Billy Mawhiney

08/06/2026

I have two separate things to talk about. First, I don't want people to confuse what happened in Nebraska with South Dakota and Idaho. In Nebraska Osborne (Independent) was the progressive candidate. A MAGA person registered as a Democrat to infiltrate the election, therefore the Democratic Party created a primary to win the primary and then bow out of the race. It was intentional for Osborne from the start, that was not what happened in South Dakota.

Secondly, let's talk about what "coalition" is.

Julian is a man of the people. He didn’t show up to events just to take a picture and stand in the corner. He immersed himself in communities. He listened. He understood that people don’t owe you their vote.

He knew a three person race made the path harder, yet Julian never once asked Brian Bengs to step aside. Not once (if someone has something to contradict this please let me know). From what I saw, he believed that if someone was willing to put in the work, they deserved to make their case to voters. He even spoke to how he respected the process enough to let the people decide.

Julian also understood South Dakota politics. He knew no progressive has ever won statewide without investing heavily in Native communities. He started making that investment because he believed those communities deserved to be seen, heard, and valued.

Julian owns the choices he made. He chose conversations over call time. He chose community over nonstop fundraising. In modern politics, that comes with a price, and eventually that price caught up to the campaign. (If it was just money, I believe he would still be fighting but as everyone read it was much more than that)

Brian Bengs made choices too. His campaign chose consolidation over coalition. Instead of asking how to build something bigger, it focused on becoming the only campaign. Those are not the same thing. Coalition building invites people in. Consolidation asks everyone else to get out of the way. Listen to how he speaks and how a lot of his supporters comment. It's all about consolidation.

Now there are fewer than 90 days left. Bengs has to make his case to South Dakota, but he also owns the responsibility of earning the trust of the progressive voters who were inspired by Julian.

That trust is not automatically transferred because one campaign ended. It has to be earned.

08/05/2026

Julian’s words break my heart.

Politics slowly takes away ordinary life. It asks a lot of the people who love you. Your spouse. Your children. Your parents. Your friends. They never chose to run for office, but they carry some of the same sacrifices.

I know a lot of people are frustrated today. I am too. There will be time to talk about what this means politically. There will be time to debate strategy, candidates, and where we go from here. Right now doesn’t feel like that moment.

If you feel like you need to do something today, do it. Volunteer for a candidate you believe in. Knock on doors. Make phone calls. If your heart is with Julian, remember you can still support his campaign. (https://secure.actblue.com/donate/julianforsd?amount=500&refcode=website) Help them close this chapter with one less burden to carry.

Regardless, I hope our community wraps its arms around the Beaudion family. Give them some grace. Give them some space. Let them simply be a family for a while. Julian, Inkka, and the girls deserve the chance to exhale and rest.

08/02/2026

As the deadline for withdrawal gets closer, I’m thinking a lot about why I left my own race. Yesterday was a prime indicator of how everyone wants there to be one reason. We want to point to fundraising, polling, political pressure, endorsements, family, or strategy and say, “That’s why.” I heard the whispers of some of those after I stepped aside. However, running for office is one of the few experiences where every part of your life gets put on the same scale at the same time. Your family, your career, your finances, your health, your supporters, your social media (past and present), your volunteers, your values, and the responsibility you feel to the people who believed in you all compete for your attention. None of this exists in a vacuum, and they rarely all point you in the same direction. It’s quite stressful and confusing. I blame my 20lb weight gain on this (and the gas station food because I didn’t always plan ahead).

What I forgot from being involved in campaigns until I became a candidate is how easy it is for the public to assign motives to a decision they weren’t part of. We see these same FEC reports, endorsements, polling numbers, and social media posts because those are public. We don’t see the conversations around the dinner table, the sacrifices made by spouses, the grandmothers picking up the slack with the kids, the stress of taking time away from work, the weight of asking volunteers to keep giving, or the moments where you sit in your car, alone, and ask yourself if you have anything left to give. I’m a reality show ju**ie so I understand the psychology of how people feel they know why someone stays in or drops out. I can admit I am just as much of the problem sometimes, but it doesn’t justify or make it right.

So as another withdrawal deadline approaches, I find myself with a lot more empathy than I had before I ran. Whatever decisions candidates make over the next few days, I hope people remember that those decisions are almost always more complicated than they appear from the outside. We can debate campaigns all day long, but only the person making that decision knows everything that went into it. ALWAYS the hardest choice in politics isn’t deciding to run. It’s deciding whether to keep going.

