Julie Frye-Mueller

Julie Frye-Mueller (born April 20, 1963) 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, Frye-Mueller was a member of the South Dakota House of Representatives before being elected to the state Senate.

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). She represents Senate District 30, which covers the southern Black Hills region, specifically all of Custer and Fall River counties and a rural portion of Pennington County.

In the state Senate, Frye-Mueller aligned herself with a group of far-right Republicans. In 2020, Frye-Mueller sponsored legislation to allow county courthouse employees to carry guns in courthouses.

In June 2022, Frye-Mueller won the Republican primary by fewer than 40 votes, defeating State Representative Tim Goodwin, a challenger who was supported by Lee Schoenbeck, the president pro tempore of the Senate. Frye-Mueller won the general election unopposed, as no Democrat ran. In January 2023, Frye-Mueller introduced a bill to bar schools from requiring vaccines except for the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. She was initially a member of the local government committee and health and human services committee.

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. 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. 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. The suspension stripped Frye-Mueller of all legislative power, removing her right to vote on legislation and her two committee assignments. and said that she was being persecuted from "advancing freedom."

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. 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.

Nine senators (seven Republicans and two Democrats) were appointed to the Select Committee on Discipline and Expulsion. On January 31, 2023, after a hearing in which both Frye-Mueller and the LRC staffer testified, and recommended, by voice vote, that Frye-Mueller be censured by the Senate, and limited her interactions with LRC staffers.

Electoral history 2016 Republican primary election - State Representative District 30 - June 7, 2016 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 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 Timothy Ray Goodwin (R) - 7,433 Julie Frye-Mueller (R) - 7,166 Karen McGregor (D) - 3,152 Whitney Raver (D) - 2,684 2020 2022