Bengs needs to stress issues as campaigns hit the home stretch
I got an email from Brian Bengs this afternoon. That's not too surprising. Bengs sends me at least two emails every day, generally asking for money.
He has pointed out that his independent candidacy for U.S. Senate has a much better chance of success now that it's a two way race between him and Mike Rounds.
The Democratic candidate, Julian Beaudion, dropped out of the race at the last possible minute. Neither Bengs nor Beaudion is from South Dakota, but Beaudion has lived here longer than Bengs. Rounds didn't have much to worry about when his opposition was divided between two obscure opponents.
Recent emails from Bengs cite various polls which show that he and Rounds are statistically tied. In his emails, he sometimes he talks about fixing a morning cup of coffee, and the fact that he's living in a camper while he builds himself a house. He will remind us that he worked briefly as a park ranger at Wind Cave National Park, and that he had a career in the military before he taught briefly at Northern State University. Many national park rangers saw their jobs evaporate during Elon Musk's DOGE crusade against federal employees.
Bengs was actually the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate back in 2022, shortly after he came to South Dakota, and he lost to John Thune by a margin of 69% to 26%. That was Joe Biden's midterm election, shortly after the Covid pandemic. Bengs switched his own voter registration back to independent just weeks after losing that election.
His most persistent argument against giving Rounds a third term in the Senate is that Rounds is a career politician. He served in the State Senate, eventually being selected as majority leader, and then was elected Governor twice before winning a complicated race for the Senate in 2014. It's true that Mike Rounds has held public office for more than three decades, but that's not my issue with him.
Tim Johnson was a career politician, and I was proud to vote for him every time he was on the ballot. Johnson was the only South Dakotan to serve in all four legislative capacities: State Representative, State Senator, U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator. He never lost an election. Johnson wasn't flashy, but had the persona of an Eagle Scout, or even the boy next door. I usually agreed with his positions on issues, and respected his integrity. Interestingly, Tim Johnson managed to defeat John Thune, by a very narrow margin, back in 2002.
In the fifty days remaining before this year's election, Brian Bengs could tell us where he stands on some of the hot button issues that face our state and nation.
Congress is years behind schedule in passing a farm bill. What would Bengs do, to break that impasse?
Since he worked as a park ranger, how does he feel about the Trump administration's ongoing efforts to dismantle our conservation legacy.
Big Bend is seriously threatened by the idiotic and destructive border wall.
Trump wants to sell off a chunk of Yosemite to a developer.
The Senate voted, 50-49, to allow an open pit copper mine right next to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, which is America's most visited wilderness. If Rounds had found the courage to oppose that scheme, the outcome would have been different.
Bengs could also tell us what he proposes to do, if anything, to make housing more affordable.
As a military man, he could tell us what he thinks about Trump's unhinged war against Iran.
And he could tell us how he proposes to keep Social Security solvent.
There are many valid reasons for South Dakotans to bring Mike Rounds' Senate tenure to an end. Rather than continually attacking him as a career politician, Bengs could take a stand on some of the issues that threaten our future as a democracy and as a nation.
Jay Davis is a retired Rapid City attorney
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