Failed Democratic Senate candidate Julian Beaudion, who withdrew from the U.S. Senate contest last week after months of embarrassingly bad fundraising, says he still has energy to help other Democrats win their statewide races:
Beaudion says he is not fully stepping away from politics but is taking a moment to spend time with his family. He says he’ll next start investing his energy in ensuring Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dan Ahlers and House candidate Nikki Gronli are well equipped to win their respective races [C.J. Keene, “Beaudion Ends Bid for U.S. Senate Citing House Fire and ‘Pressure Campaign’,” SDPB, 2026.08.05].
Beaudion didn’t have the energy to outperform independent Brian Bengs’s surprisingly strong Senate campaign, never mind show any sign of competing with Republican incumbent Senator Marion Michael Rounds. The only energy he seems to have left in his tank is the negative energy he spewed on his way out at Bengs:
“I’m not throwing my hat behind nor my support behind either one of those candidates because I don’t believe that either one of them are good for the future of our state,” Beaudion said [Dan Santella, “Beaudion Drops Out of South Dakota’s U.S. Senate Race,” KELO-TV, updated 2026.08.05].
Any competent and committed Democrat would recognize that one easy way to help Democrats win other statewide races is to use your last moment in the spotlight—and it speaks to the weakness of Beaudion’s campaign that the most attention he got came when he ended his campaign—to exhort your supporters to come to the polls and vote the incumbent Republican Senator out. But if Beaudion can’t muster that pragmatic grace, if he can’t rally whatever tiny base he forged of “all we care about is Julian!” voters to stick with the original mission of wresting the Senate from tyranny and, while they’re at it, voting for other Democrats, then what good can Beaudion do for Ahlers, Gronli, or any other good Democrat?
As independent commentator Rick Knobe argues, encouraging voters who might otherwise stay home to get up and vote Rounds out and Bengs in is the most helpful thing Beaudion and other Democrats can do for the cause of good government:
I hope South Dakota Democrats remember the goal:
RETIRE Mike Rounds.
You may not love or even like Brian Bengs, but he is the only choice you have if you truly want to retire Mike Rounds.
So you have a decision. “Do I stay home and give the Senate seat to Rounds and therefore Trump for another six years?” Or, “Do I support a candidate who can change the majority in the U.S. Senate, making history?”
Are you going to be a Sherpa and oxygen provider to help retire/fire Mike Rounds?
At the beginning of Julian’s campaign, we talked. I gave him a check. Do you realize if 100,000 of the 130,000 Democrats in South Dakota had given Julian $5 early this year, he would have had half a million dollars available to give his campaign oxygen (money). $5 is about the cost of two cups of coffee.
Being mad at Brian Bengs is easy. Finding a scapegoat is easy. But that anger is misplaced. The frustration should be focused inward. Why didn’t I write a check? Why didn’t I volunteer? Why didn’t my party organize and provide him Sherpas and oxygen to complete the climb?
Rounds is not popular within his own party. Brian Bengs has a solid chance to win. There are plenty of independents supporting him. To have him reach the summit (win) he will need the support of thousands of Democrats as Sherpas and Oxygen providers [Rick Knobe, “Will S.D. Democrats Help Independent Bengs Scale Mt. Everest?” South Dakota Standard, 2026.08.08].
If Beaudion can recuperate from all the personal stresses he says forced him from the race, he doesn’t have to go to Ahlers and Gronli rallies and shout, “Vote Bengs!” But to add power to his fellow Democrats’ campaigns, Beaudion needs to overcome his pettiness, refocus on the big democratic (small-d, not just Big-D!) picture, and tell his supporters publicly to show up November 3, vote for all the good Democrats they can find on their ballot, and, while they’re at it, vote Mike Rounds out of the Senate, which means voting Brian Bengs in.