Amber Hulse of Hot Springs, who is in her final year of law school, says she’s running for the South Dakota State Senate District 30 seat held by fellow Republican Julie Frye Muller.
The primary election is next June 4th.
Hulse describes herself as a lifelong conservative activist and a “Cowgirl politico,” but is best known as a beauty pageant winner in two different systems.
In the Miss America system, she was the reigning Miss South Dakota when COVID hit and ended up serving 2 years instead of one, then this past March was crowned Miss South Dakota USA and competed in the Miss USA Pageant in September.
Hulse says she “made the choice to run for the Senate because I saw a need in my community that called me to public service. We deserve fresh leadership, and I keep thinking back to my personal motto ‘if not me, then who?’ “
State Senate District 30 covers Custer and Fall River Counties as well as parts of Pennington County.
Julie Frye-Mueller served 2 terms in the South Dakota House before being elected to the State Senate in 2020,
She was removed from the GOP Senate Caucus after being censured over comments to a legislative staffer about the staffer’s newborn child, vaccinations, and breastfeeding.
Frye-Mueller was also stripped of committee assignments by Senate Leadership.