Jamie Smith Speaks at the Black Hills Forum and Press Club

RAPID CITY–“If you have ever been made to feel not welcome in the state of South Dakota, you are welcome in the state of South Dakota,” said Jaime Smith, Democratic nominee running for Governor of South Dakota. Smith was invited to speak at the Black Hills Forum and Press Club on August 26, 2022, to an audience of press, writers and concerned citizens.

“We have a current administration that seems to segregate, separate, try to divide people and not bring them together. I’m not that guy. If you want somebody that brings people together, Jaime Smith’s your guy,” he said.

Smith went on to talk about what he cares about most and what he’s going to be doing about it when he’s elected governor.

“First of all, we have a crisis in childcare in the state of South Dakota. It’s a crisis. We need to figure it out and I don’t have the answers,” but if elected Governor, Smith said he would find the answers. “I darn well say were going to put all the smart people in a room together that work with childcare and were going to figure that out.”

Smith noted how the Pre-Kindergarten program in Yankton found a way to make it work. “They have figured out how to get pre-k for every kid in the city of Yankton. They figured it out you guys. We can do that for the whole state of South Dakota, cause there’s not one child in this state that shouldn’t have the same opportunity as another child to be ready to go to kindergarten. Kids should be ready to go to kindergarten. If their families want to have them in preschool, they should be able to go.”

A former teacher and married to a current middle school teacher, Smith feels strongly about investing in our state’s future and about the current changes in public education.

“There’s been an assault on public education in the state of South Dakota. It’s not even a veiled assault on public education, it’s an assault,” he said and that we need to respect teachers and let teachers teach. “It’s a profession we need to respect.”

Smith stressed that South Dakotans do not need to go out of state to find a curriculum for their Social Studies standards. “We don’t need to do that. We have qualified people in this state that actually did their job a year ago and it got thrown out and then they said there’s nothing partisan about this hogwash. That’s all it is. We’re not going to do that. We’re going to let teachers teach and we’re going to trust the profession.”

Smith went on to say what he believes leadership looks like for South Dakota.

“There’s a general overarching theme in my leadership style; It’s to trust the professionals that are professionals in whatever area they are in. If you’re a lawyer, you should help make decisions about what lawyers do, like maybe having to pass a Bar. Ok? They decided that maybe we didn’t need to do that in the legislature this year, but we’ve stopped it. If you’re a doctor, you should be able to practice medicine in the state of South Dakota and if you’re a woman, you should be able to get the healthcare you need and deserve. It’s not the governors’ job to be in that medical doctors’ office deciding what kind of medical care you need. That’s a patient and a doctors’ right and privilege and I will stand up for that 100 percent.”

Smith ended his speech with these final comments on Native American’s in South Dakota.

“I want to touch on one thing that really bothers me. When I heard of the passing of Tim Giago – I mean this man did great things for our state of South Dakota. What I want to say on this is the first people to ever be in our state of South Dakota should never be treated like the people that are last. They should never be treated like the people that are last. We’re in a current situation where our governor can’t even go on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation still because she’s banned.”

Smith said when speaking to the President of the Oglala Lakota Nation Kevin Killer he asked, “What can I do when elected governor to help you?” Killer replied, “Don’t get banned.”

“Really, it’s that simple folks,” he said and that he’ll have an open-door policy with the tribes. Smith asked if there are issues are problems between the state and tribes, “You bet there are.”

“How do you solve problems? Talking about them, sitting down and having difficult conversations; but the door has to be open. That’s on all issues,” he said.

Smith said that he wasn’t talking as a Democrat or as a Republican or Independent, “I’m talking to you as Jaime Smith a South Dakotan. I’m talking to you as a guy that cares deeply about the people of the state who want it to be better. I want to talk about civility in politics. We can agree to disagree on a lot of different things, but as long as we’re willing to have the conversation, we’re going to be able to move the ball forward.”

Smith answered a number of questions from the Press Forum after his speech and is looking forward to his debate with current Governor Kristi Noem that is currently scheduled for September 30, 2022, in Rapid City.

Kirk Dickerson General Manager of Native Sun News Today asked “If you were elected governor, do you have the power to overturn the critical race theory that Noem has put out? Reason being mostly for people of color it takes away the history of how our state was formed.

Smith gave an answer that seemed to please Dickerson as he nodded his head in agreement.

“The governor has an executive proclamation because the legislature would not pass it actually. We worked hard to kill that and we did. We have an executive proclamation that says teachers can teach; again, respect the profession. One of the things that we discussed when that bill was brought to the floor is that they didn’t want our kids to feel uncomfortable. So, we didn’t want to teach anything that made our kids feel uncomfortable. I have taught quite a bit and I have worked quite a bit. When you are teaching about the Holocaust, people should feel uncomfortable. When you are teaching about slavery people should feel uncomfortable. When you talk about Wounded Knee, people probably should feel uncomfortable. Through that discomfort, you know what happens? People learn. People move, people change, because the discomfort says ‘well, that wasn’t right. We should have done something different,’ and we learn from that. What happens when we don’t know our history? We’re doomed to repeat it. Right?”

For more information about Jaime Smith, please visit www.smithforgov.org.

(Contact Estella Claymore at estella.claymore@gmail.com)

 

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