Simplified: Three candidates are on the ballot to fill three open seats on the Lincoln County Commission in the general election after securing the Republican nomination in the primaries. Because no candidates from other parties have thrown their hats into the race, these three individuals are looking at a clear path into office.
Why it matters
- Three candidates – Joel Arends, Amy Harms and Joni Ekstrum – emerged as the Republican nominees for the Lincoln County Commissioners race in the June primary election. They are not facing any challengers in the general election, meaning they should be elected without any additional hurdles.
- Only one candidate on the ballot – Joel Arends – is an incumbent. He also ran unopposed in the June primary election.
- The remaining candidates, Amy Harms and Joni Ekstrum, will be new faces on the commission. Harms defeated incumbent Tiffani Landeen to earn the District 3 seat and Ekstrum succeeded Commissioner Jim Schmidt, who opted not to run for re-election for District 5.
- Lincoln County is the fastest growing county in South Dakota, thanks to the growth of Sioux Falls and neighboring communities. Policy decisions made by this county commission will have a broad impact on many residents, and could shape the future direction of county development.
Let’s meet the candidates
(Candidates are listed in alphabetical order)
- Joel A. Arends
- Amy Harms
- Joni Ekstrum
Joel Arends
Once officially re-elected on Nov. 3, Joel Arends will be serving his third term on the Lincoln County Commission representing District 1. The 49-year-old Sioux Falls resident owns his law firm, Arends Law, and currently serves in the Army Reserve.
Arends said he has hosted town hall meetings to listen to taxpayers, and believes he can bring a strong voice on the commission to bring forward those concerns.
“I think it was important for my experience, and to bring that experience and leadership back to the commission,” he said.
Amy Harms
Amy Harms will represent District 3 once she takes office – along with the other two candidates – in January. She is a marketing manager for an online car dealership and is the current chair of the Lincoln County Republican Party.
“This county is not five commissioners,” Harms said. “This county is every taxpayer and everyone who resides in Lincoln County, and they all deserve to be heard. I cannot tell you how excited I am to be able to take part in letting them be active in their county.”
Harms, age 50, lives in Sioux Falls.
Joni Ekstrum
Joni Ekstrum, the executive director of South Dakota Biotech, emerged victorious from the primary election to represent District 5 on the commission. She said she has watched Lincoln County expand rapidly over the past several years, and wants to be involved in decisions about its future growth.
“This is a time for me to step up and say ‘hey, I’m interested in this,’” she said. “I have time and capacity to get engaged and to help make some of those decisions, and to make smart decisions with that growth.”
Ekstrum, age 55, lives in Sioux Falls.
Let’s talk policy
What would be your top issue, should you be elected?
Joel Arends named three top issues for his upcoming term on the commission that’s driven by his conversations with county residents, including property taxes and hyperscale data centers. The third issue is property rights and land use conflicts, which he said the county commission can regulate to ensure limitations on future development that would not benefit residents.
“I’m very confident we can get there,” Arends said. “The right way to do it is to do a moratorium, and that’s just a temporary pause or timeout on construction and development until we have the right rules in place to protect everyone.”
The 2027 county budget is at the top of Amy Harms’s mind heading into the commission, and one of the main reasons she decided to run for office. She said the past few years, Lincoln County has been budgeting over the anticipated revenue. In the past, the county has still come in under budget, but Harms said “to me, that’s just poor budgeting.”
“If we’re taking money from taxpayers that we are not going to be using, that should be staying in taxpayers’ pockets,” she said. “I think that the budget process definitely has to change and we need to be making sure that we are living within our means right now for 2027.”
Joni Ekstrum emphasized the importance of planning for future growth, including roads, infrastructure and public safety. In particular, she said it’s important to her to balance the needs of her constituents in Sioux Falls with those living in rural parts of the county.
“I also think it’s important to build relationships and work with people both in rural areas of the county as well as Sioux Falls residents,” Ekstrum said.
AI data centers have been a top issue in Lincoln County, and the commission recently voted down a one year moratorium on new centers within the county. What is your stance on AI data centers? Would you support or oppose a new moratorium? How would you approach a proposal to build one, should one be proposed within the county in the future?
Joel Arends introduced a data center moratorium before the Lincoln County Commission earlier this year, but the measure ultimately failed. He said he would oppose development of a hyperscale data center, as well as any other heavy industrial project.
Because Lincoln County is the fastest growing county in the state, Arends said the county can be very picky about future development and that the commissioners “don't need to take every boondoggle project that comes our way.”
“We don't need a data center,” he said. “We don't need a prison. Instead, the vision that we have for our community in the county is rural residential housing, where people can have nice, safe acreages and lots to live on that are very close to Sioux Falls.”
Large, hyperscale AI data centers are a concern to Amy Harms, who said she would support a one-year moratorium on new centers to allow the commission to implement rules around potential future development.
