Beacon produced ads for Billie Sutton that focused heavily on his compelling life story and strong anti-corruption message, which transcended partisanship in this deeply red state. In contrast, we portrayed Congresswoman Kristi Noem as a typical Washington politician.

Our ads helped Sutton achieve the largest red to blue shift in the nation 2018. South Dakota had a median shift of 37% to the Democrats in the governor’s race, 10 points more than the next most state from 2014 to 2018. The last Democratic governor of South Dakota was elected in 1973. Trump won the state by 29.8% in 2016.

Despite record spending by Republicans and visits from both Trump and Pence, Sutton lost the race by less than 3 points.