BENGS
Brian Bengs

NOT A GIMMICK. A HOME.

THE INDEPENDENT
FROM THE CAMPER

Parked fifty feet from the unfinished house he's building with his wife. Pragmatic, dryly funny, and stubbornly enduring.

— Hot Springs, SD

Fifty Feet From an Unfinished House

On a windy morning in Hot Springs, South Dakota, Brian Bengs answers a video call from inside his camper. It's not a campaign gimmick—it's his actual home, parked fifty feet from the unfinished house he's been building with his wife.

"A winter in South Dakota in a camper is not a pleasant experience."

The understatement says a lot about him: pragmatic, dryly funny, and stubbornly enduring. That mix might prove essential for a man attempting one of the hardest feats in politics—winning a U.S. Senate seat as a true independent.

Bengs's journey to this improbable campaign winds through nearly every corner of public service. He's a retired Air Force JAG, a former Navy sailor, a professor of homeland security and criminal justice, and, until recently, a National Park ranger at Wind Cave National Park. His résumé reads like a civics textbook, but his motivation is less abstract.

Watching January 6th unfold on television, he says, was the moment that flipped a switch.

"I needed to be able to say I tried to do something."

That impulse led him to challenge Senate Majority Whip John Thune in 2022.

WINTER IN A CAMPER

"I needed to be able to say I tried to do something."

Brian Bengs - Badlands
Watch: Brian Bengs | The Independent From The Camper — IVA Feature
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"THEN IT WAS, 'I'D NEVER VOTE FOR A DEMOCRAT.' THAT LESSON WAS SEARING."

The Reflex That Cost Him a Race

That first campaign, run under the Democratic banner, was miserable.

"I'd guarantee to people we'd agree on three issues, and they'd nod along—until they learned I was running as a Democrat. Then it was, 'I'd never vote for a Democrat.'"

That lesson was searing.

"An independent doesn't trigger that reflex. I'm not picking a team. It's not a football rivalry. I just want people to agree where we can."

Now he's trying again—this time against Republican incumbent Mike Rounds and Democrat Julian Beaudoin—with only an I next to his name. His independence isn't branding; it's philosophy.

"Partisanship results in a failure of imagination. The party does the thinking for you. I want people to think for themselves."

Brian Bengs - South Dakota
MORE INDEPENDENTS THAN DEMOCRATS

THE
REFLEX

"I'm not picking a team. It's not a football rivalry. I just want people to agree where we can."

South Dakota Badlands
IMAGINATION

"Partisanship results in a failure of imagination because the party does the thinking."

The Politics of South Dakota

The politics of South Dakota make his argument vivid. Republicans dominate the field. Democrats, diminished and defensive, see independents as spoilers. Yet voter registration tells a more complex story: there are now more independents than Democrats statewide.

Bengs believes that's fertile ground for someone who can connect across lines of loyalty and anger.

"We're all on the same team if we agree on a few things. That's what independence is."

THE AGENDA

Values over machines.

$

THE ECONOMY

For a farm state bruised by tariffs.

"When China stops buying corn or beef, that hits home."

+

HEALTHCARE

Try calling a hospital and asking the price. They can't tell you.

"That's not a market; that's a monopoly."

★

SERVICE

The emotional center: respect for ordinary public servants.

"It's harassment. They're trying to make people quit."

Foreign Policy. Economy. Healthcare.

His policy focus matches his résumé. Foreign policy and national security come first—he taught international law, after all. Then the economy, especially for a farm state bruised by tariffs.

"When China stops buying corn or beef, that hits home."

And finally, healthcare:

"Try calling a hospital and asking how much something costs. They can't tell you. That's not a market; that's a monopoly."

His time with the Park Service adds another layer. When budget cuts threatened his unit, only veteran status spared him. Many co-workers weren't so lucky.

"It's harassment. They're trying to make people quit, to convince them it sucks to work for the federal government."

That experience hardened his sense of mission—and clarified his campaign's emotional center: respect for ordinary public servants who hold the system together.

South Dakota Badlands

Independence Should Mean Independence

Bengs knows the odds. He's open about his lack of big donors and his uphill climb against entrenched party machines. But he has a strategy.

"It's about visibility. You have to be in front of people's eyes—on the radio, on TV. And if the parties keep fighting each other to the extreme, there's an opening for someone sane in the middle."

Ask him whom he'd caucus with if elected, and he doesn't hesitate.

"No one, at least not permanently. I'd vote ad hoc. If Republicans come up with a healthcare plan that works, I'm all in. If Democrats propose something aligned with my principles, I'll support that. Independence should mean independence."

He's already advocated for open primaries and ranked-choice voting—ideas many partisans fear.

"Both parties started as movements based on values. Now they're machines. I want to bring it back to values."

Bengs quotes James Madison from Federalist 51 to explain his vision: ambition should counteract ambition.

"Partisanship has short-circuited that. The ambition of partisans has replaced the ambition of governance. We need to fix it."

He pauses, smiling slightly, the faint buzz of his camper's heater humming behind him.

It's not the usual fiery rhetoric of a Senate stump speech—but maybe that's precisely the point. Inside that camper in the Black Hills, Brian Bengs sounds like something Washington hasn't heard in a while: an independent voice who believes common sense is still a winning argument.

The Strategy

MOVE THE FOOTBALL

"I can make a lot of noise, and maybe move the football a yard or two down the field. Then someone else can take it further."

This is winnable.

Brian Bengs is back — this time on the ballot as an independent. A retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and law professor, he's making the case that South Dakota deserves a senator who answers to South Dakotans, not a party.

He's running on three things both parties claim to care about and neither has delivered:

  • Restoring Congress's role and breaking the two-party reflex
  • A real check on a runaway executive — from war powers to tariffs
  • Independent representation that puts South Dakota first, not a party caucus

We need your help to put him over the top.

  • → Donate: bengsforsouthdakota.com
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