair trade deals, Ahlers said, but the country should have had a plan to deal with China to prevent American farmers from suffering the consequences and depend on government payments to get by. The trade war with China has lowered crop prices, which has been coupled with bad weather, and that matters in a state dependent on agriculture, he said.

The United States could face the consequences of picking a trade fight with China, one of the largest holders of U.S. foreign debt. If China threatens to sell that debt, it'll cause interest rates to increase, the value of the dollar to fall and slow down the U.S. economy, he said.

More:Dell Rapids financial crime specialist announces run for South Dakota's U.S. House seat

Turning to education, he said education is viewed as an expense and not an investment in Washington, D.C. That conversation needs to focus instead on education as investment benefiting the state and federal economies and future.

"Our education system needs the ability to be adaptive and innovative in order to prepare our students for the evolving needs of our workforce," he said. "Our schools need the resources to support and offer more career experiences and opportunities for students."

He added that he's particularly interested in increasing the federal funding for special education.

Ahlers said the Affordable Care Act isn't perfect, but politicians aren't interested in finding a solution that will improve the health care system. Health care providers are struggling to balance low reimbursement rates with an increasing number of patients on Medicaid and Medicare. As a rural state, South Dakota has additional struggles in providing access to quality health care.

However, it's a complicated, multifaceted issue without an easy solution and residents need a senator who is willing to work on the problems to ensure everyone has access to health care, he said.

Representing people, not political parties

Lederman, the state Republican chair, pointed out that Democrats now have three congressional candidates who lost in their state legislative races last year: Ahlers, and U.S. House candidates Brian Wirth of Dell Rapids and Whitney Raver of Custer.

"Collectively, Democrats are bringing a lot of experience to the race on what not to do, but they never learn, and keep repeating their liberal talking points," Lederman said in a statement.

More:Why U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson might see a primary challenger in 2020

During his speech, Ahlers said he was proud that his legislation to improve resources for deaf students' language development passed in a Republican-majority Legislature. The bill began as an all-Democrat sponsored bill, and he worked with Republican colleagues to gain support to eventually pass the bill.

When asked how he'll bridge the divide with Republican voters, Ahlers told the Argus Leader that he has a reputation in doing so, and his success in passing legislation in Pierre is because he's willing to work across party lines. Elected officials need to focus on their commonalities rather than their differences and they can be adversarial without being enemies, he said.

"I don't represent a party," he said. "I represent people, and that's the thing that I think sets me apart from most politicians is that I don't get wrapped up in that stuff."