- This is a production of SDPB.

- Governor Larry Rhoden.

Thank you so much for sitting down with us, Lieutenant Governor Venhuizen.

Welcome as well.

This is a chance for the people of South Dakota, and I've talked to many people who are still saying, what's his name?

How do you pronounce it?

So you think everybody knows someone, but not everybody pays attention to politics.

So let's start with a little bit about how you want some of the people who aren't paying attention to politics to know about you as their new governor.

- Well, of course I come from a ranch family.

I'm a fourth generation rancher and Mead County Union Center got its name, it's the center of Mead County.

My great great grandfather homesteaded north of Union Center in Chalk Butte country.

And, and of course my granddad homesteaded just a couple miles east of where I live now.

And my brother still lives on that original homestead.

And I'm on the place that my father put together when he came back from World War ii.

So our roots run really deep in South Dakota and especially in that area.

And I was always pretty engaged in public service and volunteering and, and that progressed.

I ended up on some local boards.

I I went to, I joined or ran for the school board.

It was the first first election I went through.

And I was on the school board for like six years before I ran for the legislature.

I've jokingly said many times that I ran for the legislature, so I'd have an excuse to get off the school board.

And that was in 2000.

I was ran that election, 2001, my first year in the legislature.

I spent a total of 16 years in the house and Senate during that time.

In 2006 was when I was majority leader in the house, and Christie came to the legislature.

We became close allies almost immediately.

I was working on the AG production tax, really heavy lifting and, and it didn't take me long to recognize Christie no's talent.

So we worked together on that and built that relationship and very, a lot of commonality between the two of us.

So she went to Congress, I stayed in the legislature.

When she decided to run for governor, she was swimming upstream.

Like she always said, everybody expected her to pick a Sioux Falls businessman.

Instead she picked a West River rancher.

And it was really a good relationship because we thought a lot alike and could finish each other's sentences politically.

And so we, we functioned very well together and it also made the transition much easier because I had sit in on most of the interviews for our staff in our cabinet in years past, had a relationship with all of them.

And so that part of the process was pretty seamless.

- And now with Lieutenant Governor Venhuizen, will this role change from what Lieutenant Governor Rhoden when he was Lieutenant Governor did, how do you see the role shifting at all with, with your presence?

- Well, governor Rodin was a full-time lieutenant governor, and I will be too.

We'll be working as a team and, and working every day on behalf of our state.

You know, some of the day-to-day duties may be different.

I think the governor and I compliment each other in a lot of ways in terms of our areas of knowledge and our, and our skillset.

Of course, I have a lot of experience working in the governor's office as Chief of staff and in some of these administrative roles and, and I'm sure I'll be helping on some of those areas too.

- Yeah.

Tell us people a little bit about your upbringing here in South Dakota as well.

Your interest in history.

- I grew up in armor.

My dad was the dentist in armor.

My mom was a teacher when I was a little kid.

My grandpa was a state senator here at the Capitol, Henry Poppen from De Smet.

And even as a one 2-year-old, I would come here to the Capitol and, and visit him up in the state Senate Chamber.

When I got a little older, I wanted to get involved myself.

And so I went to college at SDSU.

I'd been a page here.

That's where I met my wife, Sarah, for the first time.

Her dad, Dennis Daugaard, was here as a state senator and I was a page and she was here visiting her dad.

So we act, actually met my wife in the Senate lobby, went to college at SDSU, and then I went to work on the Mike Rounds campaign when he ran for governor the first time, which he won, I think it was during that campaign that I met Larry for the first time.

He would've been, must have been running for your second term in, in the House, state House.

And then Mike appointed me as student regent.

I spent five years on the Board of Regents while I was in college.

Sarah and I got married.

I ran Dennis's campaign for governor and then was in the Dug Guard administration that whole eight years, including Forest chief of staff.

We had three kids while we were here in Pier.

And then we're planning on moving back to Sioux Falls.

And we did move back to Sioux Falls at the end of the Daugaard years.

But Kristi asked me to stay on at first as a senior advisor.

Then I left for a while, but then I came back as chief of staff right before Covid started and was part of the team with Lieutenant Governor Rhoden and, and Governor Noem and her whole team during that year of, of Covid left after that.

And she appointed me back to the Board of Regions.

So I spent another couple years there and then decided I'd asked a lot of people over the years to run for the legislature and, and reached a point in my life where it was something that I could do myself.

So I did, I got elected to that served on the appropriations committee, which was the same committee my grandpa had served on, chaired for 12 years.

And so that was, that was nice.

And then I was just reelected and in my third session here when, when I got the call just last week.

And so here we are, - Governor Rhoden, when you get in a room with Lieutenant Governor, say there's something you wanna get done or information you wanna find out, where do your leadership styles compliment each other?

What might you, you know, tap into for his strength?

