Candidate Profiles

The race to be Montana’s next U.S. senator is heating up in the final three weeks until election day. Recent polling shows Republican Kurt Alme has a comfortable lead in the four-way race. Meanwhile, independent Seth Bodnar and Democrat Alani Bankhead have hit the campaign trail hard trying to appeal to the same centrist and left-wing voters.

The race for Montana’s western district House seat is tight. Recent polls show the two major candidates are tied with no clear lead. MTPR’s Clayton Murphy has this profile of the Democrat and Republican competing for the seat.

The Public Service Commission’s District 5 seat is up for election. Voters from the Blackfeet Indian Reservation to Helena and parts of Missoula will get to choose who represents them on the board. MTPR’s Clayton Murphy talks with Deputy Editor of the Daily Montanan Keila Szpaller about who’s running and what the race could mean for voters.

Two candidates are vying for the open District 1 seat on the Public Service Commission. This district is the biggest in the state by land and covers much of eastern Montana, from the Rocky Boy’s Reservation to Glendive and Miles City. MTPR’s Clayton Murphy speaks with Keila Szpaller, deputy editor of the Daily Montanan, about the race and what this election may mean for Montanans.

Montana’s judicial elections are nonpartisan. An initiative to permanently keep it that way will appear on November’s ballot. Republican state legislators have tried unsuccessfully to make judicial elections partisan during recent legislative sessions.

Two judges from the same court are competing for a seat on the Montana Supreme Court. The justices spoke to MTPR’s Clayton Murphy about partisanship, restraint and what they would bring to the bench.

It's been more than thirty years since Montanans elected a non-GOP candidate to the U.S. House of Representatives, and this year a Democrat, an Independent and a Libertarian are betting on a change.

Elections have consistently broken spending records in the state in recent years, largely due to corporate money. A ballot measure known as the Montana Plan aims to eliminate that kind of spending in Montana, sidestepping a controversial U.S. Supreme Court ruling. That would make the state a national legal test case.