SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The way U.S. Senate candidate Brian Bengs sees it, partisanship holds people back.
“I had my own experience where I would have people agree with me on things, and then they’d go, ‘So what are you,’ and when you say, ‘Well, I’m running as a Democrat,’ they’d go, ‘Oh, I’d never vote for a Democrat,’ even though they literally just agreed with me when I said, ‘Here’s what I think,'” Bengs said Monday.
Bengs is running as an independent for South Dakota’s U.S. Senate seat currently held by Republican Mike Rounds. Bengs, a 55-year-old Navy veteran, says he’s been an independent for most of his life. He unsuccessfully ran as a Democrat against Republican U.S. Sen. John Thune in 2022.
“I prefer to do my own thinking, and I’ll be in agreement with people on various things on both sides of the aisle,” said Bengs, who lives in Hot Springs, S.D. “So, if this country was more independent rather than married to their team, I guess as it is, and did their own thinking, we would have a much different situation today.”
Bengs’ professional experience includes time spent teaching at Northern State University in Aberdeen, S.D. and working at Wind Cave National Park in the Black Hills as a ranger. For him, how different people feel the burden of taxes is the biggest issue in this race.
“The system fundamentally just needs to reward work over wealth, and right now it’s flip-flopped, and nobody’s benefiting except those at the very top,” Bengs said. “So that is the single biggest issue for me.”
In addition to that, health care and how it impacts people’s pocketbooks are front and center for him.
“We need to get this thing squared away to make it more affordable for more people, so that is the other big thing that I would say,” Bengs said about health care. “Those are the top two.”
Rounds has not yet formally announced his candidacy for reelection; Democrat Julian Beaudion of Sioux Falls has also announced he is running.
According to the South Dakota Secretary of State’s office, Bengs will need 3,502 signatures to qualify as an independent candidate for the general election ballot in 2026.