What might you say like, this is the thing I need to handle myself face-to-face.

How do you see that unfolding?

- My past experience, he just stated as far as him being chief of staff for us.

But even prior to that, back to when I was in the legislature, I've, I've been working kind of with Tony different capacities for the last 20 years.

And in more recent years, Tony was chief of staff for Daugaard and we, we got to work together pretty closely through those years.

I was working with the house leadership.

Tony was representing the governor's office and, and working with Mark Mickelson and got, got a lot more experience then he be, then he is worked working on the, our transition with the nom rodent administration.

And then that went to a senior policy advisor and then almost, well two full sessions as our chief of staff.

So during that time, our relationship got very strong.

He, I like the way he thinks he's Tony's so clearheaded and articulate and understandable and, and bright on so many policy fields that I, I missed him when, when he left, he committed to a very short period of time.

He end up actually spending two sessions with us.

And that was valuable to us, but I gained a lot of valuable experience and, and help and understanding what Tony's abilities were.

So I I knew that he would be a good fit for my lieutenant governor.

- Yeah.

You mentioned the pandemic and we know the federal government before the pandemic had nearly 40% of the state budget comes from federal dollars.

Of course that went way up during the pandemic.

Now we're seeing the tail end of that.

Have you spoken to the president since you've been become governor?

And are you watching the first few days and weeks of his administration, how he's changing how the federal government works and reshaping it?

Have you spoken with him and do you have concerns about the impact of some of those changes on our state budget going forward?

- I have not spoke to the president.

I, I've, I've had conversations, I think with all of our congressional delegation and, and senior staffers from those delegations, I think I have more optimism and concern, quite frankly with the, the administration and the changes that are gonna be made.

And we've, we've met with our, our cabinet folks to talk about with some of the changes that are coming down, the executive orders and President Trump's promise to, to reduce certain regulations that aren't necessary, that provides a state with a golden opportunity for us to comb through our, our regulations and find ways to make government more efficient and less burdensome on, on a, on our citizens.

And so his goal to reduce the size of federal government, I think will present us with some golden opportunities - From a go ahead.

- I say, and it's really something that has to happen, federal spending and the deficit is at a level that's not sustainable.

And up in the Joint Appropriations Committee, we've been asking about that for the last two or three years.

When agencies come in, what are your federal funding streams?

What's the long-term outlook?

What if these go down?

I mean, we will have to be prepared for that, but it's something that as a nation we have to address and we'll have to be part of the answer.

- Will there be temporary pain for South Dakotans and then a, a readjustment or do you anticipate some of the benefits from what you see as policies to be showing up in our lives fairly soon with, - You know, it's hard to say.

We have to see what happens, but we're just gonna have to adjust.

There's gonna be a lot of pain if the federal government ever defaults on the debt too.

And we have to get this back on track.

- When you think of economic development in the state, what are some of the industries that you think we need to invite to South Dakota for the next big economic growth?

- Well, I think we've, we've focused a lot on agriculture and industries that support agriculture and I think we will continue to focus a lot on that.

But we've also, you know, cybersecurity, our university system is, has, has made that a big priority.

And I think that's one of the next big things for South Dakota Cybersecurity and some of that technology.

Ag agriculture will continue, always has and will continue to get a lot of attention because we have, I think it's a simple fact that ag will always be king in South Dakota, but it also accentuates the fact that we need to diversify.

We are very dependent on ag and we have a downturn in the ag economy and markets or drought.

It very significantly impacts us as a state.

So we need to continue to look for more ways to diversify, to add value to agriculture.

In this last year, two years, we started the South Dakota office in international trade.

That's one area we were lagging far behind in South Dakota.

And I was pretty excited when Luke Lindberg took the bull by the horns and created the Office of International Trade.

Been on a two or three trade missions.

We went one to Mexico last year was our first trade mission, hugely successful.

And my first trade mission that I had led as Lieutenant governor and I was pretty apprehensive about it.

And, and when I got there, I was blown away by how well we were received and the people that come, industry leaders from the nation of Mexico, public officials, they all were just anxious to meet with us from South Dakota and look for areas that we could increase trade.

We've had, I think last I heard something like an 80 to one return on investment from that trip.

And so I could go on and on, you know, Japan, Taiwan, we visited those countries and huge success stories out of that.

And I think I'm pretty optimistic about that, that part as far as helping the economy in South Dakota and expanding our trade.

- I wanna go back to something in your history with your family's military history and your time in the National Guard, you've been opposed to legislative efforts to restrict the ability to deploy the National Guard in new ways.

People would like to know what criteria will you deploy the National Guard, whether it's, you know, for flooding in South Dakota or emergency response here, or how do you see the role of the National Guard going forward in in national and international deployments?

