December 2, 2025 • 12 mins
“Something You Should Know” is brought to you by GenesisGoldIRA.com. That is also something you should know! You can put your retirement on the GOLD STANDARD! Learn more at GenesisGoldIRA.com. We share fun things that are happening in the area and from time to time invite guests in to talk about their events!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Something you should go something you should know is brought
to you by Genesis gooldira dot com. That's also something
you should know. You can put your retirement plan. I'm
the gold standard. Learn more and get a free gold
and silver guide at Genesis goold ir dot com. Exciting
to visit right now with Jim Ashenbaum. He is the
state chairman of the Republican Party. And you've been now
(00:21):
the chairman for about a year? Is that right?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Not quite a year, John, it'll be a year February
twenty second.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Jim, let's talk about the last year. You've had some
fun wins that have happened over the last year, So
let's kind of do a quick little recap.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Well, the thing I'm most proud of, John, is our
new South go to gop dot com website. That was
one of the things I campaigned on. I said, in
this day and age, we've got to have a website
that's you know, active, kept up to date. The previous website,
the most recent news on it was over two years old,
(00:54):
you know, and that's just not acceptable for any kind
of an organization to have a website that that's that
far behind. And so that was one of the things
I campaigned on. Deb Elliott lifelike Creations out at Belfousche
built our new website and it's absolutely amazing. I tell people,
(01:16):
I said, it's so much more than what I expected.
I just knew we needed something better, but I didn't
expect to have a website like we have. Deb just
knocked that thing out of the park and didn't charge
us very much to do it. And the leadership from
the RNC, the Republican National Committee, said that that's very
possibly one of the nicest, if not the nicest website
(01:39):
of all fifty states in the nation. So that's that's
something to be proud of.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
I guess absolutely. It is a phenomenal website. And let's
share the domain name so folks maybe that haven't seen
the website can go over and check it.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Out sdgop dot com and there is so much information.
There's news, commentary, Our bylaws are our platform right there
on the front page. That's something that had been actually
taken off of the previous website so people couldn't see it.
And if you have to hide your bylaws in your
(02:14):
platform from the citizenry, something's wrong. And we're proud of
the website. We're proud of the work we're doing our
first My first full State Central Committee meeting was July nineteenth,
this last summer, and I got so many compliments about
(02:37):
how I conducted the State Central Committee meeting. They said
you were open, honest, fair, and made sure that everybody
knew what they were voting on. I mean, I would
I clarify stuff for people. Several times I make a
person that made a motion repeat their motions so we
(02:59):
are sure that we're clear what we're voting on. Sometimes
the previous State Central Committee meetings were kind of rushed
through and tried to force issues, and I'm I'm not
going to do that. I've stated when I campaigned for
chairmen that I'm going to work for all Republicans and
make sure things are done fair and equal for everybody.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
And Jim, I think clarity is always a good thing, yep.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I just rushing through a meeting when you're making decisions
as important as maybe amending your bylaws, you know, or
or that sort of stuff, there has to be clarity
about what what it is, what's the business we're doing,
what are we taking care of right now with this vote?
And I want I always want that to be clear
(03:49):
and help me open and understood.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
I love that. Again. Visiting with Jim Ashenbaum, State Chairman
of the Republican Party for the state of South Dakota,
and we're talking about some wins and year one. So
do you have some other wins?
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Oh, there's been a lot. There's so so many exceptional
people that are they're working out, you know, you know,
working for the party, helping us out with so many
different things. Penning County Chairwoman Amy Wagner has agreed to
chair the Convention Committee for the twenty sixth convention, which
(04:22):
will be June twenty fifth, sixth, and seventh out and
Rapid at the Monument and Penning County Chairwoman Amy Wagner
and then our regional director Regient sixth Director Mike Mueller
from out there Rapid is the vice chair of that committee.