07/25/2026

After we ended the campaign earlier this year, we took some time to build what we could have used. We took a look at where the gaps are, especially for first time candidates. There are a hundred moving pieces, and too many people are trying to keep everything together with spreadsheets, notebooks, and group texts (shout out to the paper folks, this is for the digital ones). We wanted something that could centralize and organize volunteers, events, donors, projects, communications, and all the other details that can make or break an effort. It doesn't do the work for you, it won't do your call time or knock doors but it will track them much easier so you know where you are.

That’s why Campaign Buddy HQ will continue to be free for every South Dakota candidate. AND... it’s not just for campaigns. Small nonprofits, neighborhood groups, social movements, and anyone working to make a little more space for a better world can find a home here too. If it helps you spend less time chasing information and more time doing the work that matters, then it’s doing exactly what we hoped it would. Just head over to campaignbuddyhq.com and register, even if you’ve signed up before. Let's make the world a better place!

**don't be afraid to share with someone or hit that life button to keep the engagement going.

Campaign Buddy HQ helps political candidates set vote goals, track outreach, manage campaign budgets, and stay organized.

07/20/2026

Republicans in Congress are spending so much of their time pushing the SAVE Act to solve a problem that barely exists.

According to an analysis of the very conservative Heritage Foundation’s own Election Fraud Database, there were just 77 identified cases of noncitizens voting over a 24 year period (1999 to 2023) out of hundreds of millions of ballots cast. That’s not thousands. That’s not even 100. Seriously. Noncitizen voting is already illegal, and when it happens, it should be investigated and prosecuted, but 77 cases over 24 years, or about 3.2 cases per year, is not evidence of a national crisis requiring new federal barriers for millions of legal voters. Today, around 36 states (from my very limited research so don't hold me to that) already have some form of voter ID law, and every state has procedures to verify voter eligibility before someone casts a ballot. Every. Single. State.

Meanwhile, Americans are struggling to afford groceries, housing, health care and child care, and we are watching a war with Iran escalate rapidly. Those are real problems affecting millions of people right now. Election integrity matters, but governing requires priorities. The SAVE Act feels like a solution looking for a problem while Republicans in Congress ignore the problems Americans are actually asking to be solved.

So look for candidates who talk about issues and solutions you are facing and don't fall for the boogey man in the corner stories and fear bating.

07/20/2026

The Story of 29 ballots:

Christine Erickson won the election and is our mayor. I have hope she succeeds, because I’m behind anyone who serves our community until they prove me wrong. No matter who we cast our vote for, we have a new mayor that will be looking to lead in a new way. This is not to take away from her win.

This is however, an important conversation we should have about the unstamped ballots. Since the recount, I’ve taken the time to map each rejected ballot to its precinct and compare it with how those precincts actually voted. I think some of us (me, I'm the "us") needed to know that distinction. Based on the voting patterns in those precincts, these ballots would not have changed the outcome of the election. In fact, Jamie Smith would likely have gained only one additional vote, well short of the 4 he needed. That’s probability, not certainty. The ballots will never be unsealed, and even if they were, they could never legally be counted. But understanding what most likely would have happened helps separate the election result from the much bigger issue of how the process failed.

An administrative error may have influenced the outcome of an election, and we’ll never know. What keeps me up at night is that 12 of the 29 rejected ballots, about 41%, came from one single precinct. That concentration raises questions. It could suggest someone attempted to improperly cast ballots and the safeguards worked exactly as intended. It could also suggest the process at that polling place broke down and eligible voters lost their votes because of an administrative error. Those are two very different conclusions, and I don’t know which one is true. That’s exactly why I think it’s important that election officials understand what happened. If the system worked, we should be able to say that with confidence. If the process failed, we should fix it before the next election. In this case, I think we should know either way. Trust and integrity in elections are concerns and moments like this add fuel to the flames.

Election integrity isn’t just about preventing fraud. It’s also about preventing mistakes. If there was an administrative failure, identify it, fix it, and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Every eligible voter who follows the rules deserves confidence that their ballot will be counted, and every election deserves a process people can trust.

Unstamped rejected ballots by precinct:

* 02-12: 12
* 04-19: 3
* 01-17: 2
* 02-01: 2
* 01-10: 1
* 01-12: 1
* 01-18: 1
* 02-08: 1
* 02-11: 1
* 02-13: 1
* 03-15: 1
* 04-02: 1
* 05-02: 1
* 05-18: 1

07/12/2026

One of the biggest barriers to running for office isn’t passion or ideas. It’s knowing where to start. Campaigns come with endless moving pieces, and too many first time candidates are left trying to figure it all out on their own.

