Campaigning Ramps Up as South Dakota Voters Decide on Medicaid Expansion

By Adjoa Kyerematen

Published on October 18, 2022

CUSTER, S.D. — A silver minivan decorated with a large sticker reading “Love Your Neighbor Tour” recently circumnavigated South Dakota.

Catholic nuns, Protestant pastors, a synagogue president, and a Muslim nonprofit professional were among the interfaith leaders who packed into the rented six-seater or caravanned behind.

The road trip’s mission: to register voters and urge them to support expansion of the state’s Medicaid program to cover thousands more low-income adults.

“If we are living our faith, then we have a serious obligation to love our neighbor and to show that in very practical ways,” Sister Teresa Ann Wolf, a Benedictine nun, said at one of the convoy’s stops. “And one very simple, concrete thing we can do to help our neighbor — like 40,000 neighbors in South Dakota who need health care — is to vote yes for Amendment D.”

Many South Dakotans are people of faith and might find this argument from religious leaders convincing, said Brenda Handel-Johnson, a Lutheran deacon.

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