1. Jason Richard Ravnsborg was born on April 12,1976 and is an American attorney and politician.
58 Facts About Jason Ravnsborg
1. 2.
Jason Ravnsborg is a US Army Reserve officer and combat veteran who has served tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.
3.
Jason Ravnsborg was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for his service in Iraq.
4.
On September 12,2020, while driving home from a political fundraiser taking place at a bar, Jason Ravnsborg struck and killed a pedestrian.
5.
Jason Ravnsborg pleaded no contest to driving out of his lane and operating a car while using a cellphone; the careless driving charge was dismissed.
6.
Jason Ravnsborg was suspended from office while the South Dakota Senate deliberated, and on June 21,2022, Ravnsborg was convicted, removed from office, and permanently barred from holding public office in the state.
7.
Jason Richard Ravnsborg was born in Cherokee, Iowa, the son of Richard Ravnsborg and Jeanne Ravnsborg.
8.
Jason Ravnsborg was raised on his family's farm and graduated from Cherokee Washington High School in 1994.
9.
Jason Ravnsborg then attended the University of South Dakota School of Law, from which he graduated with a Juris Doctor in 2001.
10.
Jason Ravnsborg deployed on three different occasions: to Germany in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2003, to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004, and to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2009.
11.
Jason Ravnsborg was awarded the Bronze Star Medal after coming under enemy fire in Iraq.
12.
Jason Ravnsborg is licensed to practice law in South Dakota and Iowa, as well as the federal district courts for South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, the Federal Court of Claims, and the United States Supreme Court.
13.
From 2001 to 2004, Ravnsborg was a law clerk for Timothy K Connell, judge of the Fifth Judicial District in Rock County, Minnesota.
14.
Jason Ravnsborg served as deputy state's attorney for Union County.
15.
Jason Ravnsborg ran for the United States Senate in the 2014 election.
16.
From 2015 to 2018, Jason Ravnsborg chaired the Yankton County Republican Committee.
17.
On February 21,2017, Jason Ravnsborg announced his candidacy for attorney general in 2018.
18.
In June 2018, Jason Ravnsborg won the nomination at the Republican Convention in Pierre.
19.
Jason Ravnsborg was endorsed in the general election by 40 county sheriffs, the Fraternal Order of Police, 30 state's attorneys, the National Rifle Association, South Dakota Right to Life, and the Family Heritage Alliance.
20.
The attorneys general of all 50 states, including Jason Ravnsborg, supported the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act, which passed Congress on overwhelming bipartisan majorities and became law in 2019.
21.
In 2019, Jason Ravnsborg joined his fellow attorneys general by entering into an agreement with 12 phone companies to combat illegal robocalls.
22.
In September 2019, Jason Ravnsborg spoke in front of the US Supreme Court about the opening of a bipartisan antitrust investigation into Google by 50 state attorneys general.
23.
In 2020, Honda entered into a $85 million multistate settlement to resolve allegations that it did not inform its consumers that it used airbags that posed a significant risk of rupture; Jason Ravnsborg said that South Dakota's share would be slightly more than $2 million.
24.
Jason Ravnsborg said the settlement was the second-largest multi-state action by state attorneys general ever, after the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement.
25.
Jason Ravnsborg testified in support of SB 47, a bill to allow carrying of guns without a permit.
26.
In 2019, Jason Ravnsborg was named to several standing committees of the National Association of Attorneys General.
27.
In 2020, Jason Ravnsborg became co-chair of the NAAG Gaming Committee with Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich.
28.
In June 2021, Jason Ravnsborg was elected vice chair of the Conference of Western Attorneys General.
29.
Jason Ravnsborg has unsuccessfully sought to restrict presumptive probation in South Dakota.
30.
Jason Ravnsborg made proposals to eliminate or restrict presumptive probation central to his campaign and tenure, but the proposals failed due to insufficient support from the state legislature for the proposal in 2019.
31.
In 2019, Jason Ravnsborg took the position that industrial hemp and all forms of cannabidiol are illegal in South Dakota.
32.
In 2019, Jason Ravnsborg testified against a bill to prohibit capital punishment of any person with a severe mental illness.
33.
