SD Dems Won’t Replace Beaudion, Not Endorsing Bengs Yet

The South Dakota Democratic Party will not engage in a thrilling crash effort to recruit a new candidate for U.S. Senate before next Tuesday’s deadline. Nor, apparently, did they have any long-standing secret strategy to install Julian Beaudion as a placeholder candidate, work through the spring and summer to recruit a real candidate, and then launch a super August surprise upon Beaudion’s last-minute withdrawal.

No, the Dems are going to leave that spot on the ballot empty and quietly let former Democrat, now independent Brian Bengs do all the work of ousting Senator M. Michael Rounds:

The South Dakota Democratic Party will not select a replacement candidate for the U.S. Senate nominee who ended his campaign Tuesday, a party official said.

That statement came Wednesday from state Democratic Party Deputy Director Joe Zweifel in response to South Dakota Searchlight questions.

…Zweifel said the state Democratic Party will not endorse Bengs [Seth Tupper, “Party Will Not Replace Withdrawn US Senate Candidate, SD Democratic Official Says,” South Dakota Searchlight, 2026.08.05].

South Dakota is the third state in which Democrats have withdrawn and left an independent as the main challenger to a Republican incumbent. Idaho Democrats pressured their own candidate out of the Senate race and cleared the path for Todd Achilles’s independent run against incumbent Republican Senator Jim Risch. Nebraska Democrats endorsed independent Tom Osborn against plutocrat Republican incumbent Senator Pete Ricketts a whole year ago. Maybe Nebraska Dems chair Jane Kleeb will have a few words with the South Dakota Democratic Party leadership about uniting around their best shot at taking the Senate away from King Don when Kleeb keynotes the SDDP’s 2026 Roundup in Box Elder on September 19.