Beaudion Is Out in South Dakota. We Called For This Months Ago.
Two impediment to impeachment candidates out in two days. Brian Bengs has the talent, grit, and team to win.
Chuck Edwards quit his re-election campaign at 5 a.m. Wednesday, 24 hours after we said resign. And Tuesday night, Julian Beaudion, the Democratic nominee for Senate in South Dakota, suspended his campaign, months after American Muckrakers publicly called on him to withdraw.
Our reasoning then was simple math, and we published it. South Dakota was never going to elect two challengers over Mike Rounds. Beaudion, the Democratic nominee, had $3,078 in the bank as of this week. Independent Brian Bengs, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, had the resources, the profile, and the only realistic path. A split field was a gift to Rounds. We said consolidate. It took months, but the field just consolidated.
South Dakota now joins Nebraska and Idaho, where Democrats also stepped aside for independents, in the one-on-one model that gives red-state challengers an actual chance. Rounds against Bengs, head to head. That is a race.
Click here to listen to the 2 interviews we’ve had with Brian Bengs and the other interviews of folks supporting him we played during the “Brian Bengs Week” on MUCK YOU!
Now it is Bengs versus Rounds. Watch that race along with us. Bengs is the real deal and I think can win.
Big D
David B. Wheeler
President, American Muckrakers
About the Author
David B. Wheeler is the president and co-founder of American Muckrakers, the Western North Carolina accountability organization best known for helping end Madison Cawthorn’s congressional career in 2022, the rare instance in modern politics of a sitting incumbent losing his own primary because somebody bothered to do the homework. Since then, American Muckrakers has turned its attention to Lauren Boebert, Ken Paxton, and a growing roster of politicians who confuse public office with a personal ATM. He publishes accountability journalism at Muckrakers.Today.
Wheeler co-hosts the MUCK YOU! podcast with Col. Moe Davis, the retired Air Force colonel and former chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay. He is the author of Color the Crooks, Case File #001: Lauren Boebert, the coloring book James Carville endorsed with the words “She earned every damn page. Buy it.” *He is also the founder of VoteROI.com, a political data company built on 86.9 million FEC records that helps donors figure out where their money actually goes, which, as this essay makes clear, is a question more people should be asking.
Before all that, Wheeler spent three decades in politics, elections, and event production in more than 50 countries on all seven continents. Along the way he lowered the Mississippi River, produced the first professional sports event ever held in Moscow, and produced the first marathon ever run on Antarctica. His political education started early: Page for the Iowa House of Representatives, intern in the United States Senate, and National Committeeman for Iowa on the Young Democrats of America national committee. David was the lead advance guy for then Senator Obama in Iowa City, Iowa, in October of 2006, and then again during his presidential announcement in Waterloo, Iowa, in February 2007. And, he has some good stories from both experiences.
An Iowa native and proud Hawkeye, Wheeler is a father of three and lives in the mountains of Western North Carolina, in the district Chuck Edwards is currently failing. He believes sunlight is the best disinfectant, filings don’t lie, and the loudest guy in the room is usually the one with the most to hide.
And, Beetlejuice Boebert claimed she was going to sue him. She never did, so David sued her in Federal Court in Denver and partially won.
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This publication is First Amendment protected speech and commentary on matters of public concern. All individuals referenced are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law. No portion of this publication may be used for commercial purposes without the written consent of American Muckrakers PAC, Inc. and David B. Wheeler.