In 2019, Jason Ravnsborg appeared in the 7th Circuit Court in Rapid City to request a warrant of execution for Charles Russell Rhines for the 1992 murder of Donnivan Schaeffer.
34.
In 2019, Noem requested that Jason Ravnsborg investigate Minnehaha County State's Attorney Aaron McGowan after he was absent for two months.
35.
Jason Ravnsborg's report determined that McGowan did not commit a crime, but outlined numerous alcohol-related incidents that Noem called "unsettling"; after the report was released, McGowan issued an apology.
36.
In 2020, Jason Ravnsborg introduced legislation in the state legislature to create a missing-person and runaway-child clearinghouse; the legislature unanimously approved the bill, and Noem signed it into law.
37.
Jason Ravnsborg has held "Missing Persons Mondays SD" to highlight one missing-persons case each week.
38.
In 2020, Ravnsborg led a coalition of 44 states and the District of Columbia in filing an amicus brief with the US Supreme Court supporting Colorado and Washington regarding the Electoral College and faithless electors in the cases of Chiafalo v Washington and Colorado Department of State v Baca; the brief supported the right of states to bind electors to their states' votes.
39.
At the 2020 Republican State Convention, Jason Ravnsborg was elected one of South Dakota's three Republican presidential electors along with Noem and Lieutenant Governor Larry Rhoden.
40.
In 2019, Ravnsborg filed an amicus brief in support of the Kimberly Rice Kaestner 1992 Trust in the US Supreme Court in North Carolina Department of Revenue v Kimberly Rice Kaestner 1992 Family Trust.
41.
In 2020, Jason Ravnsborg announced that a second law-enforcement training academy would open in Minnehaha County.
42.
In July 2021, Jason Ravnsborg appointed Paul Swedlund as the state's first solicitor general.
43.
Jason Ravnsborg pleaded guilty to six speeding infractions in South Dakota between 2014 and 2018, paying a fine for each, and two more in Iowa, one in 1996 and one in 2003.
44.
The report, which the department provided to members of the legislature as part of their impeachment inquiry, revealed that Jason Ravnsborg had been the subject of 27 traffic stop reports in three states since 1996.
45.
On September 12,2020, Jason Ravnsborg struck and killed 55-year-old pedestrian Joseph Boever on US Highway 14, west of Highmore.
46.
Jason Ravnsborg later said that after the collision, while still in his car, he thought he had hit a large animal and called 911 to report the collision.
47.
Jason Ravnsborg said he discovered Boever's body the next morning when he returned the sheriff's car and went to the scene of the collision to search for the carcass of the deer he thought he had struck.
48.
Investigators indicated Boever had been carrying a flashlight when he was struck, and that it was still on and functioning when they arrived at the accident scene after Jason Ravnsborg reported finding Boever's body.
49.
Investigators said Jason Ravnsborg unlocked one of his two phones at around 10:20, checked his email and visited the Dakota Free Press website.
50.
Jason Ravnsborg initially denied using his phones while driving on the night of the crash.
51.
Investigators responded that they were focused on "a minute to two minutes before" the 911 call because they estimated that from the time of impact, Jason Ravnsborg would require around that amount of time to "look at the damage, figure out what's going on" before calling police.
52.
Jason Ravnsborg has said that he did not consume any alcohol at the event from which he was driving home, and Volek did not administer a breathalyzer test.
53.
On February 17,2021, Jason Ravnsborg was charged with three misdemeanors: operating his vehicle while using his cell phone, driving outside his lane, and careless driving.
54.
On March 12,2021, court officials moved the trial proceedings from Hyde County to Hughes County and Jason Ravnsborg pleaded not guilty to all charges.
55.
Jason Ravnsborg avoided jail time but was fined $1,000 and ordered to pay court costs.
56.
The victim's family was angered by the sentence, considering it too lenient, and was upset that Jason Ravnsborg was not required to attend the plea and sentencing hearing.
57.
On February 24,2021, in response to the charges and the public release of almost six hours of detectives' interviews with Jason Ravnsborg, Noem called on Jason Ravnsborg to resign.
58.
Jason Ravnsborg said he would not resign and believed he could still effectively perform the attorney general's duties.