As South Dakota’s attorney general, I’m no stranger to the effects of fraud. It doesn’t matter whether the victim is a senior citizen, a business paying a contractor, a family taking out a loan, or the American taxpayer funding a government program; the damage has been done. I’ve seen countless hardworking people harmed by scammers who felt the rules didn’t apply to them.
That is why fighting fraud and protecting consumers has been the heart of my work as attorney general, and why I believe that experience matters as I look to enter Congress as South Dakota’s sole representative this November.
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I have seen fraud up close. In 2025, my office prosecuted an internet scam that stole at least $325,000 from a Lawrence County couple. The defendant was sentenced to eight years in prison and ordered to pay $325,000 in restitution. Similarly, in Huron, a contractor stole more than $36,000 from seven customers for construction work that was never completed.
These crimes are unacceptable, but now, they’re happening at a national level.
As we know, fraud these days doesn’t always come from a man with a computer in his basement. As technology advances, so do the techniques of scammers, especially as artificial intelligence gives everyday people the ability to produce deepfakes and similar scamming materials.
In July, I was proud to help South Dakota join a 46-state settlement with Block Inc. after its product Cash App misled consumers about the safety of its platform. Our state is now receiving more than $410,000 from the settlement.
We have also worked with attorneys general across the country to correct the digital infrastructure that allows scams to happen in the first place. Just this past September, I joined 48 other attorneys general in calling on the Federal Communications Commission to strengthen rules aimed at preventing scammers from accessing legitimate telephone numbers for illegal robocalls.
Stopping fraud is about protecting your wallet, which is why consumer protection extends to banking as well. In March, South Dakota joined a bipartisan group of 13 attorneys general in suing OneMain Financial over allegations that borrowers were misled about loans and unwanted add-on products.
The most important lesson I’ve learned during my time in office is that it’s rarely the people’s fault. When we see billions in Medicaid and other social services fraud, we can’t just point blame at one another. We have to address where the government turned a blind eye in the first place.
I saw this personally when I helped prosecute the case of a former Department of Social Services employee. This person was convicted by a jury of stealing approximately $1.8 million in taxpayer funds from Child Protection Services. She’ll now serve seven years for attempting to take away vital funding from children who need it the most.
I’ve put a stop to it in South Dakota, and I’ll do the same in Washington.
Back in 2025, I worked with legislators on a government accountability package that strengthened reporting requirements, whistleblower protections, auditing authority, and internal controls.
In May, I was able to take this work to the nation’s capital. I worked alongside Vice President JD Vance and other attorneys general at a White House fraud task force roundtable focused on combating fraud in public assistance programs. Since then, South Dakota applied to take part in the federal Special Attorneys Program to strengthen cooperation between state and federal prosecutors.
THERE IS PERVASIVE FRAUD IN GOVERNMENT HEALTHCARE PROGRAMS
My goal is to bring this expertise to Congress, and from there to the Judiciary Committee, because no American taxpayer deserves to see a single dollar of theirs has been wasted. South Dakotans understand this. They work hard for their money, and any abuse of that is a breach of trust.
My experience fighting fraud has taught me that affordability is not only about what the government spends. It is also about stopping the people and institutions that take money from Americans through deception, waste, and abuse.