The day is starting to heat up in East Helena. A small crowd is gathering in Main Street park. It’s August 10, the last chance for Montana candidates to change their minds before ballots are finalized.
Five hours before the deadline, voters gather to see Democratic candidate for Senate, Alani Bankhead, announce one more time that she has no intention of dropping out.
“There has been a lot of noise about this race, so let me cut through it plain and simple. I am in this race to win it and I am staying through November 3,” Bankhead told the crowd.
Bankhead won her party’s primary, but both voters and some prominent Democrats have been pressuring her to quit and make room for a prominent independent candidate, Seth Bodnar, who has already raised more money than Bankhead and Republican Kurt Alme combined.
The day before the deadline, Bankhead said on social media that she’s being harassed to drop out, and fears for her family’s safety. She said her family is taking personal and legal actions to protect against threats.
On Tuesday, Emily Marburger, the executive director of the Montana Democratic Party, pinned the attack on the independent candidate Seth Bodnar, though she did not name him explicitly.
“It seems that the independent candidate had no plan other than to get on the ballot and then enlist bullies to go after the Democratic nominee with intimidation tactics that threatened her safety and her family's safety,” Marburger said.
Jim and Terry Gundersen have lived in Townsend for 27 years. Both voted for Bankhead in the primary. But after a campaign event in town last week where voters asked her to back out, neither was sure they’d stick with the Democrat in November.
“It was an eye-opener,” Jim said.
Terry adds, “We just want to see Alme be defeated and whatever that takes might be the way it has to go.”
If Republican incumbent Steve Daines was running, there’d be less hope from opposition. But he’s retiring and the field is clear.
“Washington’s reckless spending has left us with inflation and enormous debt. It’s time to fix the broken system,” Kurt Alme says in a political ad.
Alme left his job as U.S. Attorney for Montana to be the Republican candidate. He has never held elected office, but jumped into the race at Daines’ behest at the eleventh hour.
Alme’s lack of name recognition, and President Trump’s plunging poll numbers, are reasons independent Candidate Seth Bodnar thinks he can win. He says Montanans don’t like either party and are hungry for a new choice.
“Now this battle in Montana today is not between Republicans and Democrats, it's between the extreme and the rest of us,” Bodnar says.
One the day of the deadline, Bodnar said he respected Bankhead’s decision to stay in but claimed she has “no clear path to the resources it takes to compete statewide.”
Since no one dropped out, Republican Alme is almost guaranteed victory, says Kal Munis, a political science professor at Montana State University.
“Even if she were to only garner 10% of the vote in the state, that would just be a disaster for Bodnar’s hopes of potentially being able to flip control of the seat,” Munis says.
Alme hasn’t commented on the other candidates’ choices to stay in the race.
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Democrats pull off an upset in Montana’s U.S. House race. The Senate race goes as expected with an easy Republican victory. The Senate loss is seen as a missed opportunity for Montana Democrats as their party sweeps several congressional seats across the country. The Supreme court race is a runaway for Amy Eddy. And Montanans say yes to all three ballot initiatives, with one already facing a court challenge. -
Republican Kurt Alme beat independent Seth Bodnar and Democrat Alani Bankhead Tuesday for Montana’s open U.S. Senate seat. -
Vice President Vance rallies Montanans for Aaron Flint. Flint and Sam Forstag both appeal to Montana voters' populist streak – while targeting different villains. And all the candidates make their final pitches as election day approaches.
