Julie Frye-Mueller
Member of the South Dakota Senate
from the 30th district
Assumed office
2021
Preceded byLance Russell
Member of the South Dakota House of Representatives
from the 30th district
In office
2017–2021
Preceded byLance Russell
Mike Verchio
Succeeded byTrish Ladner
Personal details
Political partyRepublican
ResidenceRapid City, South Dakota

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 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]

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. 1 2 3 4 5 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. 1 2 3 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. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 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. 1 2 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. 1 2 3 Tom Hanson & Eric Mayer, Senate releases details on Frye-Mueller investigation, KELO (January 27, 2023).
  15. 1 2 3 Karen Sherman & Bob Mercer, Senate panel: Censure, but don't expel, Frye-Mueller, KELO-TV (January 31, 2023).
  16. 1 2 Amancai Biraben & Stephen Groves, S. Dakota Senate suspends lawmaker after vaccine exchange, Associated Press (January 26, 2023).
  17. 1 2 3 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. 1 2 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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