Rhoden was born and raised on a farm. He grew up attending church, and graduated from Sunshine Bible Academy in 1977. After high school, he served in the South Dakota National Guard from 1978 to 1985. While his children were young, he served as a church trustee and on the local school board, and led the board of directors for the area Cenex.[7]
Career
Rhoden served in the South Dakota House of Representatives from 2001 to 2008, including four years as majority leader. After being term-limited, he was elected to the state senate. In 2010, Rhoden ran for senate majority leader, but lost to Russell Olson.[8]
Rhoden served on the Agriculture and Natural Resources and the State Affairs Committees.[9] He backed bills to arm volunteers in schools, and sponsored a legislative finding that the "Founding Fathers freely and willingly abjured all legislative and executive authority to regulate gun ownership and usage… to individual citizens."[8]
Rhoden ran for a U.S. Senate seat in 2014, calling himself a "conservative voice for limited government". He spoke out against abortion, same-sex marriage, "career politicians", "activist judges", and immigration "amnesty".[10] Rhoden signed a pledge to never raise taxes, and supported de-funding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.[11]
Rhoden spoke at a conference organized by the conservative organization RedState, criticizing fellow candidate Mike Rounds's position on taxes.[12] In the June 2 primary, Rounds defeated Rhoden, 41,377 votes to 13,393.[13]
On June 20, 2018, Republican gubernatorial nominee Kristi Noem announced that Rhoden would be her running mate. Noem had said the role of a lieutenant governor, "I would do it a little differently maybe than Daugaard and Michels have done it... I don’t see the lieutenant governor filling as big a role as Michels did. I'm just a believer that there are certain decisions the governor has to make, and so maybe it would be more of a traditional role than what we saw in the last administration."[14]
Tenure
Rhoden took office on January 5, 2019. On May 5, 2020, Noem announced that South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture Kim Vanneman would resign effective May 8, and that Rhoden was being named interim agriculture secretary.[15] On August 27, Noem announced that she was merging the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources into a Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, to be led by Secretary Hunter Roberts, thereby ending Rhoden's role as interim secretary.[16]
On June 20, 2020, at the Republican State Convention, Rhoden was elected to be one of South Dakota's three Republican presidential electors, along with Noem and Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg.[17]
Rhoden lives in Union Center, South Dakota. He and his wife, Sandy, have four children and seven grandchildren.[2][23] Rhoden is a rancher by trade and runs and owns a cow-calf operation and custom welding business.[4][24]
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