Bodnar vows to stay in Montana Senate race despite ‘speculation, silliness’

With 80 hours to go before the deadline for candidates to drop out of November’s election, independent U.S. Senate candidate Seth Bodnar said his campaign is about sending someone to D.C. who works for Montana, not political parties, and he is in the race regardless of who else is — or isn’t. [should be timing in lede not location speaking 72 hours … ]

“I believe that Montana voters deserve the freedom to send a message to Washington that they reject a broken political system, that they deserve leadership that’s focused on bringing us together to solve problems rather than just tearing us apart to win elections,” Bodnar said.

Bodnar’s press conference, held in Billings, came as rumors and speculation about whether someone might leave the race have flown around Montana’s political sphere as Monday’s deadline to drop out nears. A growing coalition of organizations and political figures has called for the winner of the Democratic primary, Alani Bankhead, to drop out and allow support to coalesce against Republican Kurt Alme, while Republicans have amplified rumors Bodnar might blink first, or Democrats might run former Gov. Steve Bullock.

A state Democratic party spokesperson said the rumor about Bullock had no substance.

On Wednesday, Montana voters did gain an additional option, as the Secretary of State’s Office confirmed Jami Woodman, a volunteer with Democratic candidate Reilly Neill’s primary race, filed as a write-in candidate. Woodman said in a video she “bought a line” for voters because the Senate race “is a mess.” With her declaration, a blank line will appear on ballots, but only votes for Woodman will be tallied. 

Bankhead has been firm in her stance, even as her campaign has been unable to show the same level of support and fundraising as either Bodnar or Alme — she’s raised less than $60,000 compared to millions for each opponent. 

She isn’t fazed by those shortcomings, saying her focus is on “the 48,772 votes cast for me by the people of Montana and the remaining population whom I’ll be representing.”

“Bodnar’s sphere of elites have used their money and power to manipulate and bully donors and leaders throughout the party and Montana,” Bankhead said in a text message on Friday.

She said she is the only candidate not beholden to big donors and that she “will never stop fighting for Montanans, and I will never quit.”

She told Politico that as a woman of faith, it would take a “lightning bolt from God,” for her to drop out of the race.

Bodnar, the former University of Montana president, launched his campaign with the backing of former Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, has a cross-partisan coalition of Montana’s elected officials backing him, and has earned endorsements from nearly every center-left aligned political organization in the state, including environmental and union groups. 

Alme, meanwhile, was a last-minute addition to the field of candidates in March when incumbent Sen. Steve Daines decided to withdraw his candidacy at the literal last minute, clearing the way for Alme to file without drawing stronger Democratic opponents. 

As an independent candidate, Bodnar was required to meet a signature threshold to get on the November ballot, which he says shows the support and appetite of Montanans for his campaign. 

“Nearly 30,000 Montanans from 52 different counties across the state signed their own personal Declaration of Independence earlier this year to get me on the ballot in November, but I think they were saying something much bigger than just put Seth Bodnar on the ballot,” Bodnar said. “I think they were saying, ‘Give us another choice because let’s lift our eyes above politics for him, because something much bigger is happening right now in this country.’”

Bankhead, an Air Force special operations veteran and life coach, was unknown prior to her primary candidacy. 

An outside political action committee spent more than $2.5 million on boosting her profile over former legislator Neill. Bankhead won by more than 12,000 votes, but the PAC quickly withdrew from Montana politics, saying Bankhead had no path to victory. 

Calls for Bankhead to end her campaign have come from organizations that have endorsed Bodnar and political actions committees like Montana Freedom PAC, which has put up signs around Helena, where she lives. 

Whether Bankhead could actually withdraw has also been a question, as state law says a party must replace a candidate that withdraws. 

But lawyers have argued the Montana Democratic Party would have the option to select no candidate as a replacement, and the party’s executive board was briefed on the legal argument of such actions at a meeting last week, according to the Montana Free Press. 

The state party, meanwhile, is still publicly supporting Bankhead as its nominee. 

“Alani won the primary. We had something like 48,000 voters who participated in that primary,” Montana Democratic Party spokesperson Sofia Perez told the Daily Montanna. “What does it say to them if she leaves? It’s a form of voter suppression. If someone wins a primary, that should be it.”

But some of those primary voters have expressed their support for Bankhead only extended through the primary. 

Erika McMillin, a board member of the Montana Federation of Public Employees, the state’s largest union, said she voted for Bankhead in the primary as the best option, but now backs Bodnar. 

“Following our union’s endorsement process, I believe Seth is the only candidate with a legitimate path to victory who still shares our members’ values,” McMillin said in a statement announcing the union’s endorsement of Bodnar. 

At an event Bankhead held in Townsend on Thursday, several attendees of the public asked her to drop out, leading to the organizers to cut the event off early, according to the Montana State StateNews Bureau. 

During his press conference, Bodnar said he had never personally asked Bankhead to drop out, but that she had made the request of him. 

He also said he was not collaborating with any political action committees running ads and messaging asking her to drop out. 

Comparing himself to his main opponents — Libertarian Kyle Austin is also running — Bodnar said he believes Alme would be beholden to the party and not break with Trump on key issues such as the Iran War. 

He also said he believes Bankhead is unvetted and pointed to concerning statements she’s made on podcasts and interviews, including a widely circulated quote where she says “if you’re poor right now, it’s because you decided you wanted to be poor.”

Bankhead told the Daily Montanan her podcast is related to her life-coaching business and aimed at high-achieving individuals, and the specific context of her statement was about some well-off clients of hers that did not practice good money management. 

There is a growing trend of Democratic candidates dropping out of races in reliably Republican states to allow head-to-head matchups between independents and Republicans, including in Idaho, Alaska, South Dakota, and Nebraska, where independent Dan Osborn is making his second run at unseating a sitting Republican. Osborn lost by just seven points in 2024, while the state voted for President Donald Trump by 21 points. 

Polling of Montana’s senate race shows Alme winning comfortably in any scenario that includes three or four candidates; but a two-way race with Bodnar is more competitive than one with Bankhead.