Marty Jackley

The AP called South Dakota's at-large House race for Marty Jackley at 10:03 p.m. local time on November 3, 2026, with 43 percent of the vote counted. At that point he led Nikki Gronli 65 percent to 35 percent, a 30-point gap in early returns.

Jackley, 56, succeeds Dusty Johnson, who sought the Republican nomination for governor and lost. The report gives no final vote count, and state certification of the result was not verified as of November 4, 2026.

Marty Jackley trained in electrical engineering before he practiced law, according to his official attorney general biography. Raised in Sturgis, he earned a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering with honors from the South Dakota School of Mines. He then received a law degree from the University of South Dakota and clerked for Chief Federal Judge Richard Battey.

In private practice he was a partner at Gunderson, Palmer, Nelson and Ashmore, working on criminal, civil and business litigation and on transactions. His prosecution work included serving as a special assistant attorney general on controlled substance felonies and as state's attorney for Jones and Haakon counties. He has also acted as a special prosecutor for the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate.

Jackley took the oath as South Dakota's 33rd attorney general on January 7, 2023, according to a December 20, 2022 release from the South Dakota Attorney General's office. Before the oath, he named a leadership team that included former Attorney General Mark Barnett as chief deputy and Brent Kempema for the criminal division. Charlie McGuigan was named for the civil division, Dan Satterlee as director of the Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) and Sarah Thorne for appellate work.

The release lists appointments only and does not measure the office's later performance. In a September 28, 2026 announcement, Jackley said a task force created in 2025 had recommended a model policy for prosecutors and law enforcement on constitutional disclosure in criminal cases. The policy draws on the disclosure rules from the decisions Brady v. Maryland and Giglio v. United States.

The task force recommendation is guidance, and the announcement does not show that agencies adopted it or that any case outcome changed.

Marty Jackley's documented AI record covers two subjects: state criminal laws against AI-generated sexual abuse imagery and the power of states to enforce their own AI laws. In a July 1, 2025 statement, he praised the U.S. Senate for removing a proposed 10-year moratorium on state AI enforcement from a budget reconciliation bill. The statement reported that the Senate voted 99 to 1 to drop it.

Jackley said he was one of 40 attorneys general who wrote to Congress in May 2025 and that he personally contacted Thune and Rounds. He said the moratorium would have blocked South Dakota from enforcing state laws on child sexual abuse deepfakes and election integrity. The same statement said he helped draft SB 79 in 2024, which expanded child pornography laws to AI imagery and was passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor.

An August 27, 2025 release said SB 79 criminalized possessing, manufacturing and distributing AI-generated child sexual abuse images. That coverage includes manipulated images of real children and synthetic depictions.

In the same release, Jackley joined a coalition of 47 attorneys general. Their letters demanded that search engines and payment platforms act against nonconsensual deepfake intimate imagery, which the release said harms women and girls.

These statements cover abuse imagery and state enforcement power. They do not lay out a full federal AI agenda, and the cited records include no congressional votes by Jackley on AI.

Jackley proposed on January 6, 2026, to add digital currency to South Dakota's search and seizure laws, in a release that cited Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) data. Those figures showed $13.8 million in reported cryptocurrency losses in South Dakota in 2024, including $7.8 million reported by victims over 60. By subtraction, the remaining reported losses total about $6 million, so victims over 60 accounted for more than half of reported losses.

The totals count reported losses only and do not represent proven crimes or convictions. The office presented the proposal as an investigation and enforcement tool. Legislators passed it as SB 43, and it took effect July 1, 2026, according to the June 29 release.

Two other bills from that package address privacy. SB 41 covers criminal invasion of privacy involving digitally fabricated material that depicts an identifiable person. SB 49 sets a civil penalty for genetic data privacy violations.

Jackley's immigration enforcement record as attorney general includes a 2025 plan for state agents to work with federal immigration authorities and a request for closer federal screening of small imported packages. On May 23, 2025, he announced a partnership between the DCI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the 287(g) program.

Jackley said the agreement limited the federal authority involved to cases of violent criminals and drug dealers. His office requested the Task Force Model, with a planned headquarters in Pierre and initial agents from eastern and western South Dakota set for training. The release announced a plan and a request, so it does not establish that the partnership was completed or how many people were deported.

In an April 1, 2025 release, Jackley joined 24 other attorneys general in a letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The letter asked the Trump administration to scrutinize Entry Type 86, a small-package import program, more closely as a route for fentanyl shipments. It was an advocacy request, and the release does not show that federal policy changed.

His campaign issues page says he supports finishing the border wall and backs police, sheriffs and prosecutors.

Jackley's campaign lists tax cuts, fair agricultural markets, trade and less federal regulation among his economic priorities, according to its issues page as checked on November 4, 2026. The campaign says he has a farm near Vale and a ranch near Pierre. It also says he supports the Trump agenda.

The same page describes strong support for gun rights and reports an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association (NRA). That rating is the campaign's own claim.

These are campaign positions. The cited records contain no tax, trade or farm bill that Jackley wrote or voted on.

Four of the 10 bills Jackley's office proposed for 2026 deal with open government or election money, and all took effect July 1, 2026, according to the June 29, 2026 release. SB 46 addresses open meeting agendas, and SB 47 covers executive sessions and closed meetings. SB 48 deals with posting official meeting agendas online 72 hours ahead.

SB 17 prohibits campaign contributions and loans from foreign nationals. The release names each bill's subject and effective date but does not report how often the new rules have been applied or enforced.

Jackley joined a bipartisan coalition of 40 attorneys general on June 12, 2026, urging Congress to keep funding the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) in fiscal year 2027 Commerce, Justice and Science appropriations. The coalition tied the funding to civil legal aid for low-income Americans, including veterans and rural communities.

The release records a request to Congress and does not report a final appropriation. It is the only federal appropriations request among the cited records.

Marty Jackley for Congress, his principal campaign committee, reported $1,737,520.15 in total receipts from July 1, 2025, through October 14, 2026, according to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Individual contributions supplied $1,417,725.65, about 82 percent of the total, and other committees gave $299,450. Those two lines add up to $1,717,175.65, leaving $20,344.50 in other receipt categories.

The committee reported $687,379.37 in disbursements, $1,050,140.78 in cash on hand and no debts. Receipts minus disbursements equal that cash figure exactly: $1,737,520.15 minus $687,379.37 is $1,050,140.78. The FEC lists him as a Republican House candidate for district SD00 under candidate ID H6SD01109, with committee ID C00909689.

These figures describe committee money only and say nothing about Jackley's personal wealth. They stop at October 14, before the final weeks of the race, and the FEC notes that new summary data can take 48 hours to appear.

Jackley is new to the House, and the cited records include no congressional votes by him. The cited records include no comprehensive AI platform from his campaign and no measured results from the 287(g) partnership, the Entry Type 86 request or the disclosure task force. His birthplace, birth date and family details do not appear in the cited records and are left out.

Related coverage sits on the federal election directory, the federal hub and the U.S. House index. For campaign filings after October 14, 2026, open Jackley's FEC candidate page.