And they're doing such an exceptional job. I just haven't
(04:45):
I haven't had to mess with hardly anything in regards
to convention other than signing contracts and stuff. There. They've
they've literally grabbed the reins and they're running with that thing.
And I was somewhat concerned after I was to German,
you know, whether I would be able to get people
that would step up and volunteer to help with suffer
(05:07):
if I was going to be incredibly burdened with things
to do. But I still got plenty of stuff to do.
But man, there are so many good volunteers working on
a GROW program, and which is a program that we're
working with with the RNC about growing the state party
and improving a lot of volunteers working on that, and
(05:29):
just such an exceptional group of people that are willing to,
you know, put in the effort and do what it
takes to make the party better.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
That's wonderful. Let's talk a little more about the GROW
program for folks that are not familiar with it. Give
us the details on that, and also let us know
how we can get involved.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
So the GROW program is a it's a like I said,
it's a program that's designed to make our party better
for the citizenry and Republicans statewide, and it's a we
can earn fifty thousand dollars by completing this program. It's
in three stages. You get five thousand for completing the
(06:10):
first stage, you get ten thousand for completing the second stage,
and then thirty five thousand for actually making Once we
get a plan put together, we have to make a
certain percentage threshold of that plan to get the last
thirty five thousand dollars, and that will come late spring
(06:31):
early summer of twenty six. So we've completed the first stage,
got five thousand dollars. We've got everything pretty much in
order to finish the second stage. That's part of what
this interview today is about. It's media relations. So we're
talking with people. We're communicating with the Republicans across the
state about what's going on, letting them know that we're
(06:55):
working for them and looking forward hopefully earning the payments
of all three stages of that grow program. Fifty dollars
goes a long ways for paying monthly operational expenses, the
cost of convention. We've got a gun raffle going on
(07:16):
right now. You can get tickets for that right on
the homepage of ASDGP dot com. Giving away fifty three
guns in fifty two weeks. So that's proposed to be
a great fundraiser. We got to get the tickets sold.
I keep getting on my people with the tickets saying, hey,
(07:36):
get out there and sell them tickets and Some are
just knocking it out of the park. Some are pretty
lazy about it. They're not getting it done, and I
got to stay on them. But as far as that goes,
that's another another deal that that's a fundraiser for the
state party. But for each one hundred dollars ticket that's
(07:58):
sold for that gun raffle, whichever county sold that, ten
dollars of that one hundred dollars goes back to their
county operations. And the first, the first drawing, we had
our Hand County Party right here at Miller had sold
board tickets. Then all the other all the other counties
in the state combined, and I'm not too sure that
(08:21):
we weren't. We just had our second drawing here a
few weeks ago, and I'm not too sure that we
weren't still ahead of the entire sty combined. But at
this point we've raised almost fourteen hundred dollars for our
Hand County Republican Party.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
And again, if you're listening and going, hey, I would
like a chance to win, I'd like a bunch of
chances to win. You can do that on the website
right now, SDGP dot com, and there are a bunch
of chances to win guns between now and when this
program is over.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yep. The tickets are one hundred dollars each, five for
four hundred, or ten for seven hundred if you want
to buy multiple tickets and these We're doing a drawing
every four weeks on Sunday night at eight o'clock. The
drawings are done live. We put them on our South
Got a Republican Party Facebook page and then they're archives
(09:15):
so everybody can go back and watch the drawing make
sure everything was on the up and up. But anyway,
the the first fifty two tickets, the first fifty two prizes,
those tickets stay out until the final drawing, and then
those fifty two tickets get thrown back into the tumbler,
(09:35):
so everybody's back in for the final drawing for our
grand prize rifle and that is a TS Customs right
here from TS Customs Rifles in Miller, South Dakota. That's
about a fifty five rifle for our grand prize. Really
really nice, got customized with the South Got To Republican
Party logo on the side of the butt and on
(09:58):
the side of the forearm. We the South Cota state
motto Under God, the people rule. So that's a sweet gun,
carbon fiber stock, carbon fiber barrel, six y five DRC
and really really nice gun for our grand prize. That'll
be almost a year from now before we draw for that.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
And if somebody would like a ticket to win that
gun and all of the guns between now and when
you get to that final drawing, they can do all
of that with one ticket or as many tickets as
they want. I guess right now.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Yes, you go right on our website sdgop dot com
and get your tickets. The list of all the prizes
are there in detail. We've had the first two drawings.