That’s why we have decided to make Campaign Buddy HQ FREE for South Dakota candidates this election cycle. Whether you’re running for city council, school board, county commission, the legislature, or statewide office, we want you to have access to the same tools that help campaigns stay organized, manage volunteers, keep track of priorities, and spend more time talking with voters. This is about investing in the people willing to serve and helping build stronger campaigns and a stronger democracy across South Dakota.

To get started, just register at the link below, even if you’ve created an account in the past. Once you’re registered, we will take care of the rest.

Campaign Buddy HQ helps political candidates set vote goals, track outreach, manage campaign budgets, and stay organized.

07/10/2026

Picture it, Preston, Missouri, 1996. I remember voting for the very first time. I turned 18 just two days before the '96 presidential election, and thanks to Mrs. Redies, who some of you will recognize if you’ve read my book, our class received extra credit for registering to vote. So I did. I proudly cast my first ballot for Bill Clinton because my mom worked for Head Start, and there were concerns at the time that Bob Dole was considering significant cuts to the program. Whether you like how I voted doesn't matter, truth is the majority of Missouri agreed with me at that time. What mattered was that I got to participate. I walked out of that polling place with my voice heard.

That memory came to me after learning about a first time voter from a recent election. They were excited, had registered, showed their ID, and expected to have that same experience. Instead, when they went to vote on June 23, they were told their ballot would be sealed because they had never provided proof of citizenship and they are considered a federal voter or something similar to that language.

They were born and raised here. Their parents were born and raised here. Their grandparents were born and raised here. This is home. I don’t know who they were voting for, and I don’t really care. What I do care about is that a first time voter walked in to participate in our democracy and left unsure if they had voted. They did discover later by receiving a letter saying their ballot wasn’t counted. Now I think this is a crap law with unintended consequences as you can see clearly. It's based on fear, not in facts that we have a huge problem with non-citizens voting, which factually isn't true. Do people break the law sometimes? Yeah, and they typically get caught and face consequences of those actions. The bigger issue I have with this law was that our friends in Pierre put an emergency clause on it so that it was affective immediately instead of the July 1 timeframe we usually see. The goal of this law was to "ensure election integrity" and the first casualty ended up being a first time voter left empty handed and voiceless. We can debate this law all day long, but eventually every bill passed in Pierre becomes someone’s real life. This time, it was a young person’s very first election.

Every election matters. Let's try to elect a new set of legislators this November so next March, we will see less unintended consequential bills passed.

07/04/2026

I finally had a chance to watch the Turn SD Purple conversation between Julian Beaudion and Brian Bengs. First, a huge shout out to Ngoc for moderating such a significant discussion and to Turn South Dakota Purple for putting it together. We need more opportunities like this where voters can hear directly from the candidates instead of just through campaign ads and Facebook posts.

These two candidates are making different arguments to the same voters. Julian spent most of his time talking about people, affordability, health care, agriculture, and the conversations he’s had traveling the state. He came across as personable, genuine, and focused on the day-to-day challenges South Dakota families are facing. Brian made a much more strategic argument centered around fundraising, polling, campaign finance, and why he believes he has the strongest path to defeating Mike Rounds. From a comms standpoint, I’d probably say Brian made the strategic case, while Julian made the human case. Julian’s biggest weakness was that he never really answered the questions about fundraising and campaign viability head on. Brian’s biggest weakness was that too much of the conversation became focussed on Julian instead of Mike Rounds. It also became aggressive at times.

Let's break down some fundraising notes mentioned. Brian said his campaign has received more than 1,000 South Dakota contributions totaling over $100,000. When I looked through the publicly available itemized contributions from the last filing, I only found a little over 100 South Dakota donors totaling around $40,000. I know not every donation has to be itemized. In fact in federal races like this if someone's total donation is $199 or less it can be unitemized. Every time someone gives that number continues to grow. Primary campaigns and General campaigns are considered separate, so I’m genuinely interested to see how those numbers come together once the new report is filed.

Based on Brian’s own comments during the forum, his campaign had raised “over $780,000” in his opening remarks. If that’s close, it would represent a 40-45% decline from the previous quarter. He had a great previous quarter and they all can't be that great but a big drop as well. This was just based on his statement and not any facts until we see his FEC filing mid July. Money absolutely matters in politics, and Brian made that point well. Candidates who raise more money usually have an advantage. But it’s also worth keeping some perspective. Mike Rounds still has roughly 45 times the cash on hand of both challengers combined. Read that again. He’s the one sitting on the mountain of money. BUT we literally just watched a Sioux Falls mayoral race where one candidate was outraised and outspent by about three to one and still came within two votes (and that's not official yet). Money matters. It just isn’t the only thing that matters.

To be fair, I think the same standard should apply to everyone. If Julian’s next fundraising report shows another significant decline, then I think there’s a legitimate conversation to be had about the future of his campaign. If he shows an increase then that argument has to end.

Julian has real work to do is putting more of his policy ideas into writing. Throughout the conversation, he spoke passionately about affordability, health care, agriculture, and supporting working families, but voters should be able to go beyond campaign speeches and read detailed proposals for themselves. Brian has invested a lot of time in publishing his positions, although when you read them they are not as clear as he stated them in the Turn SD Purple discussion.

I genuinely find Beng's vision for an Independent Conference intriguing. On the surface, I can understand the appeal. We’ve all watched Republicans and Democrats dig in their heels, and the idea of a handful of independents forcing compromise can appeal to some folks.

My concern is what happens after Election Day. There will still be a majority party and a minority party in the Senate. Committee assignments and much of the real work of Congress are negotiated through those party caucuses. Every current independent senator with committee assignments caucuses with one of the two major parties. Brian has said he doesn’t want to caucus with either. That’s a governing question that I want answered. How does South Dakota keep a seat at the tables where legislation is written and negotiated? Right now, Senator Mike Rounds serves on the Appropriations, Armed Services, Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Indian Affairs, and Select Committee on Intelligence committees. Those assignments give South Dakota a voice on issues that directly affect our state. If we’re going to replace that model with something different, I think voters deserve to understand exactly how that influence would be maintained or replaced. I don't think his group has thought that out fully, but maybe we will hear how that will work out soon.

At the end of the day, this is where I am sitting while I wait for the FEC reports. Throughout my life and career, I’ve learned that the best teams put people in the roles where their strengths have the biggest impact. Not everyone has to be the quarterback to help the team win.

Right now, I still think Julian should be the candidate at the top of the ticket. He has the party infrastructure, the local relationships, and he connects well with people. Brian has a completely different set of strengths. His policy knowledge, understanding of campaign funding, and strategic thinking were obvious throughout the conversation. If those strengths could be brought into Julian’s campaign in a senior policy or strategy role, I honestly think South Dakota would have a stronger challenge than either campaign builds on its own.

Maybe I'm living in a pipe dream, but after watching both candidates, that’s honestly where I landed if truly we put egos aside and we wanted to fit the best of both of these candidates together moving forward.

06/30/2026

I’ve had some time to collect my thoughts after meeting Brian Bengs at his meet and greet on June 18, so here’s my takeaway.

Before I begin, this isn’t a hit piece. I’m not interested in twisting facts or scoring political points. I’m simply sharing my firsthand experience from one event and encouraging everyone to draw their own conclusions. It’s also worth noting that today is the final day of the FEC reporting quarter, so we’ll soon have a much clearer picture of where every campaign stands financially as this race continues.

Brian is an incredibly intelligent person. You don’t have to spend much time with him to recognize that. He’s a great historian, has a brilliant mind, and can talk at length about economics. That’s clearly his wheelhouse. Public speaking may not be his strongest skill, but very few candidates excel at everything.

I asked him about equality because that’s an issue that matters to me. His response was that people should be able to choose what they want as long as they aren’t hurting anyone else. It wasn’t a bad answer, but it also wasn’t the clarity I was looking for. I asked again in a different way, specifically whether he would ensure those protections, and I still left without understanding where he stood.

I didn’t get the impression Brian was trying to be evasive. My impression was that his campaign has intentionally chosen to stay away from social issues and keep the conversation centered on the economy. That may be a deliberate strategy, but for me, a United States Senator has to be prepared to talk about more than the economy. The office requires judgment on civil rights, healthcare, education, foreign policy, agriculture, tribal sovereignty, and so many other issues that affect people’s lives.

These are simply my observations from one event, and I recognize I wasn’t there for the entire meet and greet. Tomorrow’s debate will give all of us another opportunity to hear directly from the candidates. I’ll be watching with an open mind, and afterward I’ll share my thoughts on what I heard from both Brian and Julian.

One last thing. Today is the final day of the FEC reporting quarter. If you’ve been thinking about supporting a candidate in this race, tonight is a meaningful time to do it. Whether that’s Brian, Julian, or someone else you believe in, consider making a contribution before midnight. Campaigns run on people who are willing to invest in them, and every campaign benefits from supporters who show up.