I'm privileged to serve as South Dakota's 40th Lieutenant Governor under Governor Larry Rhoden after spending years working with state government in a number of roles.
I first came to the State Capitol to work for Governor Mike Rounds, and he appointed me to serve on the Board of Regents while I was getting my undergraduate degree at SDSU and my law degree at USD. I returned to spend ten years working for Governor Dennis Daugaard and Governor Kristi Noem, including five years as Chief of Staff.
After leaving to practice law in the private sector, I was appointed by Governor Noem to once again serve on the Board of Regents. I left the Regents after being elected to represent District 13 in the State House of Representatives, where I served two terms as the vice chair of the House Appropriations Committee. I stepped down from the House when Governor Rhoden invited me to serve as his Lieutenant Governor.
When I was very little, I went to Pierre to visit my grandpa, Henry Poppen, who served as a state senator. He taught me to value our open process and our citizen legislature. He was as conservative as they come, but he never got mad, never took things personally, and was friends with nearly everyone – in both parties. Those are the same values my wife Sara and I work to instill in our children – Henry, Elizabeth, and Madeleine – every day.
