Jeremy Steffensen Officially Elected Sheriff of Grant County 

Jeremy Steffensen has been elected as the Grant County Sheriff. The race was called late Tuesday, June 1, after all the votes cast in Grant County during the 2026 South Dakota Republican Primary Election were delivered to the courthouse and counted. Grant County Auditor Kathy Folk announced that with all 17 precincts reporting, Jeremy Steffensen with 80 percent of the votes had defeated William Newstrand. Steffensen received 1,009 votes. Newstrand acquired 252 votes or 20 percent. Of the registered Republican voters in Grant County, 197 chose to mark their ballots early, and 1,123 chose to visit the polls on Election Day.  

The primary election will be canvassed during the commissioner’s meeting at 9:30 a.m. at the court house on Thursday, June 4. As Steffensen and Newstrand both ran on the Republican ticket and no candidate from another party filed a petition to oppose the winner in the 2026 South Dakota General Election in November, the position of Grant County Sheriff will not appear on the ballot. Steffensen is duly elected. He has been serving as the interim sheriff since January 1, 2026, when former sheriff Kevin Owen stepped down. 

Steffensen began his career as a deputy sheriff in the Hamlin County Sheriff’s Office in 2003. He remained there until he accepted employment as a deputy in the Grant County Sheriff’s Office in 2013. In 2020, he was promoted to chief deputy for Grant County. In January 2026, when Sheriff Kevin Owen retired from law enforcement, and until an election could be held, Steffensen was appointed as the interim sheriff of Grant County by the Grant County Board of Commissioners.

Steffensen attended the South Dakota Law Enforcement Academy in Pierre to become  a certified officer, and he has received over 1,100 hours of training. He is a 1997 graduate of Arlington High School.