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• Varilek, 37, touted working his way through several colleges before spending nearly seven years working for Johnson, the last five in South Dakota as the senator's economic development director. He said that experience allowed him to "get to know the communities, and also learn from Sen. Johnson how to do the job effectively."
• Barth, 60, stressed that he is an outsider who has had little to do with Congress in his three decades as a telephone company technician and six years as a county commissioner.

• "I think Congress is broken," he said.
• Barth gained attention in the final weeks of the campaign with an Internet video nearly five minutes long that showed him walking down a wooded path, walking past props as he talked bluntly about Congress' failure to cut spending and solve other problems. When he mentioned Noem, he walked past a nicely dressed mannequin. When he talked about his military service, he stopped and shot a rifle.
• Bob Burns, a retired political science professor at South Dakota State University, said Democrats will have a tough time defeating Noem because Republicans have a big edge in registered voters and have dominated statewide races in recent years.
• "It is an uphill battle for a Democrat to win a statewide race in South Dakota today. It is going to take a very special campaign to accomplish that," Burns said.
• Noem narrowly defeated Democratic Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin two years ago amid voter frustration with Congress that swept many Republicans into office nationwide. Herseth Sandlin was seeking a fourth full term in the House, but Noem won with a pledge to cut federal spending.

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