Sioux Falls democracy advocate Julia Natvig says independent U.S. Senate candidate Brian Bengs can give incumbent Trumpist Republican Senator Mike Rounds a serious run for his money but needs weak Democratic candidate Julian Beaudion to bow out:
A May 2026 poll by Emerson College shows Mike Rounds has only a 31.8% approval rating. Former university professor and military veteran Brian Bengs is running for the job as an independent. A Bengs-Rounds race could be very competitive — if only the Democratic candidate would step aside.
Exactly this situation is happening in our southern neighbor, Nebraska. The Independent candidate is seen as having the better chance, so the Democrat is pledging to step aside. That needs to happen here as well. South Dakota Democrat Julian Beaudion is a fine person, but his campaign contributions have been meager and his website shows a dearth of policy proposals — in fact, none at all. Even Rounds’ campaign website is lean on issue specifics.
Bengs, on the other hand, is a U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force veteran, former JAG officer, former university law professor, and former park ranger, running on a platform of accountability, transparency, ethics, and leadership that puts South Dakotans first.
His website outlines specific policy positions for government accountability, overhauling the health care system, immigration and border security, protecting Social Security and Medicare, unrigging the tax code, holding the Supreme Court accountable, establishing Congressional term limits, protecting and serving veterans, balancing the budget, paying down the debt, targeting and eliminating corruption, and other issues [Julia Natvig, “Allow Independent Brian Bengs to Go Head-to-Head with Mike Rounds,” South Dakota Standard, 2026.05.23].
Natvig’s mention of fundraising gets me wondering: is Bengs really better positioned financially to take on the Rounds juggernaut than Beaudion?
According to campaign finance reports, yes, Bengs is handily beating Beaudion in raising money.
Both Bengs and Beaudion launched their campaigns and started raising money in the second quarter of 2025. Each challenger has submitted four quarterly reports plus this month’s pre-primary report. In each reporting period, independent Bengs has raised more money than Democrat Beaudion:
| Bengs | Beaudion | Rounds | |
| 2025 Q1 | — | — | 337,056.87 |
| 2025 Q2 | 77,542.44 | 61,082.32 | 413,095.91 |
| 2025 Q3 | 76,628.11 | 67,245.94 | 510,835.18 |
| 2025 Q4 | 161,158.37 | 32,277.68 | 369,959.79 |
| 2026 Q1 | 235,337.61 | 30,542.04 | 465,111.66 |
| 2026 Pre-Primary (4/1–5/13) | 97,486.70 | 17,333.90 | 206,781.01 |
| Total Raised | 648,153.23 | 208,481.88 | 2,302,840.42 |
| Cash on Hand 5/13 | 58,151.87 | 3,043.22 | 2,657,275.98 |
| Amount Spent This Cycle | 590,001.36 | 205,438.66 | 1,515,593.51 |
Incumbent Rounds is still by far the fundraising champ in South Dakota’s U.S. Senate race. He entered the race with $1.87 million in the bank, has added six figures every quarter, and as of May 13 had $2.66 million on hand. Rounds could stop raising money now, burn up all of his cash on hand, and still outspend Bengs and Beaudion combined, even if both of the challengers matched their best quarterly fundraising paces for the remaining five months of the campaign.
But look at the challengers’ contrasting momenta. In their first two quarters of campaigning, Bengs held only a slight lead over Beaudion in fundraising. But Bengs’s bank boomed in the last quarter of 2025 and grew again in the first quarter of 2026, while Beaudion’s income crashed. In the first three months of this year, Bengs raised three times as much as he did in his first quarter of campaigning, while Beaudion raised only half of what he did during his launch quarter.
These contrasting trajectories look even worse when we view each challenger’s fundraising as a percentage of the incumbent’s:
| Bengs/Rounds | Beaudion/Rounds | Beaudion/Bengs | |
| 2025 Q2 | 18.8% | 14.8% | 78.8% |
| 2025 Q3 | 15.0% | 13.2% | 87.8% |
| 2025 Q4 | 43.6% | 8.7% | 20.0% |
| 2026 Q1 | 50.6% | 6.6% | 13.0% |
| 2026 Pre-Primary (4/1–5/13) | 47.1% | 8.4% | 17.8% |
| Total Raised | 28.1% | 9.1% | 32.2% |
| Cash on Hand 5/13 | 2.2% | 0.1% | 5.2% |
| Amount Spent This Cycle | 38.9% | 13.6% | 34.8% |
After two quarters in which neither challenger managed to raise even a fifth of what the incumbent was taking in, Bengs has upped his game in three consecutive reports to raise almost half what Rounds is raising. Meanwhile, Beaudion has fallen to raising less than a tenth of Rounds’s haul in each reporting period.
To look at the candidates’ financial performance another way, compare the first column in the percentage chart—Bengs cash as a percentage of Rounds cash—to the third column—Beaudion cash as a percentage of Bengs cash. In the three most recent FEC reports, by percentages, Bengs has come closer to Rounds in income than Beaudion has come to Bengs. If campaign cash matters at all, independent Bengs has a better chance of upsetting Republican incumbent Rounds and winning the Senate seat than Democrat Beaudion has of beating Bengs and winning second place.
