Rick Knobe says Democrat Julian Beaudion and independent Brian Bengs are both “exceptional” U.S. Senate candidates with “great credentials and life experiences”. Knobe acknowledges that Bengs has raised more money than Beaudion and says Bengs has more “Sherpas” to help him climb the high mountain of knocking off the well-funded incumbent Republican Mike Rounds. Knobe also says that his fellow independent may have a better chance of beating Rounds than a candidate bearing the D brand.
But Knobe declines to join some other South Dakota Standardcommentators who have called on Beaudion to yield to Bengs and bow out of the campaign. Knobe supports a bow-out but remains neutral on who should park and who should bark:
Last July I wrote to them expressing my concern about having a three-way race for the job in November 2026. History shows a three-way race favors the incumbent. Even an unpopular one. Those against the incumbent split the vote between the two candidates and the incumbent ultimately wins.
That is not the desired outcome.
Last year there was a conversation between Brian and Julian.
Allegedly discussed was a possible solution to the three-candidate problem. As sometimes happens in politics there is disagreement between them on the outcome of that discussion. I wasn’t in the room, so I can’t determine what was said and not said.
We are less than five months away from the election. Both men are running hard. No indication from either one about stepping aside to help the other accomplish the ultimate goal, retire Mike Rounds.
…It takes plenty of courage and some ego to run. It takes wisdom and prudence to know when to step aside for the greater good and look ahead to the next opportunity/election.
…Jullian Beaudion or Brian Bengs need to step aside, soon. The man who does will be considered not a loser, but a hero and a statesman [Rick Knobe, “Either Beaudion or Bengs Should Withdraw from Senate Race,” South Dakota Standard, 2026.06.15].
In an interview with KOTA-TV Wednesday, Bengs said he and Beaudion talked in April 2025, before either of them announced their campaigns, about avoiding the quandary of splitting the anti-Rounds vote:
And at that point, I offered him a gentleman’s agreement where I said if, at the end of the year, in 2025, if at the end of the year, one of us is in a better position to defeat Mike Rounds, the other should withdraw and just cheer from the sidelines. And I said the criteria for traditionally judging the health of campaign are polling and fundraising, and whoever had the strongest, most competitive polling and most competitive fundraising should be the one to go forward. And he declined that agreement. So he’s aware of the situation, I’m aware of the situation: one of us alone is competitive; if both of us are in there, we’re both spinning out wheels and it’s kind of a waste of time [Brian Bengs, interviewed by Blake Troli, “Special Interview: Independent Senate Candidate Brian Bengs on US-Iran Deal, ICE & CBP Funding & More,” KOTA-TV, recorded 2026.06.17, posted 2026.06.18].
In a later KOTA-TV interview the same day, Beaudion said he’s staying in the campaign to the end:
I made a decision in April of last year to run, and that is exactly what I am going to do. I am not in this to play political games. I’m not in this to compare myself to Mike Rounds or even Brian Bengs. I’m not even this for someone like a Donald Trump. We are in this for the people of South Dakota and the citizens here in our state, to make sure that we’re listening and we’re developing our policy to be reflective of what the people need. We are not going anywhere. The intent is and has always been to make sure we are listening to the people first. That’s one of the reasons why we decided really early on that we’re going to do these town halls. I’m at 28 town halls now, and I have a goal to hit all 66 counties, we’re now at 35 out of 66 counties. We are developing our policy based on what people across this state believe in. So no, I’m not in this to play those type of political games. We are in this thing to make sure that we represent the people of South Dakota well [Julian Beaudion, interview with Blake Troli, “Special Interview: Democratic Senate Candidate Julian Beaudion on Biden Endorsement, US-Iran Deal and More,”KOTA-TV, recorded 2026.06.17, posted 2026.06.18].
Beaudion confirmed that he spoke with Bengs early last year and refused to enter the agreement Bengs offered:
Of course I declined it at that time. I still would decline it at this time as well, because, quite honestly, you can’t buy people’s votes, and polling, uh, this is a joke, but I’ve heard this before that polls are for strippers, and so we have to make sure that we are listening to the voices of South Dakota and we are reflective of that, and that’s exactly what we have done in this campaign. We are really intentional about traveling this entire state, listening to as many voices as possible, and I promise you, I am the only candidate right now who’s doing that [Beaudion, 2026.06.17].
Now that both candidates have agreed on the existence, essence, and outcome of the early Bengs/Beaudion convo, let’s look at the offer in context. In offering a silent primary by polling and pocketbook, Bengs was taking a serious risk. No statewide independent candidate in South Dakota in this century has outpolled or outfundraised a party-affiliated opponent at any point in the campaign. If I’m a Democrat getting ready to run for Senate, and the guy who ran as a Democrat last time but now is bucking the party to run indie says he’ll drop out if he can’t keep up with me in polling and fundraising, I look at history, shake his hand, say, “You’re on, brother!” I’m out the door on my way to my 66-county tour and making cash calls on the road before he can post our gentleman’s agreement on his website, because he just handed me an easy way to keep a spoiler off the ballot and clear my path to a one-on-one contest with the Trumpist incumbent whose removal we agree is more important than either of our personal ambitions. The odds are in my favor; all I have to do is bust my ass, which I planned to do anyway, since holy cow, how else do you beat million-dollar Mike Rounds?
