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

graphic designer A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for publishe ...

and former

Democratic Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

member of the

South Dakota Senate The 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 :''92nd Legislature (2019)'' Officers L ...

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. History 1914 was a milestone for the Democrats when they won South Dakota's first U.S. Senate election by popular vote with their fir ...

from 2020 to 2021.

Career

Cole was elected to the 7th district state senate seat in the

2008 election This electoral calendar 2008 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2008 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, even though they are not elections. By-elections are no ...

, beating

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or again ...

Orville B. Smidt Orville may refer to: People * Orville (given name), a list of people with the male given name * Howard Thomas Orville (1901–1960), American naval officer and meteorologist * Max Orville (born 1962), French politician * Merlyn Orville Valan (19 ...

. 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 2011-2019. Tidemann served consecutively in the Sout ...

. 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 130th-most populous city in the United States. It is the county seat of Minnehaha County and also extends into Lincoln County to the south, which continues up ...

. 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 due to 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, she has been an at-large member of the Sioux Falls City Council since 2014. She was previously a member of the South Dakota ...

was

term limit A term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of terms an officeholder 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 ...

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 is a family where at least one parent has children that are not biologically related to their spouse. Either parent, or both, may have children from previous relationships or marriages. Two known classifications for stepfamilies i ...

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 legislators 21st-century American women politicians {{SouthDakota-politician-stub