With the primary season just over and Hillary conceding the nomination it seems that things have finally calmed down for South Dakota—or have they?

Hillary beat Barack by over 10 thousand votes here in South Dakota, which gave her 10% more of the total vote than Obama, and with her concession she has told her supporters that they should shift their support to Senator Obama and together they can get the Republicans out of the White House, but will that be the case here in South Dakota? With the animosity that has been growing between Hillary supporters and Barack supporters for the last 18 months it seems highly unlikely that all of those Clinton supporters will have a sudden epiphany and start supporting Barack.

Many Democrats in South Dakota, like Senator Tim Johnson, had originally pledged their allegiance to Obama but then said that if Hillary won South Dakota they would vote for her in the general election but now that she isn’t a candidate will they switch back to supporting Barack? South Dakota Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin believes Senator Obama will be the best president for South Dakota and for rural America. She looks forward to working with him on South Dakota’s priorities after the election in November.

So where does South Dakota go from here?  Barack Obama did get more votes here in South Dakota than John McCain but that doesn’t really mean much if all of the Clinton supporters don’t side with Obama. However, a June 10, 2008 report from CNN reported that McCain is projected to win the state of South Dakota in the general election, not good news for Obama. Now it will be up to both Senator Obama and Senator McCain to try and do their best to win over the people of South Dakota. Obama has visited the state more times which might give him an advantage but November is a long way away.