In February 2017, Lederman was elected State Chairman of theSouth Dakota Republican Party in the first contested party chair election in decades.[3] In February 2019, Lederman was re-elected on an uncontested basis to another term of office as chair of the South Dakota Republican Party.[4] In January 2023, Lederman did not seek re-election and was succeeded byJohn Wiik.[5]
Since the late 1990s, Lederman has been a partner in the family owned Lederman Bail Bonds business, founded by his father.[6]
Lederman serves as a Senior Advisor to Des Moines, IA based LS2 Group, working in grassroots organizing, media relations, political event planning, and social media for the organization.[7] On October 12, 2016, Lederman registered with the Department of Justice'sForeign Agents Registration Act (FARA) office as an agent of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia[8] for purposes of lobbying for changes to theJustice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA). Projecting a fee of $8,500 for his services, Lederman registered in his capacity as a senior advisor at LS2 Group.[9] LS2group received $76,500 in compensation for its work on the Saudi campaign against JASTA.[10]
2006 To challenge House District 16 incumbent Democratic RepresentativeMargaret V. Gillespie, Lederman and incumbent Republican RepresentativeJoel Dykstra were unopposed for the June 6, 2006, Republican Primary,[11] but in the four-way November 7, 2006, General election Republican Representative Dykstra took the first seat and Democratic Representative Gillespie took the second seat ahead of Lederman and Democratic nominee Ron Jenkins.[12]
2008 When District 16 incumbent Democratic Representative Gillespie ran for South Dakota Senate and Republican Representative Dykstra left the Legislature leaving both District 16 seats open, Lederman ran in the three-way June 3, 2008, Republican Primary and placed first with 2,546 votes (53.69%);[13] in the four-way November 4, 2008, General election Lederman took the first seat with 6,594 votes (33.86%) and fellow Republican nomineeJim Bolin took the second seat ahead of Democratic nominees Janelle O'Connor and Brian Wells.[14]
2010 When Senate District 16 incumbent Democratic Senator Gillespie left the Legislature and left the seat open, Lederman was unopposed for the June 8, 2010, Republican Primary[15] and won the November 2, 2010, General election with 6,082 votes (62.71%) against Democratic nominee Kathy Hill.[16]
2012 Lederman was unopposed for the June 5, 2012, Republican Primary[17] and won the November 6, 2012, General election with 6,604 votes (60.04%) againstDemocratic nominee Michael O'Connor.[18]
2014 In the race for District 16 State Senate, Lederman defeated Democrat Ann Tornberg on a vote of 56% to 44%.[19] With Lederman's election to State Chair of the South Dakota Republican Party, he again found himself at opposite political positions with Tornberg, who herself had been elected to be chairwoman of theSouth Dakota Democratic Party. Lederman resigned on March 30, 2015.[20]
On October 11, 2017, Republican Gubernatorial CandidateLora Hubbel sent out a press release claiming Lederman's Iowa voter registration was still in force.[26] In reporting the story, the media noted that Hubbel had changed parties herself a few months earlier.[27] In an interview with KELO radio,South Dakota Secretary of State Shantel Krebs indicated that since Lederman used "Dan Lederman" when he originally registered in Iowa and "Daniel Isaac Lederman" when registering in South Dakota, the name was not removed from the Iowa voter roll at the time, because it " would not be an exact match and wouldn't have been caught in the de-duplicating process that Secretary of States use."[28] Lederman responded to the candidate's criticism in an op-ed released to the media the following day titled "OK to change parties in America.[29]
^Mercer, Bob (12 December 2020)."Lederman in, Noem out as S.D. Trump elector".KELO-TV.Archived from the original on 25 December 2020. Retrieved5 January 2021.The governor's communications director, Ian Fury, didn't respond to questions Saturday from KELOLAND News about what led to Lederman's substitution for her.
