Mike Rounds was elected governor in November 2002, getting 57 percent of the vote to defeat Democrat Jim Abbott. He won re-election in 2006 with 62 percent of the vote, defeating Democrat Jack Billion.

He ran for the South Dakota Senate in 1990 and served a decade in that legislative body.

(Last updated by Chet Brokaw on March 23, 2009.)

Tim Johnson was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996, defeating incumbent Republican Sen. Larry Pressler with 51 percent of the vote.

In 2002, Johnson narrowly defeated GOP Rep. John Thune, who was hand-picked by President Bush to challenge Johnson. The margin of victory was 524 votes.

Johnson defeated Republican state Rep. Joel D. Dykstra in 2008 with 62 percent of the vote.

Johnson won his first election in 1986, defeating Republican Dale A. Bell in an open election to fill the House seat left by Tom Daschle's election to the Senate.

Like Daschle before him, Johnson won by a narrow margin, mostly on the strength of turnout in southeast South Dakota, and in the cities of Sioux Falls and Rapid City. He won by better margins every year except his 1994 campaign, when he still won with 60 percent of the vote.

(Last updated by Chet Brokaw on March 23, 2009.)

John Thune was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004, defeating incumbent Democrat Tom Daschle with 51 percent of the vote.

He was elected to South Dakota's U.S House seat in 1996 and served three terms there before he decided to run for the U.S. Senate in 2002. He lost to Democrat Tim Johnson by 524 votes.

(Last updated by Chet Brokaw on July 30, 2009.)