BILLINGS — As the race for Montana’s U.S. Senate seat continues to heat up, so does the pressure to clear the field – but for now, it doesn’t look like any candidates are willing to step aside.
Seth Bodnar, running for Senate as an independent, held a news conference in a Billings park Friday morning. He said he’d seen too much of what he called “speculation” and “silliness” over whether any of the Senate candidates would consider dropping out of the race.
“Let me be very clear: I am in this race until the very end,” he said. “I am committed to building a campaign that Montana deserves.”
(Watch the video to hear more from the Senate candidates.)
Bodnar said he continued to believe only a candidate running outside the two major parties could put Montana’s interests ahead of national bosses in Congress. He was flanked by supporters, including Mike Eisenhauer, an independent candidate for Montana’s eastern U.S. House seat.
This year, there’s been a growing trend of candidates running as independents in Republican-leaning states and districts, where some political strategists have suggested an independent would have a better chance against a GOP candidate than a Democrat. In several of those states – including Nebraska, Idaho and South Dakota – Democratic Senate candidates have dropped out in recent weeks, giving the independents a clearer path against the incumbent Republicans.
In Montana, a number of political leaders have argued Bodnar and Democratic candidate Alani Bankhead won’t have a realistic chance of defeating Republican nominee Kurt Alme if they both stay in the race. That’s led to calls for one of them to drop out.
Montana Freedom PAC, a super PAC supporting Bodnar’s candidacy, has been campaigning hard against Bankhead. They’ve taken out TV and digital ads criticizing her record, and now they’ve begun distributing yard signs calling on her to withdraw, with slogans like “Bow Out Bankhead: Pass the Torch, Protect Our Progress.”
MTN asked Bodnar if he agreed with the PAC’s campaign. He said, as required by law, he had not coordinated with the organization and that he had never asked Bankhead to drop out.
“This race has never been focused on who else is running,” he said. “This race has always been and still is focused on building a coalition.”
Bankhead told MTN Friday that Bodnar had not asked her to withdraw, but said she did hold him responsible for the pressure against her.
“Attitude reflects leadership,” she said. “His followers bully people around the state and people who are trying to support me. You don't see Team Bankhead folks doing that because we believe in respecting the democratic process.”
She has consistently said there’s no circumstance where she’d consider pulling out of the race, and she repeated that on Friday.
“The people of Montana are rising up again, and it terrifies the establishment elite,” she said. “I'm never going to stop fighting for Montanans, and I'm never going to quit.”
Bankhead has blamed Bodnar for splitting the vote by entering the race as an independent, and she confirmed that, when she and Bodnar had a meeting last week, she asked him to drop out. However, she said it was his decision on whether to remain in the race.
Even if Bankhead did get out of the race, it’s not clear there wouldn’t still be a Democrat on the ballot. The Montana Secretary of State’s Office has said state law requires the party to choose a replacement if their candidate withdraws, though some Democrats have suggested there could be ways around that requirement.
If any candidate does want to change their mind about dropping out of the race, they only have until 5 p.m. on Monday to do it.
Besides Bodnar, Bankhead, Alme and Libertarian candidate Kyle Austin, there’s been one more addition to the ballot for Senate: a write-in line.
Jami Woodman filed as a write-in candidate ahead of the state’s deadline on Wednesday. She told MTN she lives most of the time in Ravalli County, and that she helps family and friends in real estate.
Woodman was also a prominent supporter of Reilly Neill, who lost to Bankhead in the Democratic Senate primary. She told MTN she’s protesting against a new state law that removed write-in lines if there’s no registered write-in candidate, and against outside political money like the millions spent in that primary.
“It's time for us to say no to out-of-state billionaires and millionaires coming in here and telling us who to vote for and buying races – that's what's happening,” Woodman said in a social media video Friday.
Woodman told MTN she was concerned about issues like agriculture, education and rural health care, but her biggest priority was opposition to data center development in Montana.
Woodman paid a $1,740 filing fee to become a write-in candidate. As part of her application, she asked the state to count votes for several variations of her name – as well as for the phrase “None of the Above.” In a statement, the Montana Secretary of State’s Office said it would not approve that as a valid write-in, saying that state law requires write-ins include the candidate’s last name and at least an initial.
