RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – For Democratic State Representative Nicole Uhre-Balk, surviving in Pierre with a Republican supermajority requires a skillset she honed long before entering politics: managing a classroom. She compares the legislative process to a “group project,” but with much higher stakes.
In a state capitol where Democrats hold only a handful of seats, she says that sometimes being in the minority party means holding deciding votes. Especially when the supermajority splits between moderate and conservative Republicans. A swing-vote dynamic which, she says, often turns her small caucus into the most popular group on the grounds.
“A lot of
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