Brian Bengs
October 13, 2026 · Newsletter
The Caucus Question
Yesterday, I had a news conference with my fellow Independent Senate candidates Dan Osborn and Seth Bodnar to answer the question that everybody had asked the entire campaign:
“Who will you caucus with?”
This whole campaign, that’s one question I see more than most. I hear it talking to voters out in public, I hear it in town halls, and I hear it from journalists when I do interviews. My answer has always been the same, and I’ve made an effort to make it clear. With three weeks left until the election, I joined my fellow Independents to set the record straight once and for all.
I won’t caucus with either party.
That spawns a lot of follow-up questions, I know. We heard plenty of them at the news conference, and the whole slate of articles written afterward raised even more. “How will it work?” or “How will you get committee assignments?”
Has anything like this been done in the Senate before? No, but that’s what gives it unlimited potential. We entrust the Senate to be the upper house of the legislative branch. We entrust it with huge responsibilities, and their decisions have overwhelmingly important impacts on our lives. Am I supposed to believe that we’re supposed to rely on the Senate to write, amend, and enact laws, but that we can’t expect them to figure out how to work with a handful of Independents?
I’ve heard every objection before, believe me. Despite them all, I still believe that I cannot betray my Independent principles when I’m elected to the U.S. Senate. South Dakotans who are voting for me are doing it because of who I am. My background, my message, and the experience and attitude I’ll be bringing to the Senate as South Dakota’s Independent voice.
What would that say about my character, my integrity, and my willingness to serve if I didn’t follow through with what I believe? How can I possibly hope to rein in our two-party system by stepping right into it?
There is strength, leverage, and opportunity in being an Independent, even more so as one in a small handful of Independents. We are the bridge that will be able to get the Senate to actually handle business, bringing both sides to the table with reasonable compromise like we used to have.
The polling shows that this race is neck-and-neck. We need to build a steady lead before Election Day, and we’re going to do it by reaching thousands more South Dakotans. If you can chip in to support the campaign today, it’ll ensure my name, my message, and my background reach regular folks around the state.
Help support the campaign here
What has the two-party system brought for South Dakota? Our senior Senator is the current Senate Majority Leader, and yet South Dakota farmers and ranchers still don’t have a farm bill. South Dakota is one of the top states in the country for wind power, yet we keep seeing our Senators vote to cut incentives for it. Cuts to rural healthcare have left it in shambles, and it looks like it’ll only get worse. We continue to wait for AI guardrails, despite South Dakota’s senators supposedly leading the Senate’s AI policy development.
My opponent, South Dakota’s junior Senator, has been in the Senate for 12 years, with almost nothing to show for it. His “wins” aren’t his at all (other than renaming some post offices), they’re just whatever the corporate donors or party donors told him to do.
Every issue he finds himself “fighting for” this year is something he worked against in years past. He originally voted against Mandatory Country of Origin Labelling for meat in grocery stores, and now he tries to use it as a campaign issue. He stayed silent as the Postal Service took on an ill-advised reorganization plan, and only spoke up when the issue of South Dakotans’ mail got so bad it couldn’t be ignored. He sure is “concerned” about importing foreign beef, but he didn’t do anything to protect Congress’ exclusive tariff (taxation) powers which are clearly in the Constitution.
Party politics has gotten South Dakota nowhere. That’s why my Independence is so appealing, because we might finally have a Senator who will put South Dakota first, rather than Big Money special interests and party bosses in D.C.
I won’t argue that this is untrodden ground. It’s on the frontier of what we’ve done before, but that’s exactly why we can do it. When we think of frontiers, we think of states like South Dakota. This November, South Dakota will send an Independent to Washington who will break the two-party gridlock, work to fix our broken systems, and fight for regular people each and every day.
Thank you for reading.
Brian L. Bengs, Lt Col (Ret)
Independent Candidate for U.S. Senate
We have only two days left until our last fundraising deadline before the election. The polling we’re seeing tells us we can win, but we need to get our message out to as many South Dakotans as possible. If you can chip in to the campaign today, it’ll ensure we can keep our message airing. Thank you.