U.S. Senate · South Dakota · 2026
General election · 1 on the certified November ballot · Incumbent running
Looking for the House race? South Dakota’s at-large U.S. House seat
Result
CalledMike Rounds (R) won this race with 60.5% of the vote, 21.0 points ahead.
- Mike RoundsRepublicanIncumbentWinner60.5%184,590 votes
- Brian BengsIndependent39.5%120,513 votes
- Margin
- 64,077 votes (21.0 points)
- Called
- Called by Wikipedia editors, Nov 3, 11:59 PM ET (revision)
- Last updated
- Nov 14, 9:33 PM ET
- Source
- Wikipedia · official results page
Called it: hit Our locked call before polls closed was R; the winner is R. See every locked call
Unofficial until the state certifies the result.
Before the election
Polls, ratings and the Vugol Tensor below were published before votes were counted. They are not results.
Model rating Leans Republican (Held) on the Vugol Vector model, a snapshot of today, not a probability.
No polls on file for this race. Model inputs: 4 of 7, updated yesterday. Page updated 2026-11-15. Sources · What is validated
ExperimentalNews attention 30/100, how much coverage the race gets, not who is winning. Updated 5 days ago. How it works
On the November ballot (1)
Certified by the state, checked 2026-11-14.
Not on the certified ballot (3)
Filed or ran for this seat, but not on the state’s certified list for November.
Official source: https://vip.sdsos.gov/candidatelist.aspx?eid=774
Latest verified field polling
Verified = published by the pollster that conducted it, with a public source we link to.
No verified poll has been published for this race. The Vugol Vector call from our model is below, it is not a poll.
Polling average
No polls on file for this race yet. See latest polls across every race.
Campaign money (FEC)
Candidate committee totals for the cycle from the Federal Election Commission (public domain), as of each committee's latest report.
| Candidate | Raised | Spent | Cash on hand | Through |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mike Rounds | $5,148,217 | $5,535,196 | $1,295,543 | 2026-10-14 |
| Brian Bengs | $1,855,763 | $1,786,055 | $69,708 | 2026-10-14 |
| Julian C Beaudion | $247,596 | $246,900 | $696 | 2026-09-30 |
| Justin S McNeal | $10,993 | $10,992 | $1 | 2026-09-30 |
Ad spending (FEC)
What each campaign reported paying for ads, and what outside groups (super PACs, PACs and parties) reported spending for and against each candidate. Federal Election Commission filings, public domain.
| Candidate | Campaign's own ads | Outside groups for | Outside groups against |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mike Rounds | $647K | $796K | $1.2M |
| Brian Bengs | $512K | $880K | $985K |
| Julian C Beaudion | $8,377 | ||
| Justin S McNeal | $582 |
Biggest outside spenders
- Mike Rounds. For: DEFEND AMERICAN JOBS $412K, AMERICAN MISSION $230K, SOUTH DAKOTA CONSERVATIVE PAC $154K. Against: Freedom from Politics $773K, Retire Career Politicians $365K, Great Plains Voices PAC $50K
- Brian Bengs. For: Retire Career Politicians $755K, Great Plains Voices PAC $50K, BISON PAC $46K. Against: SOUTH DAKOTA CONSERVATIVE PAC $985K
Outside groups: 24- and 48-hour independent expenditure reports for the 2026 primary and general, through 2026-11-01, each expenditure counted once after amendments; "ads" is TV, radio, digital and other media, and the rest is mail, phones, canvassing and similar. Campaign's own ads: TV, radio, digital, other media and ad production in the campaign committee's itemized payments, as the campaign described them, from the reports the FEC has processed (latest through 2026-09-30); newer reports appear as the FEC processes them. These are amounts committees reported paying, not airtime tracked by ad-monitoring firms, so very recent buys and future reservations may not show yet. Parser fec-ad-spend-1.0.0.
Results
Vote counts as reported by the state; transcribed from the Wikipedia election article (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites the state’s official results.
general election · official results
| Mike Rounds (incumbent) won | 184,590 | 60.5% |
| Brian Bengs | 120,513 | 39.5% |
Republican primary
| Mike Rounds (incumbent) won | 101,284 | 75.8% |
| Justin McNeal | 32,341 | 24.2% |
Source: Wikipedia article revision (CC BY-SA 4.0), retrieved 2026-11-15 · parser wiki-race-1.0.0
Key dates
Official federal election dates for this state from the FEC. Registration deadlines and early voting: see the state election office.
- 2026-06-02, Primary election: U.S. Senate
- 2026-11-03, General election: U.S. Senate
Source: FEC election dates (public domain).
Primary and hypothetical polls (17)
Kept on file, never averaged into this race. Polls listed on the Wikipedia election article (CC BY-SA 4.0), each linked to that article revision and, where we know it, to the pollster's own site.
