South Dakota Senate candidate Brian Bengs launches Vote Independent Movement
Archived — this story has rotated out of today’s deck. It is kept here in full.
The gist
Independent U.S. Senate candidate Brian Bengs launched the Vote Independent Movement, built around a two-sentence pledge.
Gallup puts independents at a record 45% of U.S. adults.
Background
Brian Bengs is an independent candidate for the U.S. Senate who founded the Vote Independent Movement (VIM), a project of his own campaign and paid for by it. VIM is built around a pledge rather than a new political party, and its director, Ngoc Thach, says signers need not change their voter registration or commit to voting for Bengs. The launch comes as Gallup reported a record 45% of U.S. adults identified as independents in 2025, and as a USA TODAY Opinion column argued independents will decide the November midterms.
How it unfolded
- 2025Gallup reported a record 45% of U.S. adults identified politically as independents, versus 27% each for Republicans and Democrats.
- Q3 2026Gallup's quarterly survey found 45% identifying as independents, 30% as Democrats and 25% as Republicans.
- Oct 19, 2026Bengs launched the Vote Independent Movement, a campaign-funded project built around a two-sentence pledge.
- Oct 19, 2026A USA TODAY Opinion column in the 'Changing Minds' series argued independent voters will decide the midterms.
Who’s saying what
- Party
- VIM director Ngoc Thach says the movement is built around a pledge, not a new party, and requires no change in voter registration or commitment to vote for Bengs.
- Expert
- Political scientist Joshua Dyck says about two-thirds of independents lean toward a party and vote as reliable partisans 80-85% of the time, while 'pure independents' can be three times more likely not to vote.
- Analysts
- The USA TODAY column frames independents as the voting bloc that will decide the November midterms.
Still unverified
Whether enough people find meaning in VIM's definition of independent to build something lasting is described by the movement's own account as 'the part we don't know yet'; the same piece notes registration and Gallup numbers don't explain why people register without a party or mean 45% of Americans share a political philosophy.