(mellow bright music) - [Anna] Coming up next on "IMPACT!"

- It's highly unique.

You just, you don't see things like this.

- [Anna] Three major candidates are vying for Montana's critical Senate seat, leading to one of the strangest Senate races in recent memory.

- Yeah, it's, ah, it's a mess.

- There wasn't a primary, right?

We didn't have a chance to vote for him.

- Yeah, it was kind of a, kind of an inside political deal.

- My guess is that people don't love it.

- Has anyone offered you anything to drop out of the race?

- He should be available to people.

- [Commentator] There are these events that take place, but, you know, they're there for insiders, more or less.

- Coming to you from the campuses of Montana State University, Bozeman and the University of Montana, Missoula, you're watching "IMPACT" from "Montana PBS Reports."

That election special is straight ahead.

Stay with us.

- [Announcer] Major funding for "IMPACT" comes from the Greater Montana Foundation, encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans.

Funding also comes from viewers like you, who are Friends of Montana PBS.

Thank you!

"IMPACT" is an editorially independent production of "Montana PBS Reports."

Coverage decisions are made by our team of Montana-based journalists.

For feedback, questions, or ideas, email us, impact@montanapbs.org.

(air whooshes) - Welcome to "IMPACT!"

I'm Anna Rau.

There are actually five candidates in Montana's crowded US Senate race, a Republican, a Democrat, an Independent, a Libertarian, and a write-in.

That's made for some strange dynamics.

Historical norms like major candidates attending forums and debates, walking in parades, and even fundraising have fallen by the wayside.

As Montana PBS's Sam Wilson and I found out, the surprises in the Senate race have left many voters confused and frustrated.

(air whooshes) (crowd chattering) (horn honking) At the annual Bobcat and Grizzly homecoming parades, thousands of fans and spectators could see just about everything.

Dancing coffee cups, drum lines, Disney princesses, golden retrievers, and whatever this is.

But one set of seemingly perennial parade participants, the glad-handing politicians, were a little thin this year.

In election seasons past, major candidates relished the opportunity to make appearances at one or both homecoming parades.

- All right!

Go, Griz!

- [Anna] The only major Senate candidate to campaign at the parades was independent Seth Bodnar.

Yard signs and volunteers stood in for Democrat Alani Bankhead and Republican Kurt Alme.

Do you think it'd be better if these candidates had walked in the parade, even if you're not gonna vote for them?

- Yeah!

Absolutely.

- [Anna] Why do you say that?

- Because they need community support.

They need to get feedback.

They need to, they need to, they need to bump into people like me that on the street and see what their concerns are.

- They should have all been here.

- [Anna] It marked one more strange event in a series of odd twists and turns in the Montana Senate race.

- I think it's a mess.

- [Anna] To try and understand why two major candidates for the Senate seat did not take an easy opportunity to meet thousands of constituents, we have to explore who the candidates are and the unusual way each of them got into the race.

Democrat Alani Bankhead came out of nowhere and managed to win the primary.

- I never saw myself in politics ever in a million years.

I was born in the Presidio in San Francisco.

My dad was in the army and there was an army base there.

I went to Penn State.

I got a double bachelor's.

I did ROTC in it, so I commissioned.

I am a service member by trade, so retired lieutenant colonel, special agent.

I've hunted terrorist spies and child sex abusers all over the world.

I was hunting Al-Qaeda senior leaders for special operations.

So the people in movies with briefcases filled with money and they meet with their informants in secret and get intelligence.

That's what we did.

- [Anna] MSU Professor of Political Science, Dr.

Kal Munis, has studied Montana politics for more than 15 years.

He says candidates with military experience like Bankhead appeal to the huge number of veterans living in the state.

- Alani Bankhead has in some ways a strong background, particularly when it comes to having served as a military officer.

Being a veteran, being an officer, you know, suggests someone who's, you know, highly competent, has relevant experience to her constituents.

- [Anna] Independent Seth Bodnar made the ballot after gathering nearly 30,000 signatures.

- Those of you who don't know me, I was raised by two public school teachers.

You know, my mom taught kindergarten and first and second grade, and my dad was a fifth grade teacher.

At the age of 18, I joined the military.

I went to West Point.

