A Spilled Milk Saga: The Amanda Marsh Files

It started with breastmilk, but what spilled next was far messier. For Julie Frye-Mueller, a former District 30 State Senator with a reputation for speaking her mind, the accusations against her were bizarre. A 2023 conversation, which went nationally viral, allegedly involved breastfeeding. And at the center of it all? Amanda Marsh, a legislative staffer with secrets of her own: a whole filing cabinet full. 

As South Dakotan's know all to well, once milk is spilled, you can't put it back into the pail.​

Marsh is an elusive, behind-the-scenes figure within state politics. Let's take a quick peek into her political background. Her LinkedIn profile, which has since been taken down, showed that Marsh has noteworthy political connections. Marsh once interned for the former Democratic Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin; a name that will come up again later in this saga.

During the 2022 legislative session, there was a Senate GOP intern who was allegedly brought to Marsh's attention on multiple occasions. The aforementioned intern will be referred to as the unnamed intern, so as to not distract from the purpose of this article, which is to detail the allegations of Marsh mishandling formal complaints in her role as the Legislative Research Council's Internship Coordinator.​

Amanda Marsh

Following an abrupt departure from University of South Dakota (which coincided with a plethora of campus-related allegations which, according to the unnamed intern, were unrelated to the departure), the unnamed intern then began attending Augustana University. The same Auggie U where Marsh's former boss Herseth-Sandlin now serves as the university president. In 2023, I first broke the story on the allegations against the unnamed intern, and coincidently, my investigation eventually led me back to none other than the mysterious staffer Amanda Marsh and her filing cabinet of secrets. 

Frye-Mueller claims that she went to Marsh with a complaint about the unnamed intern. The same Marsh who, just one year later, would later file a formal complaint against the then-Senator. Frye-Mueller alleges that the unnamed intern stuck a foot out in an attempt to trip her on the Senate floor, which could have caused serious bodily injury (not to mention, may have put the state and the LRC at serious financial risk of an injury lawsuit). Marsh allegedly responded to Frye-Mueller that there is nothing she can do about the unnamed intern's alleged misbehavior, and that she's "tried." Marsh then allegedly proceeded to name-drop then-Senate Pro Tempore Lee Schoenbeck as having a familial-friend connection with the unnamed intern. According to Frye-Mueller, Marsh went on to further claim that she's "had lots of complaints" about the unnamed intern.

The allegations of so many unresolved complaints eventually prompted me to go into the LRC office directly to ask questions about their internship program. On March 3, 2025, I entered the office to request my own employee file. The desk-staffer went to go ask a supervisor, to which Marsh quickly entered in behind, and promptly closed the door. After a couple minutes the three LRC staffers emerged, with Marsh scurrying back into her office, and I was told that the LRC does not keep any employee records for their internship program beyond basic onboarding information.

After some cajoling I was eventually shown, but not given, a printed copy of my own employee file. I followed up with an inquiry about whether or not the LRC keeps a record of any complaints and disciplinary actions within their internship program. They said no. I gave a hypothetical example, asking if records would be kept for a intern who had complaints filed against them, and was told that due to interns being short-term seasonal employees, the LRC does not keep any record of complaints or disciplinary actions within the internship program. That encounter only left me with more questions than answers, like: where is the oversight in this taxpayer-funded institution? And is this lack of oversight in violation of federal Title IX law, considering that the internship program recruits its participants through public universities?

One player key to understanding the Amanda Marsh files is former Legislative Research Council Executive Director Reed Holwegner. After the 2022 session, Democratic spin-blog DakotaFreePress reported on a leaked internal memo that former Director Holwegner issued to LRC staff in 2020, instructing them to follow his dystopian Four Rules:
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1. Be seen but not heard
2. Speak when spoken to
3. Disappear in a crowd of two
4. And cast no shadow

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DakotaFreePress followed this up with another article on poor working conditions within the LRC. Conditions so dysfunctional and dire that, following the 2022 session, the state legislature reportedly began holding regular closed door meetings between Holwegner and the legislature's executive board to discuss personnel and human resource issues. With only months before the start of the 2024 session, the Dakota Scout reported that Holwegner's resignation was requested by the executive board due to concerns about employee retention and office morale. 

​While Marsh's decisions have certainly raised serious questions, it’s crucial to have some degree of empathy and understanding for the environment she was working in. Under the leadership of Holwegner, the LRC became a place where silence was encouraged, and compliance over transparency was the norm. Holwegner’s Four Rules contributed to a culture that enabled Marsh's alleged failure to act on complaints.

