SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) – Former South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds is seeking another term in the Senate this November.
The incumbent will face off with the former South Dakota lawmaker Dan Ahlers.
Rounds, who entered the Senate in January 2015, defeated Scyller Borglum in June to win the Republican nomination. That was after being unsure if he’d run for re-election.
His opponent, Dell Rapids resident and former state legislator Dan Ahlers, is running on the Democratic ticket, focusing on working across party lines.
While a guest on KELO Radio’s “It’s Your Business” with Bill Zortman, Ahlers shared plans on some of today’s most polarizing issues. The current status of the medical marketplace was one of them.
“We need to elect people who are going to sit down and work with people across the aisle. Part of what happened was when we passed the ACA (Affordable Care Act), it was kind of shoved down one party’s throat. The Democrats passed it without the Republicans, and when you do that, you get twelve years of one party fighting another,” Ahlers said.
Ahler’s believes that working in a bipartisan effort is the key to driving down medical costs and learning between parties what will work.
As for the Republican incumbent, Mike Rounds outright opposes the ACA, and in the past supported lawsuits to repeal the act. On his website, he describes the Affordable Cares Act as wreaking havoc on the medical industry. He says he will work to repeal and replace it, section-by-section, in a business-like manner.
The Trump administration’s recent decision to push through a new justice of the Supreme Court was also an area of contention for the two candidates.
On the same program, Rounds referred to the decision as a long term decision to change how the Court viewed its role in decision making. He wants to make sure the Supreme Court refrains from operating as another legislative body.
Ahler’s referred to the decision as hypocritical, taking to social media and sharing a tweet from 2016 of Rounds giving his thoughts on why it would only be fair to wait for the end of the election cycle to appoint a new Supreme Court Justice after the death of then-Justice Antonin Scalia.
Election Day is Tuesday, November 3.
