PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — A majority of the South Dakota Senate’s incoming class of 32 Republicans decided in a secret vote on Friday night that Chris Karr , who’s never before been a senator, should be nominated to be in charge of their chamber when the new 2025-2026 term starts in January.
The nominee for Senate president pro tem must be still officially approved by the full Senate during a vote on the opening day the 2025 session. But that’s a formality. Karr, a Sioux Falls businessman, is already moving ahead. As to why he was selected, during a telephone interview on Monday he said, “There’s a mixture of reasons.”
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Some of it was his experience. Karr will be moving over from the South Dakota House of Representatives, where he had been elected by voters to the maximum four consecutive terms that the South Dakota Constitution allows in a chamber.
For half of those eight years, Karr chaired the House Appropriations Committee . “I think I have a reputation for being fair minded and having integrity,” he said.