District 20 race at a glance
South Dakota House District 20 will have a contested race in the Nov. 3, 2026, general election. The candidate field consists of Kaley Nolz and Jeff Bathke. Both are Republicans, and both are identified as incumbents.
That makes this a contest between two candidates who share the same party affiliation and current-officeholder status. It is not a race in which the candidates can be distinguished by party label alone. Voters looking to compare them will need to consider any policy positions, campaign information or other distinctions that emerge during the election.
The election is marked as contested, meaning it is not an unopposed race. No winner can be determined until the election process is complete.
The candidates
Kaley Nolz, Republican: Nolz is running as an incumbent in District 20. Incumbent status means Nolz already holds the office while seeking election in 2026. Nolz has no documented policy positions in the race. Fundraising, campaign spending and cash-on-hand figures are not listed.
Jeff Bathke, Republican: Bathke is running as an incumbent in District 20. Incumbent status means Bathke already holds the office while seeking election in 2026. Bathke has no documented policy positions in the race. Fundraising, campaign spending and cash-on-hand figures are not listed.
The two candidates therefore enter the race with the same documented party affiliation and the same incumbent designation. Neither has a documented issue platform that would allow voters to compare their approaches to state policy.
What is contested
The central feature of the District 20 race is that two Republican incumbents are part of the same general-election contest. Because both candidates carry the same party label, the contest does not present a Republican-versus-Democratic choice among the candidates named for the race.
The current candidate information also does not identify disagreements over taxes, education, health care, public safety, state spending or any other issue. It would be inaccurate to assign either candidate a position on those subjects without a documented statement.
Campaign finance information also does not offer a basis for comparison at this point. No fundraising totals, spending totals or cash-on-hand amounts are listed for Nolz or Bathke. That means there is no documented financial advantage for either candidate in the race information currently attached to their campaigns.
What comes next
The general election is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. Between now and Election Day, the main questions are whether Nolz and Bathke publish policy positions and whether campaign finance figures become listed.
Those developments could give voters more specific ways to compare two candidates who currently share both a party label and incumbent status. Changes to the candidate field would also affect the shape of the contest.
Until then, the confirmed choice is between Kaley Nolz and Jeff Bathke in a contested South Dakota House District 20 general election. The present race information supports no conclusion about which candidate has an electoral advantage, and it provides no basis for predicting the outcome.