“I don't believe that we have the zoning in place right now that would help to ensure that the community is safe, our agriculture is safe, and so until that's done, I do think that there should be a moratorium,” she said.
She emphasized she’s not saying there should never be a large AI data center in the county, but said she believes there should be steps to ensure the community and the land are protected.
Joni Ekstrum said every proposed data center should be considered on a case-by-case basis. That includes considerations on the amount of resources a facility would take up and whether the county has the infrastructure to handle a development of that scale.
“We can’t just have growth for growth’s sake,” she said. “It has to be smart.”
But at the same time, Ekstrum said she doesn’t necessarily support implementing a moratorium at this time because she’s not aware of any company currently looking at Lincoln County to construct a hyperscale AI data center.
Are property taxes a problem in Lincoln County? The county commission took advantage of a new state law and raised its sales tax as a way to lower property taxes — is this a move you support? Why or why not?
Joel Arends said property taxes are a problem in Lincoln County because it's some of the highest rates in the state. The first way local elected officials can address high taxes is by pushing down spending at the county budget, he said.
Arends did vote against the sales tax increase when it came before the commission, but not because he didn’t support the measure. He said he would have preferred it go before a public vote in order to go into effect.
“I would have supported it at a public vote because, at the end of the day, mathematically speaking, the half-cent sales tax will save people money,” Arends said.
Amy Harms would have voted in favor of the sales tax increase if she had been on the commission, saying she thought the rule “will be a huge benefit to taxpayers.” However, Harms also said she would have preferred the law allowed the tax increase to go before a public vote.
“But the only way that people can refer it to a vote is if the commission votes yes,” she said. “So I would have voted yes just to allow the taxpayers to have a say.”
Joni Ekstrum said she supports the recent move by the Lincoln County Commission to approve the sales tax increase because she believes the commissioners have the background and knowledge to make an informed decision.
At the same time, Ekstrum said she heard very little about property taxes when she knocked on doors during her campaign. Still, she said local officials can help offset those costs by encouraging more development within the county.
“I think not signaling that we’re saying no to everything, but to be smart about what comes into the county to help alleviate some of those property taxes on those homeowners is important,” Ekstrum said.
As the county rapidly continues to grow, what would be your stance on protecting natural resources? Would that factor into your decision on future zoning/development?
Joel Arends said it’s important to protect natural resources, but at the same time, it’s important to balance private property rights. He pointed to recent examples of the commission sending proposals for solar farms back for revisions in order to create a more “neighbor-friendly” development.
“Those are just a couple of the ways I think the commission is looking out for farmers and landowners as well as natural resource issues,” Arends said.
When asked about natural resources, Amy Harms emphasized the importance of preserving the ability of small family farmers to farm on their own land. She said she believes there’s a solution in adjusting zoning laws to allow farmers to bring their children back to the family farm to live and work on the land.
“I think protecting our farmers, our (agriculture) in Lincoln County is huge and something that needs to be a focus of the commission,” Harms said.
Preserving agriculture and maintaining rural areas of the county is important to her, said Joni Ekstrum, who grew up in a small town northwest of Sioux Falls. As Sioux Falls continues to grow, she said it’s important that areas designated for agriculture stay that way,
“How do we make sure that our ordinances are correct? That they’ve zoned in the right way that does allow certain areas for growth, but maintain those natural resources,” Ekstrum said.
What do you believe should be done with the Lincoln County courthouse once the new justice center opens?
Joel Arends said the commission is not ready to tear down the courthouse, particularly since it has 72,000 square feet of usable space. Currently, the commission has a request for proposals for firms to provide specifics on what can be done to make the courthouse work for the next one hundred years, Arends said.
“I anticipate we’ll have that in front of us before the spring of 2027, and then we’ll be able to use that as a whole commission to decide what level of investment we want to make into that building,” he said.
Amy Harms said she’s waiting to see the bids from contractors as well, but noted county departments are running out of spaces for their administrative offices. So saving the building could meet the needs of the county employees, as well as the need for the community to keep the historic landmark.
However, she said the county would need to understand the cost of preserving the space, but emphasized she is “definitely not on the ‘we should demolish the courthouse’ side” of the issue.
Regarding the historic Lincoln County courthouse, Joni Ekstrum said it’s important to listen to the public’s opinion and to respect the passion people have about the building. However, she said ultimately commissioners will need to weigh the public input with the feasibility of maintaining that building for the foreseeable future.
“I think there’s a lot of things that have to go into that,” Ekstrum said. “How I look at any decision, to the best that I can, I take emotion out of it. I would like to know the facts, and we have to make decisions as commissioners based upon the data and talking to all parties.”
What happens next?
Election Day is Nov. 3.
You can check your voter registration on the Secretary of State's voter information portal. The voter registration deadline is Oct. 19.
You can also find more information on what's on the ballot here:
Megan Raposa