- Hypothetical matchup · Concord Public Opinion Partners (partisan) · 2026-10-22–2026-10-26 · n=448 · Brian Bengs (I) 43%,Mike Rounds (R) 41% · release
- Hypothetical matchup · Emerson College · 2026-10-19–2026-10-20 · n=803 · Mike Rounds (R) 50%,Brian Bengs (I) 42% · pollster's site · release
- Hypothetical matchup · Quantus Insights (partisan) · 2026-10-17–2026-10-19 · n=633 · Mike Rounds (R) 57%,Brian Bengs (I) 37% · pollster's site · release
- Hypothetical matchup · Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy · 2026-10-12–2026-10-14 · n=500 · Mike Rounds (R) 56%,Brian Bengs (I) 37% · release
- Hypothetical matchup · Concord Public Opinion Partners (partisan) · 2026-10-06–2026-10-08 · n=400 · Brian Bengs (I) 43%,Mike Rounds (R) 42% · release
- Hypothetical matchup · Zenith Research · 2026-09-24–2026-09-27 · n=500 · Mike Rounds (R) 44%,Brian Bengs (I) 38% · release
- Hypothetical matchup · Public Policy Polling (partisan) · 2026-09-08–2026-09-09 · n=629 · Mike Rounds (R) 45%,Brian Bengs (I) 42% · release
- Hypothetical matchup · Lake Research Partners (partisan) · 2026-08-26–2026-08-30 · n=500 · Brian Bengs (I) 51%,Mike Rounds (R) 44% · release
- Hypothetical matchup · Impact Research (partisan) · 2026-08-13–2026-08-17 · n=500 · Mike Rounds (R) 44%,Brian Bengs (I) 44% · release
- Hypothetical matchup · Public Opinion Strategies (partisan) · 2026-07-06–2026-07-09 · n=500 · Mike Rounds (R) 56%,Brian Bengs (I) 33% · pollster's site · release
- Hypothetical matchup · Public Policy Polling (partisan) · 2026-05-29–2026-05-30 · n=726 · Mike Rounds (R) 56%,Julian Beaudion (D) 31% · release
- Hypothetical matchup · Public Policy Polling (partisan) · 2026-05-29–2026-05-30 · n=726 · Mike Rounds (R) 44%,Brian Bengs (I) 40% · release
- Hypothetical matchup · Public Policy Polling (partisan) · 2026-05-29–2026-05-30 · n=726 · Mike Rounds (R) 43%,Brian Bengs (I) 23%,Julian Beaudion (D) 18% · release
- Hypothetical matchup · Public Policy Polling (partisan) · 2026-02-17–2026-02-18 · n=685 · Mike Rounds (R) 49%,Julian Beaudion (D) 32% · release
- Hypothetical matchup · Public Policy Polling (partisan) · 2026-02-17–2026-02-18 · n=685 · Mike Rounds (R) 47%,Brian Bengs (I) 35% · release
- Hypothetical matchup · Public Policy Polling (partisan) · 2025-11-13–2025-11-14 · n=814 · Mike Rounds (R) 44%,Brian Bengs (I) 31% · release
- Hypothetical matchup · Public Policy Polling (partisan) · 2025-11-13–2025-11-14 · n=814 · Mike Rounds (R) 52%,Julian Beaudion (D) 30% · release
In the news
- Blue wave battered GOP strongholds across America, but one red state held the line
- At the Races: After the deluge
- John Thune's balancing act: Inside his push to save the GOP majority
- Wyden pushes bills to tax data centers, aid displaced workers
- GOP Sens. Ted Cruz, Susan Collins join growing list of targets of suspicious ‘white powder’ mailings
- Federal investigation of letters with suspicious substances widens
- Security official warns of more suspicious letters to lawmakers
- Trump vanishes from GOP senator's campaign website as poll numbers plunge weeks before election
- Trump heads to Nebraska on Monday, where his plans for imports have angered ranchers
- More lawmakers report suspicious packages at offices
Headlines from outlets across the political spectrum, linked to the publisher. Vugol.me doesn’t write or endorse them. How we choose them · All election news
LabVugol Vector & Vugol Attention
Vugol Attention 30 Vugol Vector R · Held
Vugol Me model signals, not polls. Verified polling is in the Polls section above.
Vugol Me Attention (attention intensity)
Vugol Attention intensity index 0–100 · not a poll · normalized nightly
Vugol Vector
Proprietary ensemble model · a call, not a probability · model confidence: medium
The breakdown of this call (the model's multi-signal input matrix, input by input) is on Ultra Pro plans.
Vugol Tensor
How far this call can miss · a range, not a prediction · no verified poll here, so the range is wider and untested
Centre R+13.3. Four times in five the result lands between R+3.9 and R+22.7; nine in ten between R+1.2 and R+25.4. Chance the Democrat finishes ahead: 4%.
Polls have missed by about four points in a typical race and they miss together. How Tensor works →
Desk data: daily telemetry
Per-source daily series, CSV export and the Vugol Vector breakdown · paid plans
Sources
- Roster, official filings; fundraising from FEC datapoints where on file (https://api.open.fec.gov/).
- Vugol Attention inputs, Wikipedia pageviews (https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/) and GDELT news volume and tone (https://www.gdeltproject.org/).
- Polls and results, individual polls and primary results listed on the Wikipedia election article (CC BY-SA 4.0), each poll linked to the pollster's release; money and election dates from the FEC (public domain). How rows are checked.
- Models attention-1.0.0 · vector-1.1.0 · attention inputs SHA-256 89035abed1c8 · methodology · license CC BY 4.0 (data license).
Vugol Vector band: R · Held. Have a say in the Vugol race poll; it is open to signed-in voters and never feeds these numbers.
The four Vugol signals, side by side
They answer different questions and are kept apart. Full method: Methodology.
- Vugol Vector
- Our call for every race if today’s polls hold. A snapshot, not a win probability or a vote share.
- Vugol Tensor
- How sure we are: ranges and chamber-control odds around the Vector, built from past polling error. An experiment about uncertainty, not a better guess.
- Vugol Attention
- How much news and online noise a race gets, 0 to 100. It measures noise, not support: a high score says nothing about who is ahead.
- Vugol Pulse
- Our daily thumbs-up or thumbs-down question for readers. Anyone can answer, so it describes our readers, not the public. It is not a vote and never enters a poll average or any other signal.