But Beaudion didn’t take that easy bet, and he failed to capitalize on odds that should have been in his favor. By the end of 2025, Bengs had raised more money and done more polling, while Beaudion was just relaunching his campaign—and relaunch is a synonym for oops, didn’t get off the pad the first time, so let’s try that again. It’s as if Beaudion thought from the start that he was so weak that he couldn’t win a fair fight with an independent challenger who himself has never won an election, never mind wage a remotely competitive campaign against an incumbent Republican.
Reiterating to KOTA-TV his refusal to take Bengs’s deal, Beaudion says some silly things.
Beaudion says that he’s not playing political games, that his main intent is to listen to people. Yeah, yeah, that sounds nice, but (1) you are playing the most fundamental political game—trying to win an election—and (2) you won’t win that game by listening. When you go to your town halls, you listen, but you also say who you are and what you stand for. When you raise money, you don’t just listen to your potential donors; you pitch! You make the case that you are a winning investment. You don’t go on KOTA just to listen to Blake Troli or the camera crew talk; you go to say serious things that will get you headlines and attention and dollars and votes.
At least, that’s what you do if you’re playing to win.
Beaudion says he’s not in the campaign to compare himself to Rounds, Bengs, or even Donald Trump, but that’s exactly what voters do and expect candidates to help them do: compare the values, policies, temperament, education, and experiences that will make one of the candidates a better Senator than the others.
And less than two minutes after saying he’s not out to compare himself to his opponents, Beaudion compares himself to his opponents—”I promise you, I am the only candidate right now who’s doing that [listening to voters].” Beaudion self-contradiction shows that at least half of what he said on comparisons is meaningless.
Beaudion says his team is “developing our policy”. Um… your policy is still in development? Call me old-fashioned, but I’m of the impression that you don’t run for office unless you’ve already looked at current policies, decided what policies are worth defending, and formulated alternatives to the policies that need to be repealed and replaced. You then pitch those policies to the voters from Day One.
Beaudion then tries to dismiss the criteria for evaluating candidate strength with weak one-liners. First, Beaudion says, “You can’t buy people’s votes.” That’s not the point. Bengs isn’t planning to buy any votes with his superior fundraising. He’s planning to hire more staff, recruit more volunteers, host more events, put up more billboards, and pour more gas in his tank to travel to all 66 counties, just like Beaudiuon would be doing be doing if he had more cash. More cash doesn’t buy votes; it helps candidates do more work to earn more votes. Bengs has more cash. Beaudion fails to explain what alternative support he has that can help him beat Bengs and Rounds.
Then Beaudion says, “This is a joke, but… polls are for strippers.” This one-liner contains multiple errors:
- If you’re good at telling jokes, you don’t have to label your joke a joke. Everyone will get it and laugh at your joke. (KOTA’s Blake Troli sits stone-faced through Beaudion’s comment.)
- If you’re a Democrat telling jokes, do you really want to use an old Sarah Palin joke? Tap Biden, tap Obama—win Democratic votes with Democratic wit!
- But Beaudion isn’t making a joke. He very much wants us to believe that election polls showing him trailing the independent and nowhere near the incumbent don’t matter. So once again, as he did on comparing, Beaudion contradicts himself.
- Most importantly, Beaudion fails to offer any substance to make us believe his joke-not-joke. Sure, polls can be wrong, but polls do better than headlines might lead us to believe. Beaudion doesn’t give examples or explain why polls in this South Dakota race might underestimate his support or overestimate support for Bengs and Rounds. Sure, internal polls are to be viewed with skepticism, and internal polls from Team Bengs are all we’ve gotten in this race, but Beaudion doesn’t make that point. He doesn’t even fight Bengs’s poll claims with internal polls of his own… probably because Beaudion can’t afford internal polls (see above, on things viable candidates can do when they raise more cash).
I maintain an unshakeable spiritual kinship with every underdog. I respect the right of every brave soul to fight what everyone else may tell him is a hopeless battle but which he believes he can win.
But Julian Beaudion isn’t the underdog in this contest. He and Bengs are both underdogs. They cannot both win, and as Knobe says, neither is likely to win against the overdog Rounds if both remain in the race and split the anti-Rounds vote.
Beaudion could have been the stronger underdog. He could have taken Bengs’s bet and soundly dispatched him by rallying the Democratic faithful and funders to his side and demonstrating early on that he was a better candidate than Bengs. But somehow, Beaudion didn’t… and I suspect Beaudion’s curious difficulty in communicating clearly, consistently, and originally, as further evidenced by his Swiss-cheesy KOTA-TV interview this week, is part of that somehow.
Beaudion said, “We are not going anywhere,” but he’s already contradicted himself twice in one interview. If he’d like to go for #3, SDCL 12-6-55 gives him until August 4 to withdraw his name from consideration for U.S. Senate and unite behind the stronger underdog, Brian Bengs, in the fight to retire Mike Rounds and restore the independence of the Senate.
Even without Beaudion splitting the resistance vote, Bengs is a longshot to beat Rounds. But he’s not as long a shot as a solo Beaudion, and if Beaudion doesn’t bow out, he’ll be #3 in November, Bengs will be #2, and Mike Rounds will remain in his Senate seat, meaning South Dakota and the Senate most definitely won’t be going anywhere good.
Good eye, Cory.