The first one was in October, the second drawing was November.
The next drawing is coming up on December fourteenth, So
if you want to get in and have a chance
(10:49):
at those four prizes, four prizes every four weeks, and
then a grand prize at the end.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Again, our guest today has been Jim Ashenbaum, State Chairman
of the Republican Party for the state of out Dakota,
and Jim, thank you again for taking the time to
chat with us about your first year in office. You
had mentioned that you're a big fan of Clarity. I'm
also a big fan of clarity and transparency, and one
of the best things about that is just communicating like
this to let folks know, here's who I am, here's
what I'm up to. So, Jim, thank you for taking
(11:16):
the time to do that.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Yep. And we do get on our website SDGP dot com.
There's always news and updates there. You can find out
what's going on. You can find out who we are,
what we believe in our Facebook page that's updated. You know,
there's posts on there all the time. We've got a
page on X and I think Instagram, I don't know.
I don't take care of all those. Some other great
(11:40):
volunteer takes care of that stuff, and so I don't
have to worry about it. But plenty of information out there.
The South got to GOP is definitely different than what
it was. We're active. We're working with the people and
communicating with the citizenry and helping them elect good constitutional conservatives.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
I love that. Jim, thank you so much for your time, sir.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yep, thank you again.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Jim Eschenbaum has been our guest today. The website we
were talking about, and this is where you go if
you'd like to buy a raffle ticket to win a
gun or a bunch of guns. Actually, that website is
s d go op dot com. And Something you Should Know.
Something you Should Know is brought to you by Genesisgold
ira dot com. Put your retirement plan on the gold standard.
(12:26):
Get a free gold and Silver guide now at genesisgoldira
dot com
Something you should go something you should know is brought
to you by Genesis gooldira dot com. That's also something
you should know. You can put your retirement plan. I'm
the gold standard. Learn more and get a free gold
and silver guide at Genesis goold ir dot com. Exciting
to visit right now with Jim Ashenbaum. He is the
state chairman of the Republican Party. And you've been now
(00:21):
the chairman for about a year? Is that right?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Not quite a year, John, it'll be a year February
twenty second.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Jim, let's talk about the last year. You've had some
fun wins that have happened over the last year, So
let's kind of do a quick little recap.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Well, the thing I'm most proud of, John, is our
new South go to gop dot com website. That was
one of the things I campaigned on. I said, in
this day and age, we've got to have a website
that's you know, active, kept up to date. The previous website,
the most recent news on it was over two years old,
(00:54):
you know, and that's just not acceptable for any kind
of an organization to have a website that that's that
far behind. And so that was one of the things
I campaigned on. Deb Elliott lifelike Creations out at Belfousche
built our new website and it's absolutely amazing. I tell people,
(01:16):
I said, it's so much more than what I expected.
I just knew we needed something better, but I didn't
expect to have a website like we have. Deb just
knocked that thing out of the park and didn't charge
us very much to do it. And the leadership from
the RNC, the Republican National Committee, said that that's very
possibly one of the nicest, if not the nicest website
(01:39):
of all fifty states in the nation. So that's that's
something to be proud of.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
I guess absolutely. It is a phenomenal website. And let's
share the domain name so folks maybe that haven't seen
the website can go over and check it.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Out sdgop dot com and there is so much information.
There's news, commentary, Our bylaws are our platform right there
on the front page. That's something that had been actually
taken off of the previous website so people couldn't see it.
