Herseth Sandlin, Stephanie, 1970-

Stephanie Marie Herseth Sandlin (born December 3, 1970) is an American attorney, university administrator, and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she served in the United States House of Representatives for South Dakota's at-large congressional district from 2004 until 2011.

Born Stephanie Marie Herseth in Brown County, South Dakota, she graduated from Groton High School in Groton, South Dakota. She earned her B.A. from Georgetown University in 1993; and her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1997. After law school, Herseth worked as a judicial law clerk to Judge Charles B. Kornmann of the United States District Court for the District of South Dakota and Judge Diana Gribbon Motz on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. She worked in private practice as an attorney in Washington, D.C. and taught at the Georgetown University Law Center. Prior to her election to the House, Herseth was Executive Director of the South Dakota Farmer's Union Foundation, and served on the Board of Directors for First Bank and Trust of Brookings, South Dakota. She ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. House in 2002, narrowly losing to South Dakota Governor Bill Janklow.

After Janklow's January 2004 resignation following his conviction for manslaughter, Herseth was selected as the Democratic nominee in the June 2004 special election, narrowly winning the seat. She married former Congressman Max Sandlin in 2007, serving under the name Herseth Sandlin thereafter. She joined the Democratic Blue Dog Coalition, which sought caps on federal spending and more targeted appropriations; she became co-chair of administration for the caucus in November of 2008. Herseth Sandlin often crossed party lines to vote with Republicans, voting with Republicans in favor of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments Act of 2008 and she was the only Democrat to vote against the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights Act of 2008 that regulated credit card practices. In the 111th Congress (2009–2011), she voted for the major stimulus bill—the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—but voted against the American Clean Energy and Security Act, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Throughout her House tenure, Herseth Sandlin pushed for alternative energy legislation on the Natural Resources Committee, championing renewable biofuels and wind technology and seeking tax incentives for biofuel plants and worked to expand the number of American-manufactured ethanol-based vehicles. In the competitive 2010 midterm election cycle, Herseth Sandlin lost re-election by 3 percent to Republican Kristi Noem, a South Dakotan rancher who served in the state house of representatives.

After her defeat in the 2010 Congressional election, Herseth Sandlin joined the Washington, D.C. firm of Olsson Frank Weeda Terman Matz as a principal attorney focusing on federal laws and regulations. She later served as Legal Counsel at Raven Industries in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and as an adjunct professor at the Department of Political Science at South Dakota State University. In February 2017, it was announced that she would become the 24th President of Augustana University, a liberal arts college in Sioux Falls.