Mitchell native Steve Jarding, who has extensive experience in state and national politics as well as teaching at Harvard and other universities, said the failure or success of some political institutions largely comes down to basic communication skills.
"If we want a better democracy, we have to train people not to fear public speaking," which causes more anxiety than death for most, he said.
Jarding will share the training he has given to "presidents and prime ministers" as the keynote speaker April 9 at the 2026 Chiesman Center for Democracy Conference in Vermillion. The free daylong conference and lunch is sponsored by the Chiesman Center for Democracy at the University of South Dakota, where Jarding earned his undergraduate degree.
He still does campaign management and consulting but primarily leads workshops and university classes on the power of human communication.
"The problem isn't the (political) institutions, but it's the people in them because good people don't want to do it." – Steve Jarding
"What I'll be talking about is training I do all over the world. Over the last 20-plus years at Harvard I developed a new paradigm of communication," he said.
"Most people when they communicate about politics, it's about intellectualism – that if I know the issues and am smart and understand policy, they will be attracted to me."
He questioned that.
"I know political people who didn't know policy well and weren't the smartest person, but people loved them. By contrast, I knew people who knew policy, but people weren't attracted to them. The intellectual argument was flawed," Jarding said.
The paradigm he developed stems from the idea that if you train and empower people to overcome the fear of public speaking, more of them will be apt to run for public office.
"The problem isn't the (political) institutions, but it's the people in them because good people don't want to do it," Jarding said. "I have people leave the stage crying and after the training they're powerful speakers."
250th, protests, new civics class
Besides communication, the conference will also focus on the nation's 250th anniversary, said Julia Hellwege, director of the Chiesman Center and associate USD political science professor.
"The goal is to understand how we can communicate better with one another and take collective action, and when that collective action serves democracy and when it can be challenging in a democracy," she said. "About protests, historically and comparatively, why did it work for America and where else has it worked and when might it not work."
That discussion will happen during an America 250 panel that will examine the significance of the nation's anniversary and the role of protest in American democracy.
The day will also include state legislators sharing their perspectives on the 2026 legislative session and several researchers presenting their latest findings.
This is the first school year with a South Dakota Board of Regents requirement that students be proficient in civics before graduation. To complement those required classes, the Chiesman center sponsored the Higher Education Civic Engagement Award whose winners will be announced at the conference. It involves teams of two to five students from the six public universities doing civic engagement projects, with a top prize of $500 per student.
Other Chiesman efforts include the student-led Dakota Dialogues podcast focusing on civic education and its statewide nonpartisan polling with South Dakota News Watch.
Read the full schedule and register for all or part of the free conference and lunch.
SD News Watch
Jarding said events like the Chiesman conference are vital.
"I don't think you can do enough of these, especially at a time when we're not teaching civics in our schools like we used to," he said. "Anything that can raise the flag for democracy and stimulate ideas and awareness around the importance of democratic societies is critical."
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