Open Primaries Presents: Independent Veterans Are Spoiling For A Fight. w/ John Opdycke, Paul Rieckhoff, Ty Pinkins and Todd Achilles.

This is a special collaboration between Independent Americans and Open Primaries, featuring two of the most compelling independent Senate candidates in the country.

Todd Achilles is a former US tank commander, Idaho state representative, and tech executive now running for US Senate in Idaho. Ty Pinkins served over 20 years in the Army including three combat tours in Iraq where he earned the Bronze Star. After earning his law degree from Georgetown, he returned to the Mississippi Delta to fight for his community—and now he’s running for US Senate.

Both are running as independents. Both are military veterans who put country over party. And both have a strategy that goes far beyond just winning their own races.

The conversation tackles the biggest questions facing independent candidates: How do you counter the “spoiler” narrative? How do you compete against unlimited party money? Why won’t the media cover independent campaigns? And most importantly—what happens when you actually win?

The answer to that last question is where it gets interesting. With four independent veterans running competitive Senate races in 2026 (Todd in Idaho, Ty in Mississippi, Dan Osborn in Nebraska, and Brian Bengs in South Dakota), they have the potential to create an independent “fulcrum” in the Senate—denying either party a majority and forcing both sides to negotiate with principled independents on issues like campaign finance reform, stock trading bans, and open primaries.

Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Independent Veterans of America (IVA) and host of Independent Americans, explains why veterans are uniquely positioned to lead this movement: they’re country-first, they understand sacrifice, and when they served, they wore America’s jersey—not a red or blue one.

This episode also features insights from John Opdycke, founder and president of Open Primaries, who has been fighting for election reform for decades and sees independent veterans as the breakthrough this movement needs.

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