The 1942 South Dakota gubernatorial election was held on November 3, 1942. Incumbent Republican Governor
Harlan J. Bushfield declined to seek re-election to a third term and instead
successfully ran for the U.S. Senate. A crowded Republican primary developed to succeed him, and because no candidate received 35% of the vote, the nomination was decided at the state Republican convention, where former Attorney General
Merrell Q. Sharpe, the second-place finisher in the primary, won the nomination. In the general election, Sharpe faced Democratic nominee Lewis W. Bicknell, the
1940 Democratic nominee for Governor. Aided by the
national Republican landslide, Sharpe defeated Bicknell in a landslide.
Democratic primary
Lewis W. Bicknell—a former
Day County State's Attorney, former Chairman of the State Department of Public Welfare, and the
1940 Democratic nominee for Governor—announced that he would again run for governor.[1] He was the only Democratic candidate to file and he won the Democratic nomination for Governor unopposed, thereby removing the race from the primary ballot.[2]
At the May 5, 1942, primary, all four candidates ended up with vote totals that were within six thousand votes of each other, and for the first time since
1930, no candidate received the requisite 35% of the vote.[6]Merrell Q. Sharpe, who ran on a reform, "oust the state house" platform,[7] was seen by many observers as having a lead coming into the convention, despite placing second in the primary.[8] There was speculation that Sharpe's three other opponents would consolidate their forces to defeat him at the convention, but uncertainty as to whether they would do so. Influential state Republicans, chief among them Governor
Bushfield, declined to publicly intervene.[7] At the convention, Sharpe took an early lead, and despite the speculation about anti-Sharpe consolidation, as Temmey and Scott collapsed, the vast majority of their votes went to Sharpe, not Bottom. On the third ballot, with Temmey's support halved and Scott's near zero, Sharpe easily won a majority, earning himself the nomination.[9]
^Mikkelson, Gordon; Milner, Harold S. (June 7, 1942).
"Republicans Prepare to Select Governor". Deadwood Pioneer-Times. Deadwood, S.D. p. 1. Retrieved June 13, 2021.