- Well, you know, we have troops, we've had troops deployed every day that I'm of the Nome Rodent administration and I don't, I don't think, given the cards that are on the table, that's gonna change anytime soon as far as the troops are nationalized.

As far as our deploying troops in South Dakota.

We'll take it as it comes.

It just depends on the circumstances and, and what's, what's happening on the ground at the time, - Lieutenant Governor Van Heisen, you were with the Daugaard administration when those departments were split from military and Veterans Affairs because of the way you said at the time the National Guard's mission in America was changing, that was 2011.

Yeah.

And it's continued on that pathway.

Are there other things that either one of you see in those departments that we need to do more for the state's veterans, either with a, a veteran's home on the east side of the state, for example, or there other areas that you think we need to beef up the way we care for South Dakota veterans?

- Well, there's always conversation about that.

You know, the, the decision to split those departments back then was really about the fact that the mission of the National Guard and the mission of the Veterans Affairs Office were very different.

Veterans Affairs as a service agency helping our veterans get service, they run the state veterans home.

The, the job was completely different than the job of the National Guard and the idea was to really put more focus on serving veterans.

And I think that's been a success, you know, since that time there's the new veterans home in Hot Springs has been built.

The state veteran cemetery just north of Sioux Falls has been built.

And I know there were always more ideas to serve veterans, but I think splitting those departments was the right move.

- Let's talk a little bit about tribal communities because you said in your first address to the joint legislative session that you wanted a reset and Lieutenant governor, you've been saying for a long time, we cannot paint our tribal communities with one broad brush.

What does a reset look like for, for you Governor Rhoden, and what are some of the specific areas that you feel the need is?

Great.

I'm thinking of health disparities.

Your Secretary of Health recently had a report talking about the, the life expectancy being decades apart from White South Dakotans and American Indian South Dakotans.

She said that's jaw dropping.

So a little bit about what the reset is and then how do we as South Dakotans address some of those issues - Please.

Yeah, well I appreciate the question.

We just an hour ago we're across the hall in our, the governor's large conference room meeting with the chairman and members of the Oglala Sioux tribe.

And they requested the meeting after hearing my joint address and we had a extremely good meeting.

I was heartened by the conversation we had there.

We went around the table and we just had discussions about putting the past behind us and I reminded him of what Governor Governor Noem had said just a few weeks ago.

And then Chairman Renville repeated in the state of the tribe's address, it's time to reset, it's time to rebuild.

And I was sincere in that and, and they recognized that we had a very good back and forth discussion about, you know, some of the kind of low hanging fruit of things that we can do to get started.

Law enforcement being one memorandums of understanding are mutual aid agreements, I think is what they refer to 'em now.

I told him, you know, the story of where I'm from in the middle of Mead County, my brother's a deputy sheriff and chasing bad guys to the edge of the reservation and, and then having to back off I says it, it made, it makes no sense.

It's like he's hurting criminals onto the reservation and then has no choice but then to let, let 'em go.

And I think there was strong agreement that we, there was areas that we can work on there with memorandums of understandings.

We've already made some progress and allowing tribal members or inviting them to be take law enforcement training at, at our facility.

You mentioned medical and, and even even in Western South Dakota, there's a lot of issues with the brand inspection because the, the reservations are a patchwork of deeded land and, and reservation land.

And so there are a lot of cattle herds in the, that travel in and outta those areas.

And it's, it's, it's very necessary we'd be able to brand inspect in those areas and there's never been a memorandum of agreement or to allow that to happen.

So there's a lot of room for improvement.

I think we've recognized that.

We also recognize, acknowledge that we were gonna work at rebuilding the trust between, between the nation government to government relations.

And so I was very encouraged.

- Yeah.

What did they say they wanted from you?

Was there a specific ask?

There's a lot of generalities of, you know, resetting and communications and keeping doors open, memorandums of understanding.

Was there something that they said, we really need this, - Well help with law enforcement?

I think that was a pretty direct ask.

You know, they recognize they have a problem and so I think that's a, you know, it's a, it's a a generalized ask, but it's significant and I think I'm, I'm pretty optimistic that, you know, we're already moving in that direction and I think we can continue to work on that.

- I'm wanna bring up the property tax issue because you mentioned earlier in our conversation about ag taxes and that was something you had worked on before, sort of reclassifying ag property and taxes.

How is that informing the conversations you're having now about property taxes?

- You know, that was old history.

That was 15 years ago.

I think now that we went to an ag productivity system.

Now we're having a distinct problem with owner occupied because of the inflated values of, of housing in certain areas that have shot up.

I, I refer back to that 'cause there's a lot of similarities in the circumstances in, in different ways.

And so I've used that as a kind of a model of what happened back then.

And we had our first meeting with stakeholders from, sent from both the house and senate chambers just a few days ago.

That was a very productive conversation.

I was very encouraged by that.

You know, we're looking at the best approach to, to taking action that goes right, right to the point of the problem.

The people that are hardest hit by the circumstance they're in right now and how to, how to structure that.

So it obviously we don't have a lot of leeway in our budget or you know, we, we already made something like $60 million in cuts in different areas in our budget and we're gonna get some updated numbers shortly.

But I don't think, I don't think there're, I I don't think there's any really good news coming over the pipe from what I've heard.

So we've got a distinct set of circumstances, like I said in, in in my speech, you know, we'll look at, I'm ready to have open discussions with our budget office on, you know, trying to restore cuts that we made, but it's a zero sum game.

Unless revenue's increased, doesn't look like they will, then it's a zero sum came.

If you restore cuts one place you have to increase cuts someplace else.

So it's gonna be interesting to see how the session progresses, what our numbers are.

But I kept, I kept holding out hope that our, our December numbers or the Christmas season numbers is what we'll be getting updated on would be better than what I think they're going to show.

- You know, and I would just add, there's nobody in this building, maybe nobody in the state who has a more history working on property tax than Larry Rhoden.

That's been an issue he's worked on as long as he's been in this capitol.

And there are a lot of people in the legislature who have different ideas about how to address the problem.

When I was in the house, I had a, my own ideas about how to address the problem and I represented a part of the state in Sioux Falls.

That is one of the hotspots for these increases.

But we're really very fortunate to have the governor here to lead this discussion 'cause we're bringing these people and these ideas together and trying to get to a package that, you know, we're all, the sum of the parts is gonna be greater than each of us individually.

And it, and we're really on a good track.

I think.

- I feel like we should close talking about work because you spoke eloquently about work on the ranch and work ethic and I mean, I know that you, from a, a policy standpoint saying work is not a punishment work is, you know, a gift is what you said.

But just in general, where was your idea about work and work ethic formed?

Where did you see those examples and how did they influence you?

- Well I think, you know, I think the answer's pretty clear growing up on a, a small family farm like we did, I can remember before I was in grade school, we milked, you know, I think at that time we had 13 dairy cows.

They were all milked by hand and then we separated the cream and the cream went to Sturgis and that bought, that bought our groceries and the Skimm milk went in a big 50 gallon barrel with barley and it made sour mash to feed to the hogs.

The point to all that is, even from the time I was four years old, I was doing chores and I was contributing.

I think it's good for the soul for people to, to build stuff from start to finish and, and for me just to build a project and see the finished project and then see it being used, that's very fulfilling to me.

And so that's just the way I was brought up.

- Did your dad ever talk to you about his military service?

- He did.

I grew up when I, I was the youngest son, so I spent a lot of time with my father, but he would talk about it when we were working and he'd remind him of a story and I still, I still remember a lot of those stories.

'cause some of 'em were pretty humorous, some of 'em not, you know, he was in a company that liberated a very notorious death camp and I recall him telling stories that would bring you to tears, but it was at a time when all the neighbors in that area had served as well.

So when they got together, you talked about that a lot.

You'd hear 'em, you know, they would open up with each other and and hear the stories.

And of course had uncles that were also in World War, world War ii.

So yeah.

- And and he's part of this Battle of the Bulge that - Yeah, I mean - He saves the world.

I it's not an exaggeration to say he is part of a group of American and allied soldiers who get Hitler on the run after this battle.

- Yep.

Yeah.

The, the there - That's, and yet, yeah, - Pictures in there of, you know, prisoners of war.

Dad sent home a lot of stuff that was, he collected at the end of that Battle of the Bulge because that was a Germany's last gasp.

And so they were surrendering in mass after that battle was over.

And he had some pretty hilarious stories about going to a farm yard to, 'cause they were bivouac after the battle.

And he went out to collect food for, you know, find something fresh to eat other than sea rations.

He said they've left their Jeep and he had a 30 car caliber carbine strapped to his back and knocked on the door and the door opened and German soldiers started marching out single file he said about, about strangled myself to death, trying to get my 30 carving off my back.

And they were, they were surrendering.

- Oh, that's quite a legacy to grow up with too.

Thank you for telling that story.

Anything else you wanna leave the people with South Dakota with, as you go into the days ahead?

How can we, how can everybody be on the same team going forward for the state, for example?

- Well, I, you know, I just say I, I I am absolutely blown away by the opportunity to, to serve as governor of the state.

Never, never really thought about being in this role, but the last week and a half has just been amazing and I, I very much look forward to getting to work, getting our team going again.

And we've been, they've hit the ground running and, and it's been historic to try and do this in the middle of session, but so far I'm, I'm just extremely encouraged at how well our team has functioned and just, it was just seamless going through this, this transition phase.

Thank, - Thank you for your time.

Thank you Lieutenant Governor.

Thank you.