It’s been a battle. Hopeful candidate for U.S. House of Representatives, Justin McNeal (I) has submitted an appeal to the South Dakota Supreme Court, today.
Conservatives across the state are well beyond recognizing the need for a change in Representation from Rep. Dusty Johnson, and with McNeal on the primary ballot we would have had a great choice. South Dakota deserves a choice, someone who is truly competitive!
Anybody wondering why Rep. Johnson hasn’t offered his endorsement of the Republican nominee for President, Donald J. Trump?
A short backstory on the McNeal saga:
Justin McNeal, with the help of grassroots citizens, collected thousands of signatures as a Republican candidate and came up approximately 35 signatures short. Instead of fight in court against petition and signature technicalities and most likely voter registration issues that are going unnoticed or uncorrected in the state (DMV issues with voter registration), he pressed on.
He tried again and ran as an Independent and collected thousands of signatures. He experienced an incredible amount of state GOP backlash with SDGOP Chair John Wiik accusing him of “committing felonies.” Further, Wiik went on to threaten other Republicans who were helping McNeal collect signatures that he (Wiik) could somehow strip them of their elected precinct committeeman/woman positions.
McNeal faced a referral of the felony “issues” by Wiik to the South Dakota AG office. The referral was quickly followed by a subsequent exoneration of McNeal by the AG. He turned in the second round of petitions and was supposedly short on signatures again according to the Secretary of State’s office. He was then off to court with a Writ of Mandamus when out of nowhere the GOP intervened in Justin’s court case. Ultimately, his case was dismissed.
McNeal contends that the technicalities that prompted the Secretary of State’s Office to reject signatures are the same or similar issues that have previously been the subject of court cases won by hopeful candidates for public office.
Developing story and updates will be provided as they become available.
