South Dakota governor candidate calls unfavorable poll ‘fake’ after touting earlier results from same group

**Republican governor candidate Toby Doeden speaks to an attendee at the South Dakota Republican Convention on June 26, 2026, in Rapid City. (Photo by Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight)**

Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight

Republican South Dakota governor candidate Toby Doeden touted a poll in May that correctly predicted him finishing first in the June 2 primary, but he called results from the same firm “fake” on Wednesday when they showed him trailing by 30 points in a July 28 runoff election.

KELO-TV commissioned the new poll from Emerson College Polling in Boston, which shows 62% of likely Republican voters supporting Gov. Larry Rhoden, 32% supporting Doeden and the remainder undecided.

The poll was conducted July 12-13 and has a 4.3 percentage-point margin of error.

Doeden, a businessman from Aberdeen, reacted Wednesday in a Facebook post.

“The paid-off media is attempting to influence the outcome of this election with a very fake poll,” he said.

That stands in contrast to his reaction following the May 21 release of a KELO/Emerson poll that showed him leading with 26% support in the four-way primary race.

“KELOLAND News shows us leading in their latest poll,” Doeden posted on Facebook at the time, while sharing a bar chart of the poll results. “Our internal polling looks even better.”

He ended up finishing first on June 2 with 31% of the votes, but his failure to reach the legally required 35% for victory threw him into a runoff with Rhoden, who received 25% of the votes and finished second. The winner of the July 28 runoff will face Democratic nominee Dan Ahlers in the Nov. 3 general election.

Early voting for the runoff is underway, in person and by mail. The runoff is limited to registered Republicans, and the voter registration deadline was Monday.

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