US House candidates disagree on tariffs, but find common ground on opposition to Trump beef imports

SIOUX FALLS — During a Thursday night debate, the Republican candidate in the race for South Dakota’s lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives joined a chorus of his party’s members in criticizing President Donald Trump’s approach on beef imports.

Republican Attorney General Marty Jackley faces Democrat Nikki Gronli in the Nov. 3 general election. Gronli is a small-business owner, and was South Dakota’s director of rural development for the U.S. Department of Agriculture under President Joe Biden.

The two sparred in Sioux Falls during a debate co-hosted by South Dakota Public Broadcasting and South Dakota News Watch. 

Jackley said he largely agrees with Trump on tariffs, which are taxes paid by companies importing foreign goods. But Jackley said Trump’s push to import Argentinian beef to ease high consumer prices earlier this year was the wrong approach.

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“If you do away with tariffs, that doesn’t protect our beef anymore,” Jackley said. “That opens the flood market for foreign beef.”

Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden said during a debate with his Democratic opponent last month that he disagrees with Trump’s beef import plan. Republican U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, who ran unsuccessfully in June for the Republican nomination for governor, has also criticized it, as have South Dakota’s Republican U.S. senators, John Thune and Mike Rounds.

Tariffs on Chinese goods, Jackley said, are important tools for balancing what the Republican candidate described as that country’s unfair trade practices.

“We need to make sure, with respect to targeted tariffs, that we’re doing everything we can to promote American jobs and to get our products a fair deal and a fair trade,” said Jackley.

Gronli repeatedly lambasted Trump’s approach to tariffs. She said Trump’s tariffs and tariff threats have created a chaotic environment for the state’s farmers and have cost families dearly.

“All Americans are suffering under the tariffs,” Gronli said, pointing specifically to tariffs on Canada, South Dakota’s top trading partner.

“The next Congress needs to take this on,” Gronli said. “They need to be a check on the executive branch and take back their power.”

Gas prices, energy

Gronli also pointed to the war in Iran, which has disrupted global oil shipments, as a Trump administration policy that’s done damage to South Dakota’s farms, families and small businesses. Diesel prices have climbed higher than $6 a gallon.

Farmers “can’t plan right now,” Gronli said. “They had high input costs in the spring, and now they’re dealing with high, high diesel costs this fall. They’re wondering if they’re going to break even when they take their crops out.”

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Jackley said he believes the war in Iran “needs to wind down” now that the U.S. has “addressed the nuclear capabilities” of that country.

But high prices at the pump and at the grocery store had more to do with the slowdown of fossil fuel development during President Biden’s time in office, Jackley said, calling the price spikes from the Iran war a “short-term” factor. 

“Under President Biden, he shut down refineries day one,” Jackley said. “He closed oil pipelines. He stopped leases and exploration on federal land. We have to have energy independence.”

Healthcare

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 put $50 billion toward rural healthcare in the coming years, while cutting federal funding for healthcare through work requirements for Medicaid recipients, among other changes.

Trump championed the bill, and all three members of South Dakota’s congressional delegation voted for it. 

South Dakota has been given $189 million so far for rural health transformation, and the state is in the process of deciding what to do with the money.

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Debate moderator Jackie Hendry asked both candidates if they felt the rural health funding would do enough to address the needs of South Dakotans.

Jackley said sending money to the states to upgrade health infrastructure is the right approach. 

“What the Big Beautiful Bill did was put dollars in the hands of the state, who knows best where those dollars need to go,” he said.

Jackley said the solution to healthcare affordability is to incentivize competition in the private sector, rather than support what he described as government-funded “socialized medicine.” 

He also said tightening restrictions on benefits will make sure tax money is spent where it’s needed and not used for fraudulent purposes.

Gronli argued that the changes to programs like Medicaid, a state-federal health insurance program for the elderly, children and people with disabilities, will blunt the impact of the rural health grants.

“People aren’t going to have access to health insurance,” said Gronli. “It doesn’t really do much good to invest in technology and things in hospitals if people can’t actually access healthcare.”

Agreement, disagreement on tribal issues

Gronli and Jackley both decried the federal government’s failure to adequately fund services for members of the state’s nine tribal nations.

Jackley said the Department of Interior has failed to adequately fund law enforcement, and pointed to his office’s efforts to offer law enforcement training to tribal officers as proof that he understands the issue and is prepared to take steps to address it in Congress.

Gronli said a 16-year-old girl in Fort Thompson, a community on the Crow Creek Reservation, told her she waited two hours for a law enforcement response after calling 911 about “some scary people” outside her home.

“That’s unacceptable,” Gronli said. “We shouldn’t have this poor girl by herself and scared. So public safety is a critical need.”

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The candidates disagreed on restarting a Biden-era program to continue studying the long-term impact of Native American boarding schools. For decades, students were taken from their homes, forced to cut their hair, abandon their language and culture, and assimilate to non-Native society.

Gronli said that “wasn’t very long ago,” noting that she’s 53 and grew up alongside Native Americans who were among the first members of their family for several generations to have grown up outside the boarding school system.

In 2025, moderator Hendry noted, the National Congress of American Indians passed a resolution condemning the Trump administration for rescinding grants to continue research into the boarding school era. Gronli said the funding should be restored.

“Generational trauma is real, and our tribal members are still living it,” said Gronli.

Jackley, however, said federal money is better spent on addressing immediate issues in tribal areas through consultation with tribal leaders.

“We should have these conversations, and we should move forward instead of just spending dollars researching it and accomplishing nothing for our Native American tribes,” Jackley said.

Video of the Oct. 1, 2026, U.S. House debate between Republican Marty Jackley and Democrat Nikki Gronli. (Courtesy of SDPB)

Courtesy of South Dakota Searchlight