Mike Rounds' Royal Ride Home

I was looking forward to starting my morning in the beautiful Black Hills, with some tea and an early morning walk with my dogs. That is, until another example of Washington corruption surfaced related to my opponent, Mike Rounds. You know, the kind of corruption where Washington career politicians play by a different set of rules than us common folk.

Only a United States Senator who travels on the taxpayer dollar would think it’s acceptable to have a private plane ferry him to his home on return trips to South Dakota. That’s exactly the life of royalty (or corruption) that Career Politician Mike Rounds leads. From 2022 to 2025, the taxpayers paid over $1.3 million just to fly him to and from the Minneapolis airport in a private, convenience plane to his Fort Pierre home. This happened over 110 times during this four year period.

Yes, you read that right. When he returns to South Dakota, he flies on a commercial plane to Minneapolis. There, a private plane awaits him to bring him to his home in Fort Pierre for his weekend visits. Early the following week, the plane returns him to Minneapolis so he can travel to Washington, where he must be available to do the bidding of the rich and powerful billionaires and corporations in the Halls of Congress. Often, the next weekend the Rounds Corruption routine repeats.

We are 24 days until the election and we are racing to the finish. We have put the campaign on the map with the last four polls showing Brian tied with Rounds 46 to 46. We need your help to close strong. If we can get 24 people to chip in $100, we can hit our goal and put an extra Senate seat on the map.

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Common people who visit Washington, DC from South Dakota must plan their schedules typically around travel to the Sioux Falls or Rapid City airports and then build their schedules around connecting flights in Minneapolis, Chicago, or Denver. Yes, common people have to sit in the airport awaiting their next flight.

Not our Senator Mike Rounds. He can’t be bothered sitting in an airport with common people, awaiting a connecting flight. Like royalty, his private plane awaits him because he can’t be inconvenienced waiting in an out of state airport for a connecting flight to South Dakota.

Let me give you one example from the 110 plus trips to the state. On Friday, September 12, 2025, Career Politician Mike Rounds flew on a commercial flight from Washington to Minneapolis, where a private plane was standing by. The taxpayers were billed $5,879.08 for that private plane. Then, on Monday, September 15, 2025, that private, convenience plane, costing taxpayers another $5,879.08, returned him to Minneapolis, where he boarded a commercial flight bound for Washington.

Taxpayers paid $12,799.94 in transportation costs for this four day weekend trip for Mike to sleep in his own bed. Out of that amount, $11,758.16 in taxpayer dollars paid for private, convenience planes.

If you think this is outrageous, you can see the entire four years (2022 to 2025) of private, convenience travel to his Fort Pierre home. All of this financial information is contained in official Senate documents where taxpayer spending must be reported.

This is a clear example of what is wrong with Washington and the United States Senate. The longer career politicians like Mike are in Washington, the less they care about wasting taxpayer dollars. That he considers this use of taxpayer money acceptable is, unfortunately, not surprising, because such corruption is the norm in Washington.

The fact that the United States Senate allows taxpayer money to be used for convenience flights is an indictment of the Senate and a reflection of the corruption in Washington, DC. Just like the corrupt Senate rules that supposedly permit Senator Rounds’ senior advisor, paid over $150,000 a year, to be a paid lobbyist for Facebook while cashing a taxpayer check. That’s a whole different level of corruption.

We are 24 days until the election and we are racing to the finish. We have put the campaign on the map with the last four polls showing Brian tied with Rounds 46 to 46. We need your help to close strong. If we can get 24 people to chip in $100, we can hit our goal and put an extra Senate seat on the map.

Chip in here to help get Brian to 50%

South Dakotans have recently reminded me of Career Politician Mike Rounds’ history using taxpayer dollars on private flights. When he was Governor, Rounds flew state planes for his personal use. This abuse of taxpayer money prompted a 2006 ballot measure, approved by South Dakota voters, that limited state aircraft to state business. Rounds, a pilot who sometimes flew the planes himself, said he used political contributions to repay the state, rather than his own, personal money. Once again, the career politician is pushing the limits.

When I’m South Dakota’s Senator, this abuse of taxpayer dollars will come to a halt. There will be NO private, convenience flights for me to return to the state. NO private plane will be waiting for me at an out of state airport to bring me home. And on my Senate website, I will publish any private plane flights I take within South Dakota, along with the cost and the purpose of the meeting that required the additional taxpayer expense. South Dakotans deserve to know that their Senator hasn’t fallen for the Washington corruption game.

Here’s my challenge to Mike Rounds. Point to one other South Dakota Senator or Congressman who has flown back and forth every weekend using private, convenience charters. Just name one. You claim to be conservative with taxpayer dollars. Is this corruption how you define your conservative values?

Brian Bengs

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