Independent candidates have officially qualified for Montana’s U.S. Senate race and the state’s eastern congressional district, deepening a strategic divide among Democrats over whether the nonpartisan campaigns help or hurt their chances of winning seats away from Republicans.
The Montana Secretary of State’s Office confirmed this week that former University of Montana president Seth Bodnar gathered more than the minimum 13,327 voter signatures needed to secure a place on the November ballot in the Senate race, joining Republican Kurt Alme, Democrat Alani Bankhead and Libertarian Kyle Austin. Great Falls cardiologist Mike Eisenhauer cleared the 7,274-signature threshold to appear in the eastern House race, where he will face incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Troy Downing, Democrat Brian Miller and Libertarian Patrick McCracken.
The qualifications have intensified tensions within Montana’s Democratic circles. Former U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, Montana’s most recently elected statewide Democrat, has backed both Bodnar and Eisenhauer rather than the Democratic nominees. Tester, who lost his 2024 re-election bid by double digits, said in a text message widely circulated in Democratic political circles earlier this year that the Democratic Party brand had been “poison” in his attempts to get re-elected and had acted like an anvil dragging him down. Former U.S. Sen. Max Baucus has also endorsed Bodnar.
The Montana AFL-CIO, one of the state’s largest labor organizations and a group that has reliably backed Democratic candidates for decades without endorsing a Republican in recent memory, broke with that pattern last month and endorsed both independents at its convention in Bozeman, with its executive director acknowledging significant internal pushback but defending the decision as necessary to act in the best interests of its membership.
Despite that support, Bodnar currently trails in the race. A recent poll of 500 likely Montana voters conducted by Public Opinion Strategies shows Republican Kurt Alme leading with 44%, Bankhead at 25% and Bodnar at 20%. The full results are available at politics406.com.
On the other side of the divide, 17 Democratic state lawmakers sent a letter this week to both Bodnar and Bankhead urging them to meet and agree to consolidate behind one candidate, warning that a split vote would make it harder to unseat Republicans. The letter noted Bodnar appeared to have advantages in fundraising, campaign organization and endorsements, but stopped short of calling on either candidate specifically to step aside.
Several county Democratic committees, including in Lewis and Clark and Gallatin counties, have pushed back, urging the party to stay united behind Bankhead. The chair of the Lewis and Clark County Democratic Central Committee argued that under state law a Democratic nominee who withdraws must be replaced by another Democrat — meaning the only path to a two-candidate race would be for Bodnar to drop out.
A group of attorneys has been circulating a counter-argument suggesting the party’s central committee could vote to support Bodnar or decline to name a replacement if Bankhead withdrew, but Montana Democratic Party executive director Emily Marburger said that conversation was premature. She said the party was preparing for a four-way Senate race and that voters across the state had made clear they wanted the party to back its nominated candidates.
Bankhead has repeatedly said she has no intention of dropping out. The last day any candidate may withdraw from the general election is Aug. 10. If a party nominee withdraws, the party would have until Aug. 19 to choose a replacement. The ballot will be certified Aug. 20.