Neal Tapio

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Dear Citizens of Watertown,

Today, I humbly announce my candidacy for the South Dakota House of Representatives, serving my hometown of Watertown.

One of my deepest regrets from my time as your State Senator in 2016 was that while I knocked on over five hundred Republican doors, I never truly connected with our independents and Democrats. That mistake ends now. This campaign, I pledge to knock on three times as many doors and listen to every voice in our community.

Since we last spoke, I was deeply honored to be named Watertown’s Businessman of the Year in 2021 for bringing over thirty new jobs and millions of dollars in annual economic activity to our city. I’m eager to build on that success by creating an open and transparent government where entrepreneurs can thrive—bringing good-paying jobs right here at home so our young people can build their futures near family and friends.

We must refocus on real home ownership. We will stop the unrealistic talk of two hundred seventy-five thousand dollar starter homes. Instead, we’ll crack down on slumlords and neglected rentals that are dragging our neighborhoods down. We’ll launch volunteer programs pairing retired residents with young families to buy fixer-uppers and restore them through good old-fashioned sweat equity—so our streets can once again ring with the laughter of children and the warmth of thriving families.

We will demand real transparency in government—no more secret deals, no more bankrupt developments, and no more half-finished buildings that have led to extortion, fraud, and outright conspiracies involving city, state, and quasi-governmental entities.

To restore trust, we must reform our legal and judicial system. Small cabals of insiders and attorneys can no longer wield endless litigation as a weapon. Fraud and corruption must be rooted out from government offices to the crony businesses that feed off them. It must become illegal to weaponize our courts through lawfare and financial coercion. Every lawyer and plaintiff should be required to swear under oath that their filings contain the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth—so help them God. It’s time to remove the unethical and conflicted members from the bar.

Property taxes are too high, yet we must be smart about reform. Land is scarce, and priority must go to South Dakota residents. It’s infuriating when out-of-state entities and Wall Street corporations threaten to take property through eminent domain or worse, snap up property, drive up prices with money printed out of thin air, and hire aggressive lawyers to trample on local families and businesses. We will push back hard and encourage true local ownership.

We also need an honest conversation about the crushing weight of consumer debt—especially credit cards—that is stealing the future from our young people. We will call out the companies that prey on them, and every student must learn in school the clear difference between a fair interest rate and usury.

Finally, we must confront the shocking cost and quality of medical care in our state. The aggressive tactics used by large health systems during COVID—targeting legislators concerned about vaccine safety—should be investigated. Their near-monopoly power has shattered trust, and South Dakotans deserve far better.

I look forward to speaking with each of you about these and many other issues. It is time to fight for our people, our city, our state, and our country—together, not as partisans, but as patriotic Americans—just as our parents and grandparents did before us.

May God Bless You, and May God Bless South Dakota.

Neal Tapio