An independent challenger raising almost half as much as an incumbent Republican is huge. According to Open Secrets, in the three U.S. Senate races in 2024 in which challengers beat incumbents, average spending by the winning challenger was only 29% of average spending by the losing incumbents. That doesn’t mean Bengs has it in the bag: in 2024, 21 incumbent Senators won reëlection over challengers who spent an average of 47% of the incumbent campaign-spend. But in those rare instances where challengers manage to beat incumbents, spending 29% of what the incumbent is bringing in can make for a viable campaign.
These campaign finance figures justify Natvig’s concern that Beaudion may only serve as a spoiler who splits the reform-minded vote and helps Trump hold the Senate. Bengs so far has spent 38.9% of what Rounds has spent on the 2026 campaign. Beaudion has only spent 13.6% of what Rounds has spent. Bengs is raising more money each quarter, while Beaudion is raising less. Bengs has the momentum to put up more yard signs, billboards, and broadcast ads, go to more fairs and rallies, ring more phones, and drive more people to the polls. Beaudion does not.
Please join me in urging Mr. Beaudion to suspend his campaign for US Senate and seeking the nomination for State Treasurer, State Auditor, Commissioner of School and Public Lands or PUC at the state convention.
Could not Mr. Beaudion be the State Secretary and do a swell job of it?
I’m an independent voter. I just set up a recurring monthly donation to the Bengs campaign.
Don’t independent voters get crushed in the middle of the road?
Seeing the giant Bengs towering over Tike Mike during a debate would be a hoot!
I think you’re getting metaphors mixed up Mr. Anderson. It’s the SDDems who have been getting crushed, along with the national party they represent. Just look at the cast of all time kooks they keep losing against.
Hi, Ben. Have any suggestions for us? Liberals, I mean.
Bernie Sanders is a case in point. If Democratic voters didn’t want him, fine. I do resent the establishment putting their finger on the scale against him though.
Anyone who leads, especially when professing to have the public interest at heart, should hold themselves to the highest standard (publicly and privately). Start there.
Biden had a good term. While he never promised to serve a single term, he made it seem like a strong possibility. He sold us on age bringing wisdom. If that was the case, he shouldn’t have run again given his clearly declining health.
Between two candidates, more Democrats chose the one with the bigger ego in 2016 and 2020. While winning in 2020, it came back to bite us all in the ass in 2024.
I could point out that independents give up political power because they are independents but why bother.
Political parties should be a tool. A means to an end. They tend to act as an end unto themselves shortly after forming. That’s why a party’s first candidate is usually a great one and deteriorate from there.
If being a party is so inherently great, why do the Democrats not only struggle to field candidates, but when they do they put forth a dud like Beaudoin who doesn’t have any policy positions and just posts unvetted material people send him?
Take a look at that national autopsy “report”. Why would anyone feel inclined to join such an incompetent group?
Force Beaudoin to drop out. Endorse Bengs. Make a good faith effort to help him win. Even if he loses, I’ll begin to have some respect for the SDDems as the tool for change they ought to be. Until then, waste of limited time, money and resources.
Mr. Beaudion, please help stop the theocracy and step down.
I wish campaign funds were not the story so often. Isn’t gorilla social media free?
Thanks Ben, exactly. I passed the idea around Faceberg among my SDDem friends are it is a mixed bag of results but be aware that it is being taken seriously by the leadership.
Either convince Julian Beaudion to suspend his campaign to be the nominee for PUC, Commissioner of Schools and Public Lands or some other statewide post or urge Brian Bengs to suspend his campaign and seek the Democratic nomination for the South Dakota Attorney General race. Since Julian will come in third in the Senate race if all three stay in how is that even a choice?
Mike Rounds, have any response??:
“The level of corruption here is staggering and in plain sight. And I think that the silence on the part of Republicans and Congress, like go ask every Republican in Congress, media, … every member of Congress should be asked about this.
And if they do like the John Thune, “it’s not my favorite, don’t love it.” These guys should not be able to get away from this. This should be the kind of thing that makes people go go berserk.”
From The Bulwark Podcast: Sarah Longwell, JVL, and Martha Raddatz: Trump Is Looting Us in Broad Daylight, May 19, 2026
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bulwark-podcast/id1447684472?i=1000768623187&r=344
Rounds website:
“I worked with the Trump administration to find unused climate change money that will be reallocated to continue grants to tribal radio stations.”
As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, working to rescind unnecessary spending.
“This week, I voted to support President Trump’s rescissions package to claw back $9 billion of unnecessary federal spending for non-lifesaving foreign aid and taxpayer funded radio programs….”
Now, it looks like short guy Matt Paulson wants Julian to find another race to run in, too.
https://www.thedakotascout.com/p/left-wing-activists-urge-south-dakota/