Pamela Merchant Cole (born December 18, 1967) is a

graphic designer A graphic designer is a practitioner who follows the discipline of graphic design, either within companies or organizations or independently. They are professionals in design and visual communication, with their primary focus on transforming ...

and former Democratic member of the

South Dakota Senate The South Dakota Senate is the upper house of the South Dakota Legislature. It consists of 35 members, one representing each legislative district. It meets at the South Dakota State Capitol in Pierre. Composition :''99th Legislature (2025)' ...

who represented the 7th district from 2009 to 2011. She was also the executive director of the

South Dakota Democratic Party The South Dakota Democratic Party is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the U.S. state of South Dakota. The party currently has very weak electoral power in the state, controlling none of South Dakota's statewide or federal elected offices ...

from 2020 to 2021.

Career

Cole was elected to the 7th district state senate seat in the 2008 election, beating Republican Orville B. Smidt. She served on the Commerce Committee, the Health and Human Service Committee and the Taxation Committee. She lost her seat at the 2010 election, being beaten by

Larry Tidemann Larry J. Tidemann (born April 13, 1948, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota) is a former American politician and a former Republican member of the South Dakota Senate representing District 7 from 2011 to 2019. Tidemann served consecutively in the S ...

. In 2016, she moved from

Brookings Brookings may refer to: Organizations * Brookings Institution, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy organization based in Washington, D.C. Places * Brookings, Oregon, USA * Brookings, South Dakota, USA * Brookings County, South Dakota, USA ...

Sioux Falls Sioux Falls ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of South Dakota and the 117th-most populous city in the United States. It is the county seat of Minnehaha County and also extends into northern Lincoln County. The population was 192 ...

. She was made the executive director of the

in February 2020, after the party leadership had resigned due to the party misstating its finances and finding itself in debt. In September 2020, Cole announced that the party had been "extremely frugal" in its recent spending and was once again financially stable. She resigned in February 2021 for personal reasons. In 2022, Cole filed to run for the at-large B seat on Sioux Falls city council as incumbent

Christine Erickson Christine Marie Erickson ( Vinatieri; born January 29, 1978) is an American politician. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, she has been an at-large member of the Sioux Falls City Council since 2014. She was previ ...

was

term limit A term limit is a legal restriction on the number of terms a person may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method of curbing the potential for monopoly, w ...

ed. She lost to Rich Merkouris, a local pastor.

Electoral history

2008

2010

2022

Personal life

Cole married her husband Mike in 2018 and together they have a

blended family A stepfamily (sometimes called a bonus family) is a family where at least one parent has children who are not biologically related to their spouse. Either parent, or both, may have children from previous relationships or marriages. Two known cl ...

of five adult children.

Notes

References

1967 births Living people American graphic designers American women graphic designers South Dakota State University alumni Democratic Party South Dakota state senators Women state legislators in South Dakota 21st-century American women politicians 21st-century members of the South Dakota Legislature {{SouthDakota-politician-stub