Independent candidate for U.S. Senate Brian Bengs is painting the man he wants to replace, Republican Senator Marion Michael Rounds, as a tool of Big Tech. Bengs told SDPB Thursday, that Rounds is getting truckloads of money from our corporate tech overlords:
“He has taken over $215,000 American dollars from AI data center interests, and is backed with hundreds of thousands more from super PACs that support big tech interests,” Bengs said. “Now, he can claim he represents us, but the money tells a different story” [C.J. Keene, “Sen. Rounds, Bengs Battling over AI, Campaign Finance as Election Nears,” SDPB, 2026.09.03].
Meanwhile, Politico reports that longtime Rounds advisor Rob Skjonsberg has moonlighting as a private lobbyist in Pierre:
Robert Skjonsberg, who has worked for Rounds for over a decade, is registered to lobby the South Dakota Legislature on behalf of more than a dozen clients, according to previously unreported state records reviewed by PI. He’s also listed as a “co-owner” and “founding member” on the website of 605 Strategies, a South Dakota-based government affairs firm founded in 2012, though the firm is not listed on the records. 605 Strategies did not immediately respond to a request for comment [Jacob Wendler, “Senate Aide’s Lobbying Side Gig Raises Ethics Questions,” Politico, 2026.09.04].
And one of Skjonsberg’s numerous clients in his state lobbyist registration is Meta, the company that South Dakota agreed to take tens of millions of dollars from to end the multi-state effort to punish the social media giant for exploiting children. Skjonsberg also lobbies for Altria, the tobacco giant to which Meta has been compared in its addiction-based business model and legal maneuvers.
Team Rounds has long been addicted to big money. Maybe it’s time for South Dakotans to kick their addiction to Rounds and his R-brand, which stands more for subservience to corporations than any genuine freedom from elite control, and elect an independent Senator who will protect our liberty and quality of life from Big Tech’s efforts to control our lives.