South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds no longer features President Trump’s endorsement on his reelection homepage, even as an adviser insists the campaign is still proud of that backing.
The “Endorsed by President Trump” line that sat prominently on Rounds’ campaign homepage as early as September 22 is gone. Trump’s name no longer appears on the front page, and the issues section no longer mentions the president at all.
Daily Mail reporting found the change after the site had highlighted the endorsement and listed Rounds as standing with Trump on America First priorities, including the decision to eliminate the Department of Education. A Rounds spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Rounds is seeking reelection in a state Trump carried with 63.4 percent of the vote in 2024, a 29-point margin. Cook Political Report still rates the South Dakota Senate seat Solid Republican.
Rounds’ political adviser, Rob Skjonsberg, told Fox News the campaign remains “proud of the president’s endorsement.” That endorsement, he noted, is still in the senator’s announcement video.
The public-facing website is a different story. The homepage no longer leads with Trump. The issues page no longer ties Rounds’ positions to the president by name.
No statement from Rounds himself explained the edit. The timeline is clear enough: the endorsement language was visible in late September, then it was not.
A Zenith Research poll of 500 likely voters, taken September 24, 27, showed Rounds ahead by only six points, with a 4.4 percent margin of error. That is a tighter race than Trump’s 2024 blowout in the same state would suggest on paper.
The Democratic nominee, Julian Beaudion, withdrew on August 4. That left Independent candidate Brian Bengs, an Air Force veteran and former Democratic political candidate, in a head-to-head contest with Rounds.
Rounds still holds the structural advantage. Cook has not moved the seat out of Solid Republican. But a single-digit lead after a 29-point presidential win is the kind of number that makes consultants reach for the website editor.
Rounds is not the only Republican whose campaign materials lost prominent Trump branding.
In Florida, Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds adjusted campaign information and removed Trump’s name from prominent positions. Florida candidate Mike Beltran removed several prominent Trump references from his site.
In Kentucky, Ralph Alvarado removed prominent Trump imagery and replaced “America First Fighter” with “Independent Leadership.” Iowa Republican Joe Mitchell stripped some of the more explicitly pro-Trump language. Texas candidate Carlos De La Cruz dropped “Trump Conservative” from his main description.
In California, Young Kim removed references to Trump and “America First” from prominent portions of her website. James Gallagher removed Trump’s endorsement and photograph from his campaign site.
The pattern is the same move in different states: keep the voters Trump turned out, sand the name off the digital storefront.
A Daily Mail/YouGov poll found 49 percent of voters believe Trump is hurting Republican candidates, more than double the 20 percent who think he is helping. That survey sits alongside the website changes and the tighter-than-expected Zenith numbers in South Dakota.
Trump has stepped up campaign travel in traditionally Republican states. Rounds’ own state gave him nearly two-thirds of the vote less than a year earlier. The endorsement was real enough to put on the homepage in September and real enough for Skjonsberg to defend on Fox News.
What changed was the copy on roundsforsenate.com, not the 2024 result, not the Cook rating, and not the video that still carries the endorsement.
Rounds faces Bengs without a Democratic nominee on the ballot. The seat remains rated safe. The senator’s team says it is proud of Trump’s backing and points to the announcement video as proof.
The homepage and issues page no longer say so out loud. Other Republican candidates across Florida, Kentucky, Iowa, Texas, and California made parallel edits, dropping names, photos, “America First” tags, and “Trump Conservative” labels from the places voters see first.
Trump won South Dakota by 29 points. Candidates who treat that record like a liability on their own websites are making a different bet than the one the state’s voters already cast.
Consultants can scrub a homepage in an afternoon. Voters who showed up for Trump by landslide margins tend to notice who still stands with the results they delivered.
