The Senate race for South Dakota’s second seat is heating up as candidates have traded barbs relating to campaign finance, artificial intelligence, and AI data centers.
The race pits incumbent Republican Mike Rounds against Brian Bengs.
Bengs, a former Democrat running as an independent, said at a press conference he held Thursday the state is being mistreated by out-of-state money.
With that in mind, he contended the current state of campaign finance is inherently flawed.
“To be clear, I am not accusing anyone of doing anything illegal,” Bengs said. “I am saying our system is corrupt, as a whole, and we deserve better.”
Specifically, this orbits monies sent by lobbies that include tech companies. Bengs contends pro-AI, pro-data center lobbyists are active in state politics, including spending money on the primaries of over a dozen Statehouse races.
Bengs then turned his attention to his opponent, Republican Sen. Mike Rounds.
“He has taken over $215,000 American dollars from AI data center interests, and is backed with hundreds of thousands more from super PACs that support big tech interests,” Bengs said. “Now, he can claim he represents us, but the money tells a different story.”
Under the current law, accepting such donations is not an illegal campaign finance violation, and the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court case allows corporations to make unlimited donations to campaigns.
In Bengs’ words, the Supreme Court “handcuffed us to this dumpster fire of money.”
Rounds told SDPB he was attending an event Thursday and was not free for an interview. In a statement, Rounds’ Senate advisor Rob Skjonsberg wrote “(Bengs) fails to disclose that less than 16% of his donations came from South Dakotans. He’s a tool for the Democrat socialists trying to take over the country.”
“Bengs will take away local control and have the federal government tell us what to do. Make no mistake, Bengs is beholden to the big government radical socialists. His campaign is funded by them,” the statement said. “And he’ll vote in lockstep with them as the Democrat’s 51st senator.”
The election is scheduled for Nov. 3.