And if you have to hide your bylaws in your
(02:14):
platform from the citizenry, something's wrong. And we're proud of
the website. We're proud of the work we're doing our
first My first full State Central Committee meeting was July nineteenth,
this last summer, and I got so many compliments about
(02:37):
how I conducted the State Central Committee meeting. They said
you were open, honest, fair, and made sure that everybody
knew what they were voting on. I mean, I would
I clarify stuff for people. Several times I make a
person that made a motion repeat their motions so we
(02:59):
are sure that we're clear what we're voting on. Sometimes
the previous State Central Committee meetings were kind of rushed
through and tried to force issues, and I'm I'm not
going to do that. I've stated when I campaigned for
chairmen that I'm going to work for all Republicans and
make sure things are done fair and equal for everybody.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
And Jim, I think clarity is always a good thing, yep.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I just rushing through a meeting when you're making decisions
as important as maybe amending your bylaws, you know, or
or that sort of stuff, there has to be clarity
about what what it is, what's the business we're doing,
what are we taking care of right now with this vote?
And I want I always want that to be clear
(03:49):
and help me open and understood.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
I love that. Again. Visiting with Jim Ashenbaum, State Chairman
of the Republican Party for the state of South Dakota,
and we're talking about some wins and year one. So
do you have some other wins?
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Oh, there's been a lot. There's so so many exceptional
people that are they're working out, you know, you know,
working for the party, helping us out with so many
different things. Penning County Chairwoman Amy Wagner has agreed to
chair the Convention Committee for the twenty sixth convention, which
(04:22):
will be June twenty fifth, sixth, and seventh out and
Rapid at the Monument and Penning County Chairwoman Amy Wagner
and then our regional director Regient sixth Director Mike Mueller
from out there Rapid is the vice chair of that committee.
And they're doing such an exceptional job. I just haven't
(04:45):
I haven't had to mess with hardly anything in regards
to convention other than signing contracts and stuff. There. They've
they've literally grabbed the reins and they're running with that thing.
And I was somewhat concerned after I was to German,
you know, whether I would be able to get people
that would step up and volunteer to help with suffer
(05:07):
if I was going to be incredibly burdened with things
to do. But I still got plenty of stuff to do.
But man, there are so many good volunteers working on
a GROW program, and which is a program that we're
working with with the RNC about growing the state party
and improving a lot of volunteers working on that, and
(05:29):
just such an exceptional group of people that are willing to,
you know, put in the effort and do what it
takes to make the party better.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
That's wonderful. Let's talk a little more about the GROW
program for folks that are not familiar with it. Give
us the details on that, and also let us know
how we can get involved.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
So the GROW program is a it's a like I said,
it's a program that's designed to make our party better
for the citizenry and Republicans statewide, and it's a we
can earn fifty thousand dollars by completing this program. It's
in three stages. You get five thousand for completing the
(06:10):
first stage, you get ten thousand for completing the second stage,
and then thirty five thousand for actually making Once we
get a plan put together, we have to make a
certain percentage threshold of that plan to get the last
thirty five thousand dollars, and that will come late spring
(06:31):
early summer of twenty six. So we've completed the first stage,
got five thousand dollars. We've got everything pretty much in
order to finish the second stage. That's part of what
this interview today is about. It's media relations. So we're
talking with people. We're communicating with the Republicans across the
state about what's going on, letting them know that we're
(06:55):
working for them and looking forward hopefully earning the payments
of all three stages of that grow program. Fifty dollars
goes a long ways for paying monthly operational expenses, the
cost of convention. We've got a gun raffle going on
(07:16):
right now. You can get tickets for that right on
the homepage of ASDGP dot com. Giving away fifty three
guns in fifty two weeks. So that's proposed to be
a great fundraiser. We got to get the tickets sold.
