Jeffrey 'Jeff' Rodrick Monroe (born September 5, 1956) is an American politician and a Republican 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)' ...

representing District 24 since January 8, 2013. Monroe served non-consecutively in the

South Dakota Legislature The South Dakota Legislature is the legislative branch of the government of South Dakota. It is a bicameral legislative body, consisting of the South Dakota Senate, which has 35 members, and the South Dakota House of Representatives, which has 7 ...

from January 1995 until January 2003 in the

South Dakota House of Representatives The South Dakota House of Representatives is the lower house of the South Dakota Legislature. It consists of 70 members, two from each legislative district. Two of the state's 35 legislative districts, Districts 26 and 28, are each subdivided ...

District 24 seat.

Education

Monroe graduated from the

University of Nebraska–Lincoln The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Nebraska, NU, or UNL) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska, United States. Chartered in 1869 by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the M ...

and Northwestern College of Chiropractic (now

Northwestern Health Sciences University Northwestern Health Sciences University (NWHSU) is a private university focused on alternative health care and located in Bloomington, Minnesota. The university has educational programs in chiropractic, Traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture ...

) with post graduate work at

New York Chiropractic College Northeast College of Health Sciences is a private alternative health college in Seneca Falls, New York. It was previously named Columbia Institute of Chiropractic and New York Chiropractic College, before being renamed in 2021. It is one of 20 ...

Elections

*1994 When House District 24 incumbent Republican Representative

Mike Shaw Michael Paul Shaw (May 9, 1957 – September 11, 2010) was an American professional wrestler who was best known for his stint in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as Norman the Lunatic, and as Bastion Booger in the World Wrestling Federation ...

left the Legislature and left the seat open, Monroe ran in the four-way June 7, 1994 Republican Primary and placed second with 2,082 votes (25.11%), in the four-way November 8, 1994 General election, incumbent Republican Representative Lola Schreiber took the first seat by 8 votes and Monroe took the second seat with 6,913 votes (32.7%) ahead of Democratic nominees Kerry Bowers and Bob Hiatt. *1996 When House District 24 incumbent Republican Representative Schreiber left the Legislature and left a seat open, Monroe ran in the five-way 1996 Republican Primary and placed second with 2,082 votes (25.11%), in the four-way November 5, 1996 General election, Patricia de Hueck took the first seat and Monroe took the second seat with 5,218 votes (25.28%) ahead of Democratic nominees Ken Larsen and James Hoffman. *1998 When House District 24 incumbent Republican Representative de Hueck left the Legislature and left a seat open, Monroe ran in the four-way 1998 Republican Primary and placed first with 2,490 votes (30.99%), in the four-way November 3, 1998 General election, fellow Republican nominee Cooper Garnos took the first seat and Monroe took the second seat with votes (29.7%) ahead of returning 1996 Democratic opponent James Hoffman and Democratic nominee Duwayne Slaathaug. *2000 Monroe and Representative Garnos were unopposed for the June 6, 2000 Republican Primary and won the three-way November 7, 2000 General election where Representative Garnos took the first seat and Monroe took the second seat with 7,123 votes (39.5%) ahead of Democratic nominee Robert Hockett. *2002

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 from remaining in the House, Monroe challenged incumbent Republican Senator de Hueck for the District 24 seat, but lost the June 4, 2002 Republican Primary by 94 votes to Senator de Hueck; de Hueck was unopposed for the November 5, 2002 General election; she lost the primary election in 2004, and served in the seat from 2001 until 2005. *2012 When incumbent Senate District 22 Republican Senator Bob Gray 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 and left the District 24 seat open, Monroe won the June 5, 2012 Republican Primary by 35 votes with 1,999 votes (50.4%) against Republican Representative Tad Perry; an

election recount An election recount is a repeat tabulation of votes cast in an election that is used to determine the correctness of an initial count. Recounts will often take place if the initial vote tally during an election is extremely close. Election reco ...

did not change the result. Monroe was unopposed for the November Primary. *2014 Jeff Monroe was challenged in the June 3, 2014 primary election again by Tad Perry. Monroe defeated Perry 2541 to 2294 votes (52.6% to 47.4%). Monroe's opponent in the November election was Democrat Ruth Rehn, whom he defeated on a 59% to 41% vote. *In 2016, Monroe ran unopposed for State Senate.

Controversies

In the 2016 session, Monroe sponsored South Dakota Senate Bill 84 that prevents prohibiting public school teachers from presenting "the strengths and weaknesses of scientific information presented...". This bill closely follows the strategy of the

Wedge strategy The Wedge Strategy is a creationist political and social agenda authored by the Discovery Institute, the hub of the pseudoscientific intelligent design movement. The strategy was presented in a Discovery Institute internal memorandum known as ...

authored by the intelligent design think tank the

Discovery Institute The Discovery Institute (DI) is a conservatism in the United States, politically conservative think tank that advocates the pseudoscience, pseudoscientific concept Article available froUniversiteit Gent of intelligent design (ID). It was fou ...

. Then in the 2020 SD legislative session, Monroe promoted his self interest as a chiropractor when he sponsored SD Senate Bill 99.

References

External links

Official page
at the

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Monroe, Jeff 1956 births Living people American chiropractors Republican Party members of the South Dakota House of Representatives People from Beadle County, South Dakota People from Walsh County, North Dakota Republican Party South Dakota state senators University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni Northwestern Health Sciences University alumni 21st-century members of the South Dakota Legislature