PIERRE — Jason Ravnsborg has announced he no longer plans to run for re-election to the Office of the Attorney General, just 11 days before a historic trial that could remove him from office before his term ends.
In a Friday email to Dakota News Now's Austin Goss, which Goss shared on Twitter, Ravnsborg affirmed the outlet's previous report that he would not be running for re-election.
Just received the following from Jason Ravnsborg pic.twitter.com/YyhgJhj8EZ
— Austin Goss (@AustinGossSD) June 10, 2022
The embattled attorney general's re-election campaign has been the focus of political speculation across South Dakota after he was impeached in April for crimes and malfeasance in office relating a September 2020 crash, where Ravnsborg struck and killed Joe Boever, a pedestrian walking alongside a highway at night.
Following the impeachment, which passed the state's House without a vote to spare, the South Dakota Senate has resolved themselves as a court of impeachment, and are set to conduct trial regarding the House's vote to run June 21-22 at the Capitol in Pierre.
Ravnsborg is not expected to testify in his own impeachment trial, though investigators from North and South Dakota as well as a private crash reconstructionist are.
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Pursuant to the state's constitution, Ravnsborg is currently suspended from serving as the attorney general until the Senate acquits him of the charges put forth by the House. Should he be convicted, Gov. Kristi Noem would appoint his replacement to serve in an interim capacity until a newly elected attorney general would be sworn in in January.
Thus far, former Attorney General Marty Jackley and current director of the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation David Natvig have entered the race, both as Republicans. The two seek the party's nod at the state's GOP convention, to be held June 23-25, the day following Ravnsborg's Senate trial, in Watertown.
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