I graduated from West Point two months before 9/11.

23 years ago, I joined my first infantry platoon.

I took command of an infantry platoon in the 101st Airborne Division of 40 soldiers in Mosul, Iraq.

And then I became a Green Beret and commanded a Special Forces A team in First Special Forces group.

After my military service, I actually worked in the private sector.

I had a career in business and I had the privilege of leading one of our state's great public universities for the past eight years.

- When it comes to Seth Bodnar, he's a great candidate in many ways, you know, in terms of his background, right?

Military experience, Green Beret, corporate executive, university president, Rhodes Scholar.

I mean, this is a highly competent, very well-accomplished person.

- [Anna] Republican Kurt Alme's campaign ignored repeated offers to participate in this documentary.

Montana PBS is relying on the single debate he participated in by airtime and interviews he did with other media outlets to convey his point of view.

- Who are you?

- I'm a Montana native.

I was born in Great Falls.

My parents were both teachers there.

Dad was a high school math teacher.

Mom was an elementary school teacher.

And I grew up all over the state, in Dillon and Victor and Helena, and graduated high school in Miles City.

- [Anna] According to his Senate confirmation questionnaire, Alme is a Truman Scholar who holds a law degree from Harvard.

He's also a former Department of Revenue director, state budget director, and has served twice as Montana's US attorney.

- Attorneys tend to be especially effective legislators, and of course he's a, you know, a very accomplished and high, high profile litigator.

And so, you know, when you sort of combine his rootedness within Montana with his work experience in the legal sector, you know, I think he's precisely the type of person that you would expect to eventually jump into politics.

- [Anna] All three candidates say they took a risk and jumped into politics for personal reasons.

- Three reasons!

You know, my wife Chelsea and I have been blessed to be raising three kids in this state.

They're the sixth generation in their family to be growing up here in Montana, and we feel like our country is on a bad path.

You know, we're on a track to hand over United States of America to our kids, to your kids, to future generations that's less prosperous, that's less secure, that's more divided, that's more in debt, in which they have fewer rights than we did, and we feel like it's a moral failure.

- It was more because seeing the struggle of our community, so we had neighbors that were having a hard time putting food on their tables.

And frankly, as someone who's deployed for this country, I found that really unacceptable that in the richest country in the world that we're struggling to feed our kids.

- I've grown up here.

I've been a public servant my whole life and we wanna step up and serve again.

And if we get the chance to go to Washington, we want to be sure we try to make life more affordable for Montanans, we try to make our community safer, and protect our Montana way of life.

- [Anna] Some digging reveals that Bankhead was the first to file her candidacy and establish a campaign website.

She registered her campaign website domain on November 19th of 2025, and she filed her federal candidacy paperwork with the FEC on December 10th of 2025, just about a month before she officially announced on her podcast.

- And today, you guys, I'm sharing some big news.

I'm running for the United States Senate this year to represent the great state of Montana.

- Well, that tells me that you've been considering the idea of politics for potentially a while.

When did you start mulling the idea of politics?

- It was probably about maybe last summer.

Considered it, I talked to my husband about it.

I was really surprised that he was supportive.

I thought for sure he would say like, "Are you crazy?

Like, why would you wanna do that?"

But he was like, "Yeah, you know, if you wanna do that, like, I support you 100%."

And so I cried for about five weeks 'cause I knew my privacy would be gone forever.

- [Anna] When Bodnar resigned as President of the University of Montana on January 22nd of 2026, speculation swirled that he was planning a Senate run as an independent.

Records show that the Bodnar campaign website domain was quietly registered just two days before his January resignation.

He wouldn't officially announce until the state filing deadline on March 4th.

- I think the biggest problem that we're facing is a failure of our political system, a failure of our political system to actually tackle the very real problems that we're facing as a country.

The toxic partisanship that's poisoning our politics, that's creating blind loyalty to party over country.

Montana deserves a US Senator who answers to them and only them.

- [Anna] Bodnar's strategy quickly opened a rift in Montana's Democratic Party with former Senator Tester throwing his weight behind Bodnar, hoping that an Independent could break the hold Republicans have on the state.

At the time, Bankhead and Bodnar both expected a tough contest against incumbent Republican Steve Daines.

- Everyone thought that Steve Daines was gonna be seeking another term in the US Senate.

And, you know, Republicans thought that, Democrats thought that, Independents like Seth Bodnar thought that.

- Yeah!

Let me walk you through the process.

- Yeah, I'd love to hear it.

- So I was United States Attorney until March 4th.

Just a few days before then, which was the filing deadline, I got a call from Senator Daines saying that he and Cindy would like to retire, but they were concerned about losing his seat and losing the Senate to the Democrats.

So he said he would only step down if someone like me would step up and run.

- Anywhere from 10 to 5 minutes, somewhere in there, before the candidate filing deadline, Daines withdraws, Alme declares his candidacy, and that kept both the Republican primary slate, you know, pretty closed off as well as the Democratic slate.

- Senator Daines has explained is that he wanted to discourage Jon Tester and Steve Bullock from entering the race.

- I think the way they kind of shenaniganed him in, in the lack of a primary, maybe wasn't fair to their side of the aisle.

- I don't really think that it was probably done correctly for the Republican party.

- So you feel like maybe it wasn't the best move?

- I don't think so.

- That didn't seem kosher to me.

- It's within the rules.

It's a little bit sneaky.

I can understand why people are frustrated by that.

I think it was a bit disingenuous, but that's something that you can do.

- [Anna] Dr.

Alex Street is a professor of political science at Carroll College in Helena.

Dr.

Street says maneuvers like this are common no matter how much the voters may dislike them.

- I think people feel like people are playing games with politics.

At the same time, you know, those of us who've been around a little bit, like, there's always some of that going on and it is frustrating.

But at the same time, it's just clearly part of the game.

- [Anna] But the unpopular move has given Bankhead and Bodnar a good line of attack.

- We saw Steve Daines and Kurt Alme lie to the voters of Montana.

Steve Daines, he said, "I'm running, I'm running," until three minutes before a filing deadline, and then he withdraws from the race.

The only person he let know is his anointed successor, Kurt Alme, a Trump-appointed US attorney and effectively disenfranchising the Republican voters of this state.

- I'm really disappointed with the switcheroo.

I think it was poor form on Daines and Alme's part to do that.

I understand the strategy, but I just think it's undemocratic.

- The next twist in the race was also about strategy.

Just before the June primary, a mysterious dark money PAC began spending heavily to support Alani Bankhead.

The Democrat-affiliated PAC spent 2.6 million, much of it on TV ads, in about a month.

That pushed Bankhead to a surprise win over Reilly Neill.

How important do you think that dark money was to her elevating over Reilly Neill in the primary?

- Voters across the state, because of that money coming from the Progressive Vet PAC, they were able to learn about Alani Bankhead.

And without that, they probably wouldn't have, right?

So it benefited her tremendously.

I think it was absolutely essential to her winning the primary.

- [Anna] That was the most money Bankhead would see.

Her campaign continues to trail far behind in fundraising, and the PAC that spent millions on ads to get her through the primary immediately folded up shop and left town.

- So Progressive Vet PAC came in during the primary, poured about 2 1/2 million dollars supporting my candidacy, and nobody knew why, including me.

- Dr.

Munis says it's pretty clear the backers of the PAC wanted something in return for helping Bankhead win the primary.

- I do think that there were people who thought, "Between Neill and Bankhead, who's most likely to drop out?"

They thought Bankhead.

- [Anna] That strategy would have cleared the field for Bodnar to take on Alme directly.

And there was reason to think it could work.

Democratic Senate candidates in South Dakota, Nebraska, and Idaho had already dropped out to boost the Independent's chances there.

Bankhead was the only Democrat who was still refusing to drop out.

- Totally to be expected that, you know, both candidates and both campaigns, you know, would be thinking about trying to convince the other to do this.

- He and I met twice in person and once telephonically to negotiate if anybody was gonna drop out.

And the first time I met him, it was very interesting.

He very graciously brought lunch and we did introductions, you know, of course the normal like, "Well, why did you get into politics?"

- What did the negotiations consist of?

- There was no offer from his point of view.

He did say repeatedly, "I would never ask you to drop out."

And I told him at the end, I was like, "You're saying that to me because your surrogates are all pