The Most Interesting Senate Race Nobody's Watching

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This week on the Andrew Yang Podcast.

They've just written off these red states because it's hard to compete here. And it is very different than the coasts. The people are very different. Their lived experience is very different. You have to compete differently. You can't just treat it like it's California or Texas or something like that. You have to have a different approach, which is what I'm trying to model this time.

It is my pleasure to welcome to the podcast A very tall gentleman, he goes by 6'6" or so, Air Force veteran, current park ranger, former university instructor, and a bunch of other things too. He's had quite a career, but right now he is the independent candidate for US Senate out of South Dakota, Brian Bangs. Welcome, Brian.

Thank you, Andre, for having me, and I'm actually 6'8", so yeah. Even a little bit taller than you thought.

That, see, I under-promise, over-deliver. 6'8". So much authority. Maybe that's how you wound up not just like an Air Force instructor, but you've done a whole lot of things. You've been a real leader throughout your career. Where to start? Well, first you grew up in Iowa, which is a place I've spent a fair amount of time. And you have a lot of warmth and love for your home state.

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Iowa made me who I am, certainly. And then the Air Force made me who I am now. But the small town values— I grew up in a town of 500 people in the last graduating class of the high school before it ceased to exist anymore. Class of '17. That small town-ness is what I carried with me forward, and it made me want to move back to a small town, which is what I've done now.

So you were the lord of the Class of '17. You said, like, as your leader, and the tallest among you.

I, I don't know if I would say that. Uh, I was not a, a particularly motivated student in high school, so I went to the Navy immediately afterward because I didn't know what I wanted to do and my family couldn't afford college. So, ah, go to the Navy, find out what that's like, and then you get some discipline and go, you know what, I think I will go to college. And, uh, found out that I could do quite well there.

Yeah, I'll say. Um, so you came back and went to school, uh, and law school in Iowa after serving On an aircraft carrier in the Navy?

Uh, I was, uh, yes. So I was assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk, but, uh, my join the Navy, see the world adventure was not what you would imagine because it was unfortunately in dry dock for my entire enlistment. So I joined the Navy and I saw South Philadelphia.

A great part of the country.

It was lovely, but it wasn't what I signed up for necessarily.

All right, so you come back and then you go to college and law school, uh, in Iowa, uh, and then you wind up in the Air Force, I want to say.

Yeah, so, you know, I went to college, studied history and international affairs, and then went to law school not thinking that I wanted to practice law but thinking I want to get involved in the Foreign Service. And I thought, oh, I'll get a degree and focus on international law and that'll paved the way for me to get into the Foreign Service. But I was doing a work study with the Office of the State Archaeologist, and one of the people there, my bosses, said, "Oh, my cousin is getting ready to retire from the Foreign Service. I can get—" And this was the day just when email was getting started. "I can give you his mailing address and you can get in touch with him and he can give you some tips." And he basically talked me out of it. So then I pivoted of like, okay, I'm halfway through law school. I'm not just gonna walk away. I'll finish law school with the goal of getting into practice. And the Air Force offered a better opportunity to, to do something productive and get paid better than what the county prosecutors in Iowa were offering as a starting salary. So at that point, then you did have the see the world adventure, right? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I signed up thinking I'll do 4 years and probably get out and do private practice or something. But then 9/11 happened. In the first 4 years, and you can't leave at that point because that's why you sign up. So the Air Force just kept sending me cool places to do things I never imagined I'd have the opportunity to do, and it turned into a couple decades there before I finally retired. Wow.

So 19 years, um, you were in Japan, Germany, Kuwait, Qatar. You became a Lieutenant Colonel, uh, and then an instructor at the U.S. Air Force Academy, and somewhere in there you I think you met your, uh, wife and, uh, now have two, um, adult-ish kids. Like, uh, where did, where did you two meet? Was it in the Air Force?

Uh, no, actually it was met— I met at the, let's see, the summer before my senior year of college at Iowa State. So we started dating when I was at Iowa State, and then she graduated early and went and got a job in Kansas City and we kind of had the long-distance thing for a while, and then we got married before the start of my second year of law school. And we've been married, it'll be 31 years in about a month or so. And we had our first daughter was actually born in Japan. So she lived the Air Force lifestyle and this youngest was born in Louisiana. And we actually came to South Dakota, retired in Aberdeen, South Dakota. South Dakota because I wanted them to have a hometown like I had, a Midwestern experience, that sort of thing. And it worked out great for that.

So you met your wife in college and then, um, you did 19 years in the Air Force. And so I might— I actually don't know quite how this works. Um, you were a JAG, um, and an officer, and so your spouse then goes with you and lives on the base everywhere, and then your kids get born on bases? For the most part, yeah.

There are certain bases where she can't go, but everywhere that I went except for the deployments to Qatar and Kuwait, she was there with me and the kids, kids came along too. So yeah, the kids had the experience of going to school. They were old enough to go to school in Germany and they had the option of going to, hey, you could take a bus for a half hour when we lived in Germany to the Army base down the road, or you could walk 3 blocks up the road and go to the German school. We said, eh, go learn some German.

So you come back to the States post-Air Force about 10 years ago. And become a professor in South Dakota. And then you found yourself in a situation where you thought, you know what, this country could use better leadership, which it definitely could. We spent a little bit of time together. So I find you to be a very sensible, pragmatic, level-headed sort. And it seems like you've been a political independent all these years. Yeah.

With the exception of a short period that I'll tell you about, I registered as an independent first when I turned 18. So I had the foresight back in 1988 to go, you know what, I don't want to be married to either Team Red or Team Blue. I like to think for myself. And so it made it a lot easier when you're in the military because in the military you have to be apolitical. So most, most military folks, I think, tend to be independents. But in 2021, the fall of 2021, I was watching or I had watched what had happened with January 6th. And thought, you know what, the current majority leader of the Senate, John Thune, needs to have a challenger. And the Chuck Schumer Democratic Party, national party, was set so that he'd just kind of coast to reelection. So I called up the South Dakota Democratic Party and said, you know what, I would prefer to run as an independent, but if necessary, I can run as a Democrat. And so that's what ended up happening. And I registered as a Democrat for 13 months. And then unregistered after the election. It happens, man.

There are millions of Americans who are registered with a party for convenience, to be able to vote, to be able to participate in our process. What it sounds like, you've been an independent for— gosh, not to put a date on you, but, you know, like 30-some-odd years or something like that versus a year or so as a Dem for practicality's sake. I, I think you're right too that military veterans tend to be independent and pragmatic. Um, that there's a notion that folks who serve are all conservative, um, which I don't think is quite right. Um, you know, that there's been— actually, you know much better than I because you've taught and interacted with at this point thousands of people. Uh, like, what, what was your experience?

Well, there's definitely some hardcore conservatives, you can't deny that, but, uh by and large, you're expected to, when you're on active duty, to not display any partisan, uh, behavior. So it is kind of hard to read people because we're all working towards the same thing. It's only when you're talking offline in, uh, you know, at a bar or something like that that you might get a hinge of that. But most people, myself included, just kept our views to ourselves and you know, you salute and do what you're told. So I, I don't think it is accurate to say that the military is overwhelmingly, uh, conservative or Republican, but, uh, it is certainly the most vocal aspect of it. Uh, most people are just kind of keep down and keep swimming, and, and probably a mixed bag like I was of I like that but I don't like this, so, uh, tend to more independent thinking.

Thank you, listeners. Please make sure to like and subscribe. And if you have any questions, send them to mailbag@andreyang.com and we'll do our best to answer them. Thank you. All right, here's the situation. You are at home. You are tired. You are hungry. There's something healthy you could cook for yourself, but you don't have it in you, so you eat crap. You eat something you know you should not be putting in your body, but you're just too tired to deal with it. Does that sound like you? That sounds like me, at least part of the time. Until I found Factor. Factor will deliver healthy, chef-crafted meals right to your door, and then you can prepare them in 2 minutes. It's the best of all worlds. My favorites Honey mustard chicken with rosemary potato and beans. Loaded mashed potatoes and shredded chicken with mushroom gravy, bacon, and broccoli. That's there too. Try Factor today. It's gonna be a game changer for you. It has definitely changed my health and habits. Head to factor meals.com/yang50off and use code YANG50OFF to get 50% off and free daily greens per box with new subscription only while supplies last until 9/27/26. See website for more details. You're now running as an independent candidate in a state that I believe needs an independent candidate in the worst way because it's a red state, at least if you look at the national map and the vote for Trump. And one thing that I'm passionate about is that the Democrats do not meaningfully try it in the vast majority of the rural areas, the vast majority of the red or reddish areas around the country. And they're like, yeah. And one of the early forward adopters and Yang gangers, Blair Walsingham, who, like a lot of people who've been listening to me for a long time know about. She ran for Congress in Tennessee and became the Democratic nominee in a very reddish district in Tennessee, as most of the state is. And so she becomes the Democratic nominee and then has a call with the state Democratic Party and is like, hey, I'm your nominee to be, you know, a member of Congress in this district. Like, do you guys send me money? Like, do I get stuff? And then the state party was like, no, no, no, you send us money. And then she's like, I send you money? Like, I don't have any money. I'm like, oh, you know. And Blair was a military veteran herself and a mom. And she's like, wait a minute, like what? And so the Democratic Party was not exactly running to help Blair and is not rushing to help other candidates who step up in rural South Dakota, I'm imagining.

Yeah, well, obviously I can speak from experience having been the 2022 Democratic nominee against John Thune. And I was, in hindsight, I was woefully naive when I started that. I was thinking the traditional method of like, you get out and you talk to people. That seems to be what you do. And I thought, well, as a military retiree, I have time to get out and hang out in the cafes and go to the small towns and talk to people. I did not realize the importance of money in this issue. And I can speak to the question of will the National Party give you any support? And the best I can say is they did not give money to John Thune. That is the extent of my support. Having been the nominee for the Senate in South Dakota, they, they've just written off these red states because it's hard to compete here. And it is very different than the coasts. The people are very different. Their lived experience is very different. You have to compete differently. You can't just treat it like it's California or Texas or something like that. You have to have a different approach, which is what I'm trying to model this time.

Yeah, so, um, I've not been to South Dakota, as will become evident on national TV, uh, pretty quickly. I think you're— you'll see what I'm talking about in a minute. Um, but that— then there's, uh, um, Mount Rushmore is in South Dakota, right? It is. Yeah, yeah. So see, that's something I did not know.

It's about an hour north, an hour north of where I am right now.

Yeah, look at that. But I'm raising this because you talk about, hey, it's a different kind of place. Like, I imagine that it's predominantly rural, predominantly agricultural, and a lot of hardship. You know, when I talked to Todd Achilles, who's running for Senate in Idaho, he was like, look, most people here make below the living wage and healthcare is a massive problem. And they're like, massive problem. So I'm imagining that South Dakota feel similar? Oh, absolutely.

We were just, uh, we're kind of in the midst of hitting all the less traveled parts of the state, at least in the west, before we go do that in the east. And I was just talking to my staffer that was with me the other day. You go into these small towns and you can drive down Main Street and you see the old buildings and they're kind of in disrepair, and you just feel bad that the town was once thriving and It is now a poster of, you know, bad policies that have left out and left behind the working class, the agricultural, the rural communities in favor of, you know, as long as Wall Street's doing well, everybody's fine. That's not the case. The main streets in these small towns, and I grew up in a small town, and I feel the same way. It feels bad going home because it's not what I remember back then. And it wasn't even, you know, a bright shining economic star then. It was— the decline was starting. So these places, they feel forgotten, and they're, they're hardcore Republicans in the sense they're like, oh yeah, uh, you go up to them, if you go up to them and say, hey, I'm running as a Democrat, they will not be well received. But you can go up to them and say, I'm running as an independent, and I noticed that you've got these problems, and they will agree with you and engage with you. You. So it is a very different experience than what I had in 2022. Yeah.

Jon Tester, former Democratic senator from Montana, which I feel is culturally, you know, not that dissimilar, said that the Democratic Party brand is poisoned. It— it urged Seth Bodnar to run as an independent. You have direct experience running as a Democrat, and South Dakotans would just shut down. By the way, I had that experience in Iowa where I was in a diner and I said, hey, I'm Andrew Yang, I'm running for president. And then the server, waitress said, really? Which party? And I was like, Democrat. She's like, oh, and then she reacted like I just sprouted horns. And so I was like, oh no. But theoretically, I was like, aren't the Democratic Party principles supposed to be helping that server, that waitress? But that's not the way she saw it. And I do also want to talk about my time in Iowa, which I visited 25 times, something like that.

Did you make it up to the north central part of the state? Because that's where I grew up. Yeah, yeah, I did. Okay, totally.

I mean, I, I did a 17-stop bus tour all over the state, including to very, very small towns where 12 people would turn out. But then that was like, you know, 5% of the town, so it was like pretty good turnout kind of deal.

You get 12 in the town I grew up in, you're doing pretty well.

Yeah, yeah, that was what I did. You know, and we meaningfully contested it. I ended up getting maybe like 4 to 5% of the Democratic primary vote in 2020, which because of the arcane caucus rules kind of got compressed to near zero. But, you know, like getting that level of support, I got 9,000 Iowans to say, hey, Andrew Yang number one. And that, you know, that was a lot of work on our part. Um, you know, really, really proud. There were occasional glimmers I would get of this sort of, um, creeping, uh, decline that was starting to make people, um, flip to the negative. Like, every once in a while I would get a glimpse of that. And I know that got a lot stronger during COVID A lot of small businesses shut down, and then like a lot of towns I mean, I'm— how old are you, Brian? 56. All right, you're a little bit older than I am. I'm 51. And so, when I think about small towns, I think about John Cougar Mellencamp or now John Mellencamp or whatever, and his songs. And when I grew up, there was a sense that if you— I was born in a small town and I live in a small town kind of thing where life in small town America was good. What was the sense that you had? And then fast forward and it's become less good because of a whole number of problems. But like, you know, it's just been harder for Americans in that environment to afford a decent life. And then some of them have become very beleaguered, frustrated, you know, like struggling with addiction problems like that. Like there have been various social ills that have arisen?

Yeah, that's basically— you've described the Midwest, the small towns in the Midwest. Uh, these communities were formed basically around the farming, the farms. So the town I grew up in, for example, in North Iowa, was a farming community, and it was retirement. It was called Burt, B-U-R-T. Uh, very small town, and the neighbors on either side of us were retired farmers. Across the street, retired farmers. Down the street, retired farmers. So you'd move in, you know, when you got a certain age and said, 'Well, I don't want to be farming anymore. I'll just give it to the kids,' and then move into the nearest town where you'd come in for the café and the bank and the co-op and everything. And now with the consolidation of agriculture, that you get big or you get swallowed up, you know, these rural farms, they're not the heart of the community anymore as they were before. Before. So you've got big ag is displacing the family farm to a great extent and making it more difficult to survive off what you could before. So I think I saw the number recently, in South Dakota, the average farm size is about 1,500 acres. And in the past, it did not need to be that big. And so you had more people farming on a smaller plot of land and making a decent living. And they just can't do that anymore.

You referenced something that was really familiar to me. You're like, hey, I was naive and 22. I thought I'd just go out, be like, I'm Brian, I'm running for Senate. Yeah. Now, what is the landscape in South Dakota like? The population's relatively small by national standards. Like, how many people are there?

Call it, I'll say 950,000. So 950,000, give or take.

All right. 950,000. So it's small. I mean, it's physically, geographically quite large, but like the number of people is not that great where you're like, you know what, if I get out and talk to people, I might actually be a needle mover. And then you suggested it's like, oh, I didn't know that money was such a thing. So first, you're running as an independent, I think will open up many, many South Dakotans to you that would not be open to you as a Democrat.

Oh, absolutely. I can tell you that right now. Yes, absolutely. It does.

Yeah. And if you run the numbers, 49% of Americans say they're independent. I think in South Dakota it might even be higher.

Well, in terms of voter registration demographics, it is about 51% Republican, I think 26% independent or unaffiliated, and 23% Democrat. So the Democrats are now the minority party. There's a, there's a thing in the news right now because we have a very contentious gubernatorial race that has resulted in a runoff. And the vote is coming for the runoff of the top two finishers is coming up in a couple weeks. And there's a lot of people that have registered as Republicans to vote for their preferred candidate because they do not expect the Democratic candidate to be competitive, essentially. And so there's gaming the system, if you will, uh, having to do that, and, and it's been in the news.

Yeah, people do it again all the time. And of the 51% who are self-identified Republicans in South Dakota, I'm guessing that a lot of them are just ticked off at the fact that Washington is corrupt and, you know, these like establishment figures. And you're running as an independent. They would give you a good listen because they're like, wait a minute, this guy is an Air Force veteran. He's very tall. So that must mean he knows what he's talking about.

Of course I know what I'm talking about. I'm very tall. Yeah, I, the, I found literally, I have found when I open up, when I talk to these people, I think the single biggest problem is that big money controls our politicians in the sense that whoever's writing the biggest campaign checks gets their attention and their action and we get what they want, not what we want. And I've yet to meet a person of the thousands that I've talked to that disagrees with that. So everybody's on board with that. It's just a matter of what are we going to do about it? Are we going to have the fight about it?

Yeah. Are we indeed? Well, I love the fact that you're stepping up to run, especially because you already have a campaign under your belt. You must have met thousands of people in '22 who are like, oh, you know, I like this guy, like, more than I like whoever the heck. And what, what is the, the nature of the race? Are you running against the other incumbent senator or like, who's, who's on the other side of this thing on either? Party? Yeah.

So in this race, the— I ran against John Thune, the majority leader of the Senate, in '22. And so this time it is a two-term incumbent, 71-year-old incumbent Mike Rounds, seeking his third term. And then there is a Democratic challenger as well. He and I have had a conversation back in April of last year when we were both getting started about if we're both on the ballot, you know, one of us is a boiler. And I proposed a gentleman's agreement back then that, hey, whoever in 2026 has better polling, better fundraising, should be the one to go forward and the other should withdraw. And because the goal is not having Mike Rounds go back to the Senate, and so far he has refused that gentleman's agreement.

Well, fascinating. Uh, I, I will say that it's common sense that, that in order to get him out, to get Mike Rounds out or to have a real contest, you know, you would need the frustrated majority to consolidate. And that the establishment's dream is that people just stay stuck in their lanes. So Donald Trump won South Dakota by 29% in 2024. So that means that a Democrat running with a D next to their name is really a lost cause for ordained conclusion? Speaking as the former sacrificial lamb, that was my experience.

I would go up to people in '22, so before this most recent election, Trump validation election in South Dakota, and say, hey, I'm running candidate for the U.S. Senate, uh, gonna guarantee with 100% certainty that you and I will agree on these two, but probably three things. And I'd run down my list and they're nodding along, generally it was all three. And we get to the end and I say, well, can I count on your vote in November? So the first words out of their mouth were, so what are you? And when you say, well, I'm a lifelong independent, but I run as a Democrat, then basically the wheels fell off. And that was the end of the conversation, even though we'd agreed, like, yeah, yeah, somebody should do something about that. I could not talk anymore. And that's what the Democrats that are running this cycle, I don't think, seem to understand. How poorly received the Democratic Party is in South Dakota. Little Bob here. This summer, shop the latest small space solutions at Bob's Discount Furniture.

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That, that is the darkness, man, because if you were to say to them, hey, you do know that, um, what you're doing is like a waste of time, and that if you had an independent run, you could at least make it interesting and competitive. And then the— and what you find, and this is like the big learning that's motivated me the last, oh no, now 6 years, is that, um, their interests are not in winning, changing things, competing. Like, their interest is in like, look, I am the Democratic Party of South Dakota and I will get a certain amount of money from the party to maybe pay myself and like, you know, to other people in the state, like a little bit of money just so the Democratic Party can say they have a state party here. And, you know, winning, not winning is like completely irrelevant to me. I just need to do enough so that I can at least get those little dribs and drabs of money in. So, oh, you Brian Bangs, you're now an interloper. You're messing with my really, frankly, kind of sad and pathetic gravy train. But a gravy train it is. And we're here in South Dakota where gravy trains are hard to come by. Even though you are our standard bearer, 4 short years ago, and at that point we were singing your praises, like now you are persona non grata.

Not with everybody, but there are certainly plenty of those folks around. And I was kind of surprised how they turned on me. I'm the same. I'm saying pretty much the exact same things I said before, you know, with a different package on them. But there are some hardcore Democrats of like, you're not loyal to the party, so no thank you. And we're trying to work with them on this, but there's, you know, there's only so much you can do. I will note that the polling that we've done, the most recent polling shows that I'm winning my numbers with Republicans. I'm winning my numbers that I need with independents. Where I'm coming up short is with the Democrats. Which is weird because again, I was your guy not too long ago and now you're like, well, I don't know if I like him anymore. It's very strange.

What kind of numbers are you getting with Republicans and independents?

Yeah, I believe I'm winning the Republicans by 25% or so. I'm getting— my minimum of what we target is what we need is 20%. So we're hitting 25%, which is good. And I think there's room to grow there as well if we if we play this properly. And I think we're getting about 60% of independents so far. And again, I think there's room to grow. And Democrats about 50%, which I need to grow that. And we're working on the approach to do that. So far it's eluded us, but we've got some ideas.

Well, I love the gentleman's agreement to have the stronger candidate proceed based upon objective measurements like polling and fundraising. So, and I think you could probably do better than that dude, like, you know, in both of those measurements.

No, that's not even— it's not even up for debate. We are doing better. We're doing about 4 times better based on the last FEC-reported fundraising he had. And we're doing the polling. I start on the most recent polling. I start down 4 against the incumbent in a head-to-head, and he starts down 20. 25 against the incumbent. That is what I'm talking about.

So a 4-point margin is surmountable, 25-point is not. I mean, that just freaking— like, that just spells it out for people. Brian, Brian. So you're saying 4 times as much as that dude, um, which I love. And I just— I am part of that small— a small part of it, I mean. But I've donated. Thank you. Yeah, no, and I, I'd urge anyone who thinks that Brian's, uh, a fine patriotic person who's put 19 years plus into serving this country, having him as a U.S. senator over Mike Rounds, the 71-year-old rubber stamp to whatever the heck, you know, the Republicans want to do. I mean, that's like a game changer. But you've raised 4 times more than the Democrat.

Tell us more. Well, the FEC numbers that will be coming out this week, we are just over $780,000, which does not sound like a lot, but for South Dakota, That's amazing. That's the highest number for any non-Republican candidate since the, uh, the Democratic senator, last Democratic senator ran for office. When was that? Thinking, uh, well, Tim Johnson retired in, uh, let's see, 2014, I want to say. So that would have been 12 years ago.

Yeah, yeah, raising almost $1 million as an independent Senate candidate in South Dakota is Awesome. Particularly given that you're looking at a very, very frankly low-cost state in terms of— oh yeah, absolutely— and advertising and whatnot.

It's, uh, and here's another fun fact that we haven't really kind of played up too much, but I like saying it, uh, based on the numbers, public numbers that we know, I have raised more money than the Democratic candidate for governor, for House, for Senate, and their state legislative candidates.

Together. Yes. You know what I call that, Brian? The Andrew Yang effect. No, I'm just kidding. Um, what if that's what it is?

Yeah, I need more of it.

It's summertime, which means you're gonna lie on your bed all day long. I'm kidding, that's not really a thing that people do, but if you were to do it, you'd want to do it on a Helix Sleep mattress. I use an Ultra Dawn Firm mattress because I need a lot of support. I like my mattresses kind of a little bit like a board sort of thing. Not to say that the Ultra Dawn Firm mattress is like a board, but you know what I mean. And it's been a game changer for me, my health, my ability to just wake up and actually attack the day. Tested and reviewed by experts like Forbes and Wired. Who gets to test mattresses? That is a good job. Maybe that one will not be done by robots. Go to helixsleep.com/yang for 20% off sitewide, 25% off Luxe mattresses, 30% off Elite mattresses. That's helixsleep.com/yang. Make sure you enter our show name after checkout so they know we sent you. helixsleep.com/yang. Congratulations on mounting such a high-level, credible campaign. Uh, if you do break through and make it to the Capitol, it would be a game changer. Um, and this is exactly the kind of tinder you put together, and then, you know, you'd be like, hey, if lightning strikes and we like end up shocking the world, and you are doing your part, and I feel like our part, the collective we, is to try and get behind you in any way we can. So if someone wants to donate to your campaign, which again I have done, what is the best place for them to go? How can we support you if, for example— yeah, no, I was gonna say if we don't know anyone in South Dakota, which is a real possibility. I'm guessing it's probably send a few bucks? Yeah, that's the easiest thing.

So, uh, I would also highlight that my average contribution is about $29. So we're doing it with like the grassroots, you know, low-dollar donors. Of course, I don't want to dissuade any big-dollar donors out there, so please come here this direction as well. But the easiest is the website bangs4southdakota.com, and that is B-E-N-G-S-4-southdakota.com. Uh, you'll learn more than you ever wanted about my background, how I think, and my positions on policies. My campaign manager claims that I might have more substantive policy writings on the website than any other Senate candidate in the country, because I like diving deep into policy and talking about the nuances and everything.

You know what? I mean, you are a Navy veteran, an Air Force veteran, a university professor. You're like a warrior scholar, you know? No wonder you're doing all this writing. You're 6'8". We have to come up with some fun names for you. It'd be like the Tower of Power. There we go.

Yeah, that should be a good contest. Somebody come up with some good names that we can stick and run with on the campaign trail.

Banging on the door of the Capitol. There we go. But it is bangs4sd.com. Brian Bangs, man, I was enthusiastic about your campaign before sitting down this interview. I'm even more enthusiastic now. I have donated more than $29. I'm happy to report. But I certainly hope that people do donate, let their friends know. Maybe, you know, even if you don't live in South Dakota, you can always phone or text Bank into South Dakota. And who knows, maybe someone will even take it upon themselves to head on to the state and spend some time with you. And who knows, maybe that person will be me.

Well, if things go well, ideally what I'd like is what I naively thought was the way to do it in '22, was spend time out in the small towns and just hang out the cafes and bars and talking to people. And I've been doing a little bit of that, but if we can raise the money, I plan to buy an RV and just do that every night in a different town and go to the bar and, hey everybody, what do you think about these things? And I'm really trying to portray myself as, you know, like a Teddy Roosevelt Republican a FDR Democrat, a JFK Democrat, an Eisenhower Republican. So trying to squish together all these things that we have loved in the past.

It's bangsforsouthdakota.com. Brian Bangs for U.S. Senate, independent candidate. It's raised, closing in on a million bucks, has outraised all the Dems in the state for every position.

That doesn't sound good for them, but it is fun for me to say.

Oh no, I mean it, like, we really do need to shame these parties because, you know, they pretend it's like we're fighting for you. It's like you're not fighting for like the vast majority of us, you know? I mean, you're essentially a financial institution at this point. And there's no— there's no profit in your trying to make something happen in South Dakota. So, you know, you're just going to direct money elsewhere. And so if you're waiting for either party to come save you, like they're going to ignore you, you know, literally 80% of the time. Because 80% of these races are uncompetitive. And the only way to change that is for super tall patriots like Brian to step up and say, I'm here to make a change. I'm like a new age Abraham Lincoln. And for us all to go, yeah, they'd be like, take my money. Then he's like, oh, and the establishment's like, what's happening? And then you're like, here I am.

It's the only way out. That's exactly— that's it. That's the path we have to follow. Look around.

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