Dusty Johnson’s ‘workhorse mentality’ lets him join SD legacy of Congressional leadership
Dusty Johnson is your friendly neighborhood politician who wants to hear you out. Uniformed in square glasses and his trademark orange tie, Johnson can talk policy anywhere and any day, be it on China and TikTok, the looming debt ceiling deadline or ocean shipping reform.
That willingness to speak with constituents and colleagues in Congress, and a laser sharp focus on policies that benefit South Dakota and the United States, has led Johnson, South Dakota’s lone Representative in the U.S. House, to become a leader on Capitol Hill in only his third term, political science experts say.
Johnson joins a growing list of South Dakota Congressional members to establish themselves as leaders in D.C. such as fourth term Sen. John Thune, currently the second highest ranking GOP member in the Senate, and former Republican Sen. Karl Mundt and former Democrat Sen. Tom Daschle, who served as the Democrat Minority Leader and later Majority Leader in through the early 2000s.
U.S. Representative Dusty Johnson speaks after winning re-election on Tuesday evening, November 8, 2022, at the Hilton Garden Inn in Sioux Falls.
Lisa Hager, a political science professor at South Dakota State University, said politicians from South Dakota, and the Midwest in general, have a workhorse mentality.
“You’ve got folks who really want to go to Congress and try to do something that’s positive for their constituents and for really America overall, even though they're motivated by what their constituents need,” she said.
While majority leader or whip may not accompany his title, Johnson is the chairman of the conservative Main Street Caucus and vice chairman of the Problem Solvers Caucus, which brings together Republican and Democratic lawmakers to discuss policy solutions.
He sits on the bipartisan House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and has increasingly become a voice against China's leadership, TikTok and the dangers of China’s growing influence. He recently met with South Dakota business and agriculture leaders to discuss what impact China has on their industries.
Johnson has also recently introduced legislation to enforce work requirements in the federal food stamp program, which was met with scrutiny from both sides of the aisle, showing he's not immune to criticism.
Despite that, in South Dakota, Johnson tends to be popular with the citizens he represents, David Wiltse, a politics professor at SDSU, said. Factors for Johnson's popularity include his attitude of working across the aisle, not having serious campaign competition and being a Republican
A poll released by SDSU Poll, conducted by Wiltse, in early April found that out of 747 registered voters in South Dakota, Johnson was the most popular political figure ranked out of major political figures, including President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump, Thune, Sen. Mike Rounds and Gov. Kristi Noem.
“I think that both Democrats and Republicans from the prairie, from the Great Plains are overwhelmingly more likely to be workhorses,” Johnson told the Argus Leader on April 24. “I don't know if it's something in the water or something in the landscape or something in the immigration patterns, but we seem to have a disproportionately high number of people who actually want to get things done.”
Workhorse mentality
Johnson, who’s a regular visitor to some of Hager’s classes, has told her students that he makes an active choice to be involved with legislation.
“He’s there to try to get something accomplished for South Dakota, but also the American people,” Hager said.
He also takes time to explain the political process to South Dakotans, Hager said, pointing to when the House Speaker vote was happening in January, a seemingly endless cycle that took 15 rounds of votes to get Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-CA, appointed Speaker of the House.
“He had an Instagram video where he was simply explaining that process and I thought that was really unique and really interesting because there was probably a lot of people wondering ‘what is going on here?’” Hager said. “I was like ‘[when] a lot of people are airing their frustrations, he’s taking the time to educate his constituents and anyone who follows him.’”
It's also clear to Wiltse that Johnson cares about the national political institution.
"He’s an institutionalist, believes in the institutions and does a good job working with institutions for the good of his constituents,” he said.
Wiltse added Johnson has developed the persona of someone “who makes a conscious effort to rise above petty politicking of modern campaigns and he’s not one of these bomb thrower types."
It was during the speaker vote that Johnson’s role as a leader was also shown.
During a Downtown Sioux Falls Rotary lunch on April 24, he called the experience “surreal” when he was pulled into “insider meetings."
"If it was five people in the room, I wasn’t there. But if it was 12 people in the room, I was there.
“It was an odd place for me to be because my vote wasn’t really a question,” Johnson explained, saying that while he’s not a member of the House Freedom Caucus, a far-right group of GOP members, he was trusted by them to be a negotiator.
He reiterated his workhorse mentality during the meeting.
“If you’re just the dorky looking guy that reads bills, there’s less competition and you can, I think, really build a sense that you’re a trusted leader that people can go to and help guide your information.”
But when asked if he would’ve seen himself as a leader when he first took office in 2018, Johnson was modest and he pointed to his work ethic, which can be reflected in being ranked No. 1 for most effective Republican House member on agricultural issues two terms in a row.
“When you start to see that influence increase then it’s maybe not quite such a shock that Speaker McCarthy or 75 pragmatic conservatives are looking to you for guidance," Johnson said. "It didn’t happen overnight. It really was built over the course of four years."
Food stamp program requirements at the forefront of current policy
That's not to say that Johnson is well loved by all because of his policy decisions.
Recently, he’s come under fire for a proposal to add work requirements for the food stamp program, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP. It’s part of the GOP’s debt ceiling bill that’s currently being debated, which would stave off the country's impending debt default.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen estimated Monday that the government could default on its debt as soon as June 1, according to USA Today.
"After reviewing recent federal tax receipts, our best estimate is that we will be unable to continue to satisfy all of the government's obligations by early June, and potentially as early as June 1, if Congress does not raise or suspend the debt limit before that time," she said in a statement.
Johnson said by adding the updated language for SNAP work requirements, it would close a loophole states have exploited recently.
“States have gone in and filed waivers that are so robust that no one in their states is subject to work requirements,” he said, using the example of an unemployed 27-year-old in Minneapolis without dependents who is work capable but living on food stamps.
Johnson said his proposal would keep pregnant women, seniors, adults with dependents and disabled people food stamp eligible and that states would have flexibility to an extent on who is and is not eligible for the program.
While the debt ceiling bill passed the House on Thursday 217-215, it's unlikely the bill will pass the Democrat-held Senate, with a growing number of Republicans hesitant about the work requirements as well. Biden has also signaled that he would veto the legislation.
Biden has invited leaders of both parties in Congress, including McCarthy, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-NY, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnel, R-KY, to meet on May 9 to discuss the debt limit.
But there could be another chance to put work requirements for SNAP in the upcoming Farm Bill.