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Julie Frye-Mueller is an American politician from South Dakota. A member of the Republican Party, she has been a member of the South Dakota Senate, serving since 2021. She was censured by the Senate in 2023 for harassment of a legislative staffer; she denied harassment.

Mueller was a member of the South Dakota House of Representatives from 2017 to 2021.

Political career

State House

A Republican,[1] Frye-Mueller was a member of the South Dakota House of Representatives before being elected to the state Senate.[2]

State Senate

Frye-Mueller was elected to the state Senate as a Republican in 2020, defeating Libertarian challenger Gideon Oakes (no Democrat ran in the race).[3][4] She represents Senate District 30, which covers the southern Black Hills region,[5] specifically all of Custer and Fall River counties and a rural portion of Pennington County.[4] She replaced the previous state Senator for the district, Lance Russell, who withdrew his name from the ballot.[4] She took office in 2021.[6]

In the state Senate, Frye-Mueller aligned herself with a group of far-right Republicans.[7] The group has occasionally clashed with the chamber's Republican leadership.[8] In 2020, Frye-Mueller sponsored legislation to allow county courthouse employees to carry guns in courthouses.[9]

In June 2022, Frye-Mueller won the Republican primary by fewer than 40 votes, defeating State Representative Tim Goodwin,[10] a challenger who was supported by Lee Schoenbeck, the president pro tempore of the Senate.[2] Schoenbeck also opposed Frye-Mueller's political ally and seatmate, Tom Pischke of Dell Rapids.[7] Frye-Mueller won the general election unopposed, as no Democrat ran.[10]

Frye-Mueller supports abolishing childhood vaccination requirements.[11] In January 2023, Frye-Mueller introduced a bill to bar schools from requiring vaccines except for the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.[2]

In the 2023 legislative session, her second term in the Senate, Frye-Mueller sponsored a resolution in support of the January 6 attackers. That resolution was defeated in a unanimous committee vote.[12] She was initially a member of the local government committee and health and human services committee.[2] She was the lead Senate sponsor of a bill to create a severance tax for lithium mining operations in the Black Hills.[13]

2023 censure

On January 6, 2023, the Senate voted to form a Select Committee on Discipline and Expulsion to investigate Frye-Mueller's conduct, and to suspend her as a member of the Senate during the investigation.[2][14] The suspension was prompted by an incident two days earlier in which Frye-Mueller allegedly accosted a Legislative Research Council staffer inside the state Capitol.[14][7] According to the LRC staffer's account of the exchange, after Frye-Mueller and her husband entered the LRC office,[15] Frye-Mueller aggressively confronted the LRC staffer, pointing her finger and criticizing the staffer for having her baby son vaccinated; said that vaccines made children "guinea pigs for Big Pharma"; told the staffer was she was "taking away God's gift of immunity from your son"; and falsely claimed that vaccines would cause the boy to get autism or Down syndrome, or die.[7] In a later part of the exchange, Frye-Mueller criticized the staffer for formula-feeding her son and offered unsolicited advice on breastfeeding.[7]

Senate leadership said that Frye-Mueller's behavior was "inappropriate" and "unprofessional" and constituted workplace harassment "related to private maternal matters."[14] The motion to create the special committee passed on a 27–6–2 vote, and the motion to suspend Frye-Mueller passed on a 27–7 vote.[7] Republican Senator Michael Rohl, who sponsored the motion to suspend Frye-Mueller from legislative duties, described the measure as necessary to maintain a safe working environment.[16] The suspension stripped Frye-Mueller of all legislative power, removing her right to vote on legislation and her two committee assignments.[7][16] Frye-Mueller mostly denied the allegations,[17] and said that she was being persecuted from "advancing freedom."[18]

After her suspension, Frye-Mueller sued legislative leadership, in federal district court in Pierre, seeking a court order to reinstate her voting rights; she named Schoenbeck as the defendant in the lawsuit.[19] In the suit, Frye-Mueller's counsel is Steve Haugaard, a former speaker of the state House who unsuccessfully challenged Governor Kristi Noem in the June 2022 primary.[7] A federal judge denied Frye-Mueller's request for a temporary restraining order to block the legislative disciplinary process.[20]

Nine senators (seven Republicans and two Democrats) were appointed to the Select Committee on Discipline and Expulsion.[21] On January 31, 2023, after a hearing in which both Frye-Mueller[22] and the LRC staffer testified,[15] the select committee determined that Frye-Mueller engaged in harassment,[23] and recommended, by voice vote, that Frye-Mueller be censured by the Senate, and limited her interactions with LRC staffers.[15][17] The next day, the Senate censured Frye-Mueller, and lifted her suspension, on a 33–1 vote; the sole state senator to vote "no" was Tom Pischke.[17][22] After she was censured, Frye-Mueller dropped her lawsuit.[24]

