Fresh off of being on the front lines of forcing South Dakota Democrat Julian Beaudion out of the race for US Senate…
Beaudion writes that “an influential Democrat in the state … told me that I was the most toxic thing ever to happen to the South Dakota Democratic Party. He told me that if I remained in the race, donors would leave the party and that he intended to contact people about it.”
Beaudion also relates a direct conversation with independent candidate Brian Bengs, in which Bengs says, “if you stay in the race, things will get worse for you.”
“Allegedly Independent” Brian Bengs has been part of a behind the scenes effort to make sure there was no traditional Democrat in the race, preferring his own brand of using Democrat Party resources to do and say anything he wants to get elected. Instead of referring to him as Independent Bengs, after the Beaudion substack article, we might need to refer to him as “dirty fighter Bengs” after he cleared his opponent off the field.
Like it or not, Bengs’ strong arming of Julian Beaudion is the past. So Let’s talk about Bengs in terms of a more current topic. Data Centers – the new boogie man in South Dakota Politics, which is convenient for Bengs to use as a throw away issue. Fresh off the the newly cleared slate, Data Centers are one of his first selling points that he’s is pushing in an effort to appeal to populists, according to KOTA News:
Brian Bengs, the independent candidate who is now the only remaining challenger for Sen. Mike Rounds’ seat, is receiving national coverage for his criticism of the war in Iran and other issues.
And..
Bengs also discussed his opposition to data centers during the CNN interview. He said that if a local community votes in favor of building a data center facility, he would support that decision.
Here’s that very same story on Forbes:
I say it’s a throw away issue for Bengs, because he’s skipping a couple of items when it comes to them. He’s failing to disclose that BRIAN BENGS has investments in data center companies according to his financial disclosure filed with the US Senate in May:
Here’s the write up:
Kyndryl Holdings operates a global footprint of roughly 66 data centers across 25 countries, alongside strategic hyperscaler cloud integrations, combining legacy asset management with modern colocation and hybrid IT infrastructure services.Global Operations & FootprintOperates facilities spanning major regions including North America (such as Markham, Ontario and Edmonton, Alberta), Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific.Relies on an asset-light strategy, consolidating traditional real estate footprints while expanding colocation hosting capacity and peering partnerships.
And let’s not forget an oldie but a diverse company from Bengs’ portfolio that also likes it’s data centers:
IBM’s data center related activity? Here you go:
IBM operates over 60 global cloud data centers across 19 countries and 6 continents. These centers use a multi-zone region (MZR) design to offer high-availability, low-latency cloud infrastructure, bare-metal servers, and strict federal compliance standards like FedRAMP.Infrastructure and NetworkZones: Independent fault domains grouped inside metropolitan regions to limit downtime.Security: 24/7 on-site guards, surveillance, and restricted physical entry.Power: Redundant N+1 power and cooling systems.
So, Bengs thinks Data Centers are bad, unless they can make Bengs bank?
Go read Brian Bengs’ financial disclosures for yourself, and come to your own conclusions.
I’m sure there’s other breadcrumbs he’s left along the campaign train as to where he really sits on the issues.
Bengs is such a stinking hypocrite.
Julian come back!