Republican who oversees South Dakota's elections endorses a Democrat in the race to succeed her

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota’s Republican secretary of state is breaking with her party and endorsing the Democrat running for the office, saying “the integrity, stability, and professionalism of this office is at stake.”

Secretary of State Monae Johnson lost the nomination at the state GOP convention in June to Heather Baxter, a state lawmaker whose campaign website says she aligns with President Donald Trump and his concerns about "inaccurate voter rolls, mail in ballots, and voting machine issues.” A previous statement on Baxter's website said she supported getting rid of voting machines in favor of hand-counting ballots, which has been a theme among those pushing conspiracy theories that voting and ballot counting machines can be rigged.

Johnson said she endorsed Democratic candidate Terrence Davis because he brings law enforcement experience from his years as a state trooper, as well as an educational background in law and policy. The secretary of state’s office on Monday said Johnson would not comment beyond her statement, which was published over the weekend.

“I am a Republican. Terrence is a Democrat. I understand that this decision will disappoint some people in my party and anger others,” Johnson wrote in a column published in South Dakota War College, a conservative politics blog.

It’s not clear what impact the endorsement will have in South Dakota, where no Democrat has held statewide office since 2015. The state has voted overwhelmingly for Trump in the past three presidential elections.

Baxter downplayed Johnson's endorsement of her opponent.

“It’s not surprising that she’d rather back someone who won’t change what she has done,” she said in a statement.

Earlier this year, Baxter sponsored a bill to prohibit the use of automatic tabulating systems, though the legislation ultimately failed.

A previous version of her website stated that she “advocates for hand-counted paper ballots, no more voting machines.” On Monday, Baxter said she altered the wording because she does not have the power to change the way ballots are tallied and she trusts auditors ”to do what’s best for their counties.”

Hand-counting ballots has been shown to take far longer and is more prone to error than using tabulator machines.

Baxter, who won election to the Legislature two years ago, said Trump’s agenda on voting and elections is generally a “reinforcement of current election laws.”

Since taking office for his second term, Trump has attempted to federalize election operations, even though the Constitution gives states and in some cases Congress that authority. He has tried to put the Postal Service at the center of deciding which voters can receive a mail ballot, attempted to impose a proof-of-citizenship requirement for registering to vote in this year's midterms and pushed a narrative that noncitizens are marring U.S. elections.

Six years after he lost his bid for reelection to Biden, Trump continues to spread false claims of widespread voting fraud.

South Dakota is the latest state where Republican candidates who align with Trump's views on voting and elections have been on the ballot this year for statewide office, in some cases winning their primaries.

Johnson's endorsement of a Democrat to succeed her in the office that oversees elections is a bit of a turnaround. When she campaigned for the position in 2022, she refused to say whether Democrat Joe Biden had won the 2020 election and focused on “election integrity,” a phrase often used by conspiracy theorists who refuse to acknowledge the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

Last year, Johnson apologized for accidentally releasing information that revealed whether those on the state's voter rolls were seeking government assistance such as food aid.

Jim Eschenbaum, chair of the South Dakota Republican Party, said GOP delegates soured on Johnson after she failed to appear before a legislative committee to answer questions about a contract her office had awarded to an electronic poll book company. She eventually was issued a subpoena.

“An involved citizenry just won’t stand for that from their elected officials, period,” he said in a text to The Associated Press.

For his part, Davis emphasized that the secretary of state's office is nonpartisan and that its mission is to serve all residents “honestly and fairly.”

FILE - South Dakota Republican Secretary of State Monae Johnson is pictured in her office on Jan. 11, 2024, in Pierre, S.D. (AP Photo/Jack Dura, File)

Hundreds of flights were canceled in the U.S. Northeast due to technical problems at a key regional air traffic control center, hitting every major airport in the New York City area for several hours Monday before the federal transportation chief said damaged data lines were fixed and operations were resuming.

The primary communications line failed at a key Federal Aviation Administration facility in Philadelphia and the backup fiber optic line was inadvertently severed by railroad construction workers. That left controllers without radar or communications during the day.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in an online post that the primary and backup lines were fixed by Monday evening and all airports in the Northeast were operating again. But significant delays were expected to continue through the evening hours.

Hundreds of flights were canceled at the Newark, LaGuardia, Kennedy and Philadelphia airports. By Monday evening, flights were resuming at all those airports. Some airlines were allowing customers to change flights without charge. The FAA advised travelers to check the status of their flights before heading to the airport.

The outage happened just as President Donald Trump and numerous foreign leaders were flying into New York City for the United Nations General Assembly.

The technical problems stem from the same FAA facility in Philadelphia that caused numerous disruptions at Newark Liberty International Airport in the spring of 2025.

Regional control centers like these have two lines that carry radar and communications data in and out: the primary and the backup. The FAA said a circuit on the primary failed Monday morning, and when the system tried to switch to the backup, workers discovered that the fiber optic line had been cut.

Earlier in the day, Duffy said an Amtrak construction crew was to blame. Amtrak, however, pointed to a New Jersey Transit construction crew that was working in the area between Newark and New Brunswick, New Jersey.

FAA administrator Bryan Bedford told reporters earlier that the agency had focused efforts on fixing the primary connection as soon as possible by installing a new circuit on the primary line, while also working to repair the backup fiber optic line. Verizon said at the time that its technicians were also working to restore service as soon as possible.

Bedford earlier described the fiber break as “massive,” saying it would take several hours to repair, according to a video posted online by a CBS transportation reporter.

The primary circuit that failed is due to be replaced as part of the overhaul of the nation’s air traffic control system.

Also Monday, the FAA began testing a new computer system that uses AI to help predict schedule conflicts and weather issues to help air traffic controllers reroute traffic. But that system is initially being tested only in the Washington, D.C., area, so it did not appear to be linked to the outages.

FILE - A traveler with a smartphone walks past an air traffic control tower at Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia on March 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)