Electoral history

  • 2016 Republican primary election - State Representative District 30 - June 7, 2016[25]
    • Julie Frye-Mueller (R) - 1,460
    • Tim R. Goodwin (R) - 1,508
    • Richard Mounce (R) - 1,445
    • Marilyn J. Oakes (R) - 1,207
    • Travis Lasseter (R) - 1,230
  • 2016 general election - State Representative District 30 - November 8, 2016[26]
    • Julie Frye-Mueller (R) - 8,062
    • Tim R. Goodwin (R) - 8,234
    • Kristine Ina Winter (D) - 2,915
    • Sandy Arseneault (D) - 3,397
  • 2018 general election - State Representative District 30 -November 6, 2018[27]
    • Timothy Ray Goodwin (R) - 7,433
    • Julie Frye-Mueller (R) - 7,166
    • Karen McGregor (D) - 3,152
    • Whitney Raver (D) - 2,684
  • 2020
  • 2022

References

  1. ^ "Get to Know: Julie Frye-Mueller". KOTA-TV. 12 January 2018. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d e Annie Todd, Lawmakers suspend Sen. Julie Frye-Mueller pending investigation of incident with staff member, Argus Leader (January 26, 2023).
  3. ^ Frye-Mueller is Senate winner, Custer County Chronicle (November 2020).
  4. ^ a b c Nathan Thompson, UPDATE: Republicans sweep local House, Senate races, Rapid City Journal (November 3, 2020).
  5. ^ Lee Strubinger, Goodwin to request recount in District 30 Senate race, SDPB Radio (June 9, 2022).
  6. ^ Senator Julie Frye-Mueller - 2021, South Dakota State Senate.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Tom Lawrence, South Dakota Senator Benched in 'Suckling' Advice Scandal, Daily Beast (January 30, 2023).
  8. ^ Amancai Biraben, South Dakota state senator stripped of committee assignments, Associated Press (January 25, 2023).
  9. ^ Senate bill would allow courthouse employee to carry guns, Associated Press (February 4, 2020).
  10. ^ a b Laura Heckmann, District 30 recount complete, Frye-Mueller retains victory (June 28, 2022).
  11. ^ Lee Strubinger, How One Current, One Former Lawmaker Are Reshaping The State Legislature, South Dakota Public Broadcasting (June 15, 2020).
  12. ^ Nathan Thompson, Julie Frye-Mueller stripped of Senate voting rights, Rapid City Journal (January 27, 2023).
  13. ^ Lee Strubinger, House approves lithium tax, SDPB Radio (January 27, 2023).
  14. ^ a b c Tom Hanson & Eric Mayer, Senate releases details on Frye-Mueller investigation, KELO (January 27, 2023).
  15. ^ a b c Karen Sherman & Bob Mercer, Senate panel: Censure, but don't expel, Frye-Mueller, KELO-TV (January 31, 2023).
  16. ^ a b Amancai Biraben & Stephen Groves, S. Dakota Senate suspends lawmaker after vaccine exchange, Associated Press (January 26, 2023).
  17. ^ a b c Amancai Biraben, & Stephen Groves, South Dakota Senate censures, reinstates suspended lawmaker, Associated Press (January 1, 2023).
  18. ^ Lee Strubinger, South Dakota Senate suspends lawmaker, SDPB Radio (January 26, 2023).
  19. ^ Lee Strubinger, Frye-Mueller files lawsuit challenging Senate suspension, SDPB Radio (January 30, 2023).
  20. ^ Shelly Conlon & Annie Todd, Federal judge denies Sen. Julie Frye-Mueller's efforts to stop disciplinary proceedings, Sioux Falls Argus Leader (January 31, 2023).
  21. ^ Austin Goss, Senate leadership picks nine for "Committee on Discipline and Expulsion", KOTA-TV (January 27, 2023).
  22. ^ a b Dan Santella, Senators share what motivated their Frye-Mueller votes, KELO-TV (February 2, 2023).
  23. ^ Dan Santella & Karen Sherman, Frye-Mueller reinstated, censured by Senate, KELO-TV (February 1, 2023).
  24. ^ Hannah Olsen, Senator drops federal lawsuit regarding suspension, KELO-TV (February 2, 2023).
  25. ^ 2016 Primary Election - South Dakota Official State Canvass
  26. ^ 2016 General Election - South Dakota Official State Canvass
  27. ^ 2018 General Election - South Dakota Official State Canvass

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