Tired of the corruption in Washington?

Government corruption is the top issue for a whopping 88 percent of Americans in a recent Fox News poll. As I travel all over South Dakota and speak with voters about my campaign as an Independent running for U.S. Senate, I find that number closer to 100 percent.

I have yet to find a single South Dakotan who thinks career politicians in Washington are working for them more than they’re working for whoever signs the biggest checks. They know the process is set up to benefit the billionaires and mega-corporations, and that they treat career politicians like investments.

These are good investments for them, too, far better than if they put that money anywhere else. Billionaires’ investment in Congress paid off with huge tax breaks in the Big Beautiful Bill. Sure, we all got a piece, but the biggest breaks went to the ones at the top. Big Tech is hoping their investments into my opponent, co-chair of the Senate AI Caucus, will pay off big-time by putting up weak regulations for AI and AI data center development.

It’s not just tax breaks these billionaires get to feed on. They’re getting lucrative government contracts, all covered with federal taxpayer dollars paid by hardworking Americans. It’s never been easier for billionaire tech companies to get federal money, just ask Elon Musk or Peter Thiel. Meanwhile, the average American struggles with increasing costs of gas, food, fertilizer, and the elimination of healthcare and farm markets.

We are sprinting through the tape. We are up by 1 in the latest poll. We need to pay for our final week’s ad buy and a statewide town hall series to meet voters, and we need your help. Gas ain’t cheap, but ads in South Dakota are! If 100 people can chip in $50 today, it will ensure that we keep getting the message out to voters all across the state. You have been with us before. All we need is to finish strong. Thank you.

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Since 2003, Elon Musk and his businesses have received at least $38 billion in state and federal contracts, loans, subsidies and tax credits, and an additional $11.8 billion is spread over the next few years thanks to 52 active contracts. Considering that he’s the number one spender on campaigns this year, it’s hard not to imagine that he’s expecting his millions of dollars in campaign contributions to turn into billions of dollars of business for him (which has made him a trillionaire).

Look at Peter Thiel, strong supporter of the Trump administration, mentor to J.D. Vance, and founder of a major tech company named after the evil seeing-stones from Lord of the Rings. His company is now operating within the IRS, ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Defense. It’s totally integrated into our government’s operation, and we’re footing the bill for all of it.

We are sprinting through the tape. We are up by 1 in the latest poll. We need to pay for our final week’s ad buy and a statewide town hall series to meet voters, and we need your help. Gas ain’t cheap, but ads in South Dakota are! If 100 people can chip in $50 today, it will ensure that we keep getting the message out to voters all across the state. You have been with us before. All we need is to finish strong. Thank you.

Chip in to help support the campaign

Washington corruption has reached a point where it simply cannot be brushed aside. When you check the FEC campaign finance reports and see hundreds of thousands of dollars from these billionaires and their like-minded pals poured into career politicians like my opponent, there can be no question that he is acting in their interest, not the interests of South Dakotans.

“Yeah politicians are corrupt, but what are you going to do about it?”

I’ve pledged to be a completely different United States Senator. I’m going to use my experience as an ethics advisor in the Air Force to enforce a strong code of ethics for my staff and I, which I look forward to writing about next.

I’ve taken the term limits pledge, while my opponent is running for his third term and has been in politics for 35 years. I’ve sworn off corporate PAC money, while my opponent takes hundreds of thousands of dollars from them. I won’t allow my staff to moonlight as corporate lobbyists, while my opponent let one of his most senior staffers (and long-time campaign manager) rake in untold tens of thousands lobbying for Big AI, Big Tobacco, and Big Ag, all while this Senate staffer was making a six-figure salary paid for by our tax dollars.

Words alone aren’t enough, and that’s why I’ve taken the steps early to demonstrate my ethics as early as possible. My campaign is funded by more than 47,000 individual contributions averaging about $35 each.

Running as an Independent to get Big Money out of politics, there’s a lot of working parts to figure out. The one thing I know for sure is that South Dakotans will be sitting at the decision-making table with me, not Big Money billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Peter Thiel.

Sincerely,

Lt. Colonel (ret.) Brian Bengs

We are sprinting through the tape. We are up by 1 in the latest poll. We need to pay for our final week’s ad buy and a statewide town hall series to meet voters, and we need your help. Gas ain’t cheap, but ads in South Dakota are! If 100 people can chip in $50 today, it will ensure that we keep getting the message out to voters all across the state. You have been with us before. All we need is to finish strong. Thank you.

Chip in to help support the campaign