Beaudion Out in South Dakota Senate Race. American Muckrakers Called for His Withdrawal Months Ago.

Julian Beaudion, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in South Dakota, suspended his campaign Tuesday night, leaving a one-on-one contest between independent Brian Bengs and Republican incumbent Mike Rounds.

American Muckrakers publicly called on Beaudion to withdraw earlier this year, arguing a split challenger field guaranteed Rounds re-election.

Beaudion's August 4 withdrawal came just hours before South Dakota's candidate withdrawal deadline. In his statement he cited a devastating house fire at his Sioux Falls home, ongoing financial hardship, and what he described as intimidating threats against his family, saying the "time will come" to reveal more. He declined to endorse either remaining candidate.

Beaudion, a Sioux Falls business owner who spent 13 years as a South Dakota state trooper, had won the Democratic nomination unopposed. The party had a brief window to name a replacement nominee after his exit but the ballot line went unfilled, leaving no Democrat in the race.

The exit makes South Dakota a clean two-way race: independent Brian Bengs versus incumbent Republican Mike Rounds. Bengs, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and Navy veteran who taught at Northern State University, ran as the Democratic nominee against John Thune in 2022 and took 26 percent. This cycle he filed as an independent, betting that a fusion of Democrats, independents, and Rounds-fatigued Republicans beats a party label in a state that hasn't sent a Democrat to the Senate since 2008.

Rounds, a former governor first elected to the Senate in 2014, is projected safe by major pollsters, and his campaign said the withdrawal changes nothing about its strategy while suggesting Bengs is a Democrat in independent clothing. The history backs the incumbent's confidence: Republicans have not lost a Senate race in South Dakota since 2008. Bengs is betting this is the year the pattern breaks.

The money picture explains the consolidation push. At withdrawal, FEC filings showed Beaudion with $3,078 cash on hand, Bengs with $51,405, and Rounds sitting on roughly $2.7 million. Bengs said the two-way race "should hopefully unleash enough fundraising for us to be more competitive."

South Dakota is now the third red state where the Democratic candidate stepped aside for an independent challenger this cycle, following Nebraska (Dan Osborn vs. Pete Ricketts) and Idaho (Todd Achilles vs. Jim Risch). The playbook is the same everywhere: stop splitting the anti-incumbent vote.