Officials with the South Dakota Democratic Party say they’re close to having a candidate for each state legislative district

During the last election, 80 Democratic candidates ran for the 105 available seats in the state house.

Sam Parkinson is the Executive Director for the South Dakota Democratic party.

He says Democrats are getting energized to run, given the climate of national and state politics.

“People don’t think their voices are being heard, especially on the Democratic side and they’re willing to step out and run to give democrats a voice. A lot of the time certain districts have been gerrymandered to really silence Democratic voices,” Parkinson says. “Those candidates who jump in know it’s an uphill battle, but they also know they’re running to give other Democrats in the district a voice, because the Republican legislators aren’t representing all of their district members.”

He says it’s tough to find 105 candidates to run for office every two years.

Democrats hold only 16 seats in the statehouse, six state senators and ten state representatives.