2004 United States Senate election in South Dakota

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The 2004 United States Senate election in South Dakota was held on November 2, 2004. Incumbent Democratic U.S. senator and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle ran for re-election to a fourth term, but was defeated by Republican John Thune. Daschle was the only incumbent U.S. senator to lose re-election in the 2004 election cycle. His defeat was the first time a Democratic Senate party leader lost re-election since Ernest McFarland's defeat in 1952 by Barry Goldwater. On November 12, 2024, Thune was elected leader of the Senate Republican Conference with an incoming Senate majority, making this seat the only seat in the United States Senate held back-to-back by a Senate majority leader of two different parties. This was the second election in which the candidates both served as party leaders in the Senate at some point, after Scott Lucas of Illinois lost to Everett Dirksen in 1950.

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