Julie Frye-Mueller

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

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 was 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]

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]