​Despite the attempts to obfuscate Marsh's identity, which was enabled by local and national media outlets reporting on the story, her complaint against then-Senator Frye-Mueller was a wind that blew the filing cabinet wide open. The media, who frequently esteems itself as a "watchdog" and the so-called "fourth branch of government," missed a golden opportunity for shining a light on serious issues within the LRC and prompting meaningful reforms. Had state and national media bothered to dig just a little bit deeper, they might have uncovered an even more troubling story—a story of Marsh's alleged complicity in silencing complaints and perpetuating a culture of negligence within the legislature.

​Marsh's role created a false sense of trust and safety for interns. As the first (and often only) point of contact for complaints, Marsh was supposed to be an advocate for the interns she oversaw. Instead, with an alleged history of ignoring complaints, citing political connections, and mishandling allegations; Marsh protected the institution rather than those within it. This breach of trust was particularly damaging for the interns, who relied on her as their safeguard within a complex and intimidating political environment. Marsh's alleged actions ensured that any problems were contained, not resolved, further perpetuating a see-no-evil hear-no-evil culture where accountability was discouraged and institutional dysfunction thrived. Marsh allegedly played a role in helping Holwegner cover up a multitude of serious issues.

Frye-Mueller claims that the alleged conversation with Marsh began with a seemingly benign conversation about family; when she asked the staffer, a new mother, if she was "happy to go home for lunch" to see her new baby. In South Dakota, where the political culture often revolves around close-knit relationships, such inquiries aren't out of place, especially in such a highly pro-life state. Frye-Mueller recalls how Marsh seemed to glow when the conversation turned to the topic of family life, and claims Marsh volunteered details about her lunchtime plans. ​Meanwhile, Marsh's side of the story has already been widely covered by the state, national, and partisan media outlets. 

​The alleged conversation soon became the focal point of a series of allegations that were deeply intertwined with Marsh's role as the internship coordinator. Her complaint was not an isolated incident, because it was part of a larger pattern. Frye-Mueller’s sister has since shared how Marsh’s allegations have also negatively impacted her emotionally and reputationally, given that she is frequently mistaken in public for her identical twin sister. As we dive deeper into the Amanda Marsh Files, it becomes evident that what started with a conversation over family time ultimately opened the door to exposing a much deeper institutional problem within the halls of state government.

​To truly understand Marsh's role in Pierre's political chessboard, we must revisit the story of Tim Goodwin, another pawn in the games of political power-broker Schoenbeck. Goodwin—a former House Majority Whip—turned against his district mate, Frye-Mueller, aligning himself with Schoenbeck in a bid to replace her. But that gamble backfired, and he lost the 2022 Senate race to Frye-Mueller. By the time Rep. Goodwin finally clawed his way back into the House for 2025's historic 100th session, the faction he once betrayed for thirty pieces of silver had since taken control of both chambers and their leadership. Needless to say, he lost a bid to reclaim his old Majority Whip spot. Was the bite worth all the bark? After Marsh's complaint against Frye-Mueller, Goodwin's own role in this saga began gaining traction. His own efforts to undermine Frye-Mueller’s seat were proven to be part of a larger web of political manipulation orchestrated by Schoenbeck.

In conclusion,
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Although the alleged misconduct involving Marsh spans across multiple legislative sessions, the threads of this saga's timeline all connect in a troubling pattern:

• In late 2020, the then-newly appointed LRC Executive Director Reed Holwegner sent out a memo with his authoritarian four rules.
• In 2021, Marsh failed to act on my complaint.
• In 2022, Marsh allegedly failed to act on multiple complaints against the unnamed intern, and cited the intern's personal connection to a powerful lawmaker as the reason for her inaction.
• In 2022, these multiple complaints ended up resulting in the immediate intervention from the legislature's executive board, of which this same lawmaker sat, holding regular secret meetings with Holwegner to discuss the LRC's many (allegedly, "undocumented") personnel issues.
• In 2023, Marsh became embroiled in controversy yet again (for what was the third consecutive legislative session) after filing a complaint against then-Senator Frye-Mueller; of whom this same lawmaker had a public and documented active effort to remove.
• And later in 2023, with only months to go before the start of the 2024 session, the executive board requested Holwegner's resignation at the last second as reported by the Dakota Scout.

The common threads which connect all three of these complaints, spanning three consecutive sessions between the years of 2021-2023: are Reed Holwegner, Lee Schoenbeck, and Amanda Marsh. Given this state legislature is the same one that made headlines with Rep. Ted Klaudt's horrific "egg-harvesting" scheme in 2008, or Rep. Mathew Wollman resigning after having sex with interns in 2017, one can only begin to wonder what kind of stories a filing cabinet would tell if it could talk. 

​If you have any information related to the Amanda Marsh files, please don't hesitate to reach out and spill the milk with me. I would love to hear from you. ​☕