SPP State Commissioners Win Reelection Bids

Fiegen, Christmann Among Regulatory Victors on Election Night

South Dakota's Kristie Fiegen chairs an SPP REAL Team meeting alongside Nebraska's Chuck Hutchison. | © RTO Insider LLC

Nov 6, 2024 | Tom Kleckner

South Dakota’s Kristie Fiegen and North Dakota’s Randy Christmann have been reelected to their respective states' regulatory commissions, ensuring their future involvement on SPP’s Regional State Committee.

Kristie Fiegen and Randy Christmann, Republican regulatory commissioners from the Dakotas who sit on SPP’s Regional State Committee, both won reelection to six-year terms Nov. 5.

Fiegen, chair of the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission and SPP’s Resource Energy and Adequacy Leadership (REAL) Team, bested Democratic and Libertarian challengers, taking 67.8% of the vote with more than 95% of the vote in.

Christmann, chair of the North Dakota Public Service Commission, defeated Democratic challenger Tracey Wilkie, garnering 70% of the vote with 95% of the ballots counted. He advocates for transmission projects that strengthen the grid, which he has said is “on the verge of collapsing.”

Fiegen was appointed to the commission in 2011 and won her first election in 2012. Christmann was also first elected in 2012. Both have served as the RSC’s president since then.

“I am grateful that South Dakota voters continue to trust my judgment as their public utilities commissioner,” Fiegen told RTO insider.

For Fiegen, the election came with a new perspective. She left the campaign trail and stepped away from her SPP duties in September after her husband, Tim, suffered a major heart attack, his second, while they were in the Black Hills.

She immediately conducted CPR as her brother guided her over telephone. Fortunately, a group of firefighters was in a cabin less than a mile away. They arrived within minutes with a defibrillator and took over CPR, eventually resuscitating Tim.

The survival rate for sudden cardiac arrest is less than 10%, Fiegen said.

“We are blessed to have our South Dakota family pray for us” for more than five weeks, she said. “We are grateful and blessed.”

In other SPP and ERCOT regulatory elections:

- Brian Bingman (R) won the open seat on the three-person Oklahoma Corporation Commission, receiving nearly 64% of the vote against two challengers. He replaces Bob Anthony, who left the OCC after serving six consecutive six-year terms; he was first elected in 1988 and, six years later, became the first Republican incumbent in the state’s history to win statewide reelection to a state office.
- Jean-Paul Coussan (R) won a tight race for an open seat in District 2 of the Louisiana Public Service Commission, securing 54% of the ballots against a fellow Republican and a Democrat. He replaces Craig Greene, who stepped down after one term and was the five-person PSC’s swing vote. Coussan gives the commission a 3-2 Republican majority.
- Christi Craddick (R) won reelection to the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the state’s oil and gas industry. She took 55.4% of the vote with 96.07% of the ballots counted, fending off three other candidates. Craddick chairs the RRC and was first elected in 2012.