I keep getting on my people with the tickets saying, hey,
(07:36):
get out there and sell them tickets and Some are
just knocking it out of the park. Some are pretty
lazy about it. They're not getting it done, and I
got to stay on them. But as far as that goes,
that's another another deal that that's a fundraiser for the
state party. But for each one hundred dollars ticket that's
(07:58):
sold for that gun raffle, whichever county sold that, ten
dollars of that one hundred dollars goes back to their
county operations. And the first, the first drawing, we had
our Hand County Party right here at Miller had sold
board tickets. Then all the other all the other counties
in the state combined, and I'm not too sure that
(08:21):
we weren't. We just had our second drawing here a
few weeks ago, and I'm not too sure that we
weren't still ahead of the entire sty combined. But at
this point we've raised almost fourteen hundred dollars for our
Hand County Republican Party.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
And again, if you're listening and going, hey, I would
like a chance to win, I'd like a bunch of
chances to win. You can do that on the website
right now, SDGP dot com, and there are a bunch
of chances to win guns between now and when this
program is over.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yep. The tickets are one hundred dollars each, five for
four hundred, or ten for seven hundred if you want
to buy multiple tickets and these We're doing a drawing
every four weeks on Sunday night at eight o'clock. The
drawings are done live. We put them on our South
Got a Republican Party Facebook page and then they're archives
(09:15):
so everybody can go back and watch the drawing make
sure everything was on the up and up. But anyway,
the the first fifty two tickets, the first fifty two prizes,
those tickets stay out until the final drawing, and then
those fifty two tickets get thrown back into the tumbler,
(09:35):
so everybody's back in for the final drawing for our
grand prize rifle and that is a TS Customs right
here from TS Customs Rifles in Miller, South Dakota. That's
about a fifty five rifle for our grand prize. Really
really nice, got customized with the South Got To Republican
Party logo on the side of the butt and on
(09:58):
the side of the forearm. We the South Cota state
motto Under God, the people rule. So that's a sweet gun,
carbon fiber stock, carbon fiber barrel, six y five DRC
and really really nice gun for our grand prize. That'll
be almost a year from now before we draw for that.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
And if somebody would like a ticket to win that
gun and all of the guns between now and when
you get to that final drawing, they can do all
of that with one ticket or as many tickets as
they want. I guess right now.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Yes, you go right on our website sdgop dot com
and get your tickets. The list of all the prizes
are there in detail. We've had the first two drawings.
The first one was in October, the second drawing was November.
The next drawing is coming up on December fourteenth, So
if you want to get in and have a chance
(10:49):
at those four prizes, four prizes every four weeks, and
then a grand prize at the end.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Again, our guest today has been Jim Ashenbaum, State Chairman
of the Republican Party for the state of out Dakota,
and Jim, thank you again for taking the time to
chat with us about your first year in office. You
had mentioned that you're a big fan of Clarity. I'm
also a big fan of clarity and transparency, and one
of the best things about that is just communicating like
this to let folks know, here's who I am, here's
what I'm up to. So, Jim, thank you for taking
(11:16):
the time to do that.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Yep. And we do get on our website SDGP dot com.
There's always news and updates there. You can find out
what's going on. You can find out who we are,
what we believe in our Facebook page that's updated. You know,
there's posts on there all the time. We've got a
page on X and I think Instagram, I don't know.
I don't take care of all those. Some other great
(11:40):
volunteer takes care of that stuff, and so I don't
have to worry about it. But plenty of information out there.
The South got to GOP is definitely different than what
it was. We're active. We're working with the people and
communicating with the citizenry and helping them elect good constitutional conservatives.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
I love that. Jim, thank you so much for your time, sir.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yep, thank you again.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Jim Eschenbaum has been our guest today. The website we
were talking about, and this is where you go if
you'd like to buy a raffle ticket to win a
gun or a bunch of guns. Actually, that website is
s d go op dot com. And Something you Should Know.
Something you Should Know is brought to you by Genesisgold
ira dot com. Put your retirement plan on the gold standard.
(12:26):
Get a free gold and Silver guide now at genesisgoldira
dot com
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.