Mike Rounds

Mike Rounds (2015)

Marion Michael "Mike" Rounds (born October 24, 1954 in Huron , Beadle County , South Dakota ) is an American politician ( Republican Party ). From 2003 to 2011 he served as the 31st  governor of South Dakota; since 2015 he has represented this state in the US Senate .

Early years

Rounds was born the oldest of eleven children. It was named after a relative who died in World War I. His father Don Rounds worked for the government of South Dakota, and his brother Tim is a member of that state's parliament. He holds a degree in political science at South Dakota State University ; he graduated with a Bachelor of Science . During his studies he met his future wife Jean. They have been married since 1978 and have four children.

Political rise

Rounds served in the South Dakota Senate between 1991 and 2000 . Since 1995 he has been leader of the Republican parliamentary group. During this time he worked successfully with Governor Bill Janklow and had a significant part in many of his bills. After he had reached the constitutionally prescribed maximum number of legislative terms in the State Senate in 2000, he had to resign from this body. In December 2001, Rounds announced his candidacy for governor. At the time, it was considered unlikely that he would stand a chance of winning his party's primary election. Two other candidates, Mark Barnett and Steve T. Kirby , were considered favorites. After the election campaign between the two favorites was tough and dirty, Rounds was able to stay out of these skirmishes and run his own campaign. As a result, he managed to prevail in the primaries with 44.3% of the vote against his rivals. Barnett came in at 29.5% and Kirby at 26.1%. In the actual election on November 5, 2002 Rounds came to 56.8% of the vote and was elected against the Democrat James W. Abbott as the new governor.

South Dakota Governor

After being re-elected in 2006, Rounds took on a second term. Among other things, he campaigned for better education policy in South Dakota. He also passed a law to better control the pharmaceutical industry and campaigned for environmental protection and the creation of new recreational facilities. He also put forward a concept to promote the economic growth of the state. During his tenure, however, the first execution since 1947 took place. Rounds was at times also traded as the Republican presidential candidate in 2008 , but then played no role in his party's primary elections, in which a majority for John McCain as their presidential candidate became apparent relatively early on .

On January 8, 2011, Rounds, who was not allowed to run for a third time according to the state constitution, handed over the governorship to his former lieutenant governor Dennis Daugaard .

US Senator

In November 2014, Mike Rounds ran in the US Senate elections for the seat of the no longer-running Democrat Tim Johnson . His opponents were Democrat Rick Weiland and former Republican Senator Larry Pressler , who ran as an Independent. After Rounds had at times had a lower share of the vote in the opinion polls than the other two candidates combined, it was speculated whether one of these would renounce the candidacy in favor of the other in order to prevent a victory for the Republican. Ultimately, however, all three applicants competed; Rounds won with 50 percent against Weiland (30 percent) and Pressler (17 percent) and was able to take over his mandate in Congress on January 3, 2015.

Web links

Commons : Mike Rounds  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Mike Rounds in the National Governors Association (English)
• Mike Rounds in nndb (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ South Dakota Secretary of State: General Election - November 4, 2014