The Beaudion exit from the US Senate race and Beaudion’s column pointing a finger at Indy/Dem/Republican Brian Bengs continues to be a problem for the Bengs campaign.
This is as evidenced by yet another story about it circulating on facebook, this time from the Intellectual Dissatisfaction podcast, noting “Former Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Julian Beaudion says he experienced threatening or intimidating conduct before withdrawing from the race.”
Beaudion isn’t backing down either, as he has recently written another column about Bengs pandering to voters by this former Democrat Candidate switching from referring to himself as an Independent and now pretending he’s somehow “a Teddy Roosevelt Republican:”
Brian Bengs is running on the ballot as an Independent. But recently, while campaigning in Aberdeen and in an interview on CNN, Bengs publicly described himself as a “Teddy Roosevelt Republican” while making clear that he is seeking Republican votes to defeat Senator Mike Rounds.
Is this the same Teddy Roosevelt Republican whose mother was a slave owner? Or the Teddy Roosevelt that campaigned on opposing slavery but not social or political justice or equality? The same Roosevelt who won the Presidential seat by debating that Black people were degenerates and that freedom made Blacks, the “White man’s burden?”
and..
Earlier in this campaign, Bengs talked about the importance of being Independent and escaping the constraints of the two-party system. He wrote that his Independent candidacy allowed him to engage Republicans, Democrats and Independents differently.
There is something to admire about political independence.
But independence should mean something more than removing the letter next to your name.
and…
If Democrats surrender their political identity every time they encounter difficult electoral terrain, eventually there won’t be much of a Democratic Party left to defend.
It looks like not even Democrats are buying Bengs’ act of selling himself as a “pick-a-party” candidate.
He’s likely got one of the Bernie / AOC progressive stealth operatives backing him as a disrupter like they did Graham Platner in Maine. Looking forward to the next round of financial reports. HIs campaign has nothing to do with South Dakota, it’s all about the progressive left wanting to look competitive on a wide basis nationally as they try to wrest the Democratic party away from current leadership. Mike Rounds will see the usual 30%-35% “anti” vote any long-term incumbent gets. Combine that with a low turnout and and we’ll be inside 12% margin of victory which the Bernieites will tout as a huge victory for their “movement”.
Maybe political parties are not as important as issues? In any event, Bengs has no chance.
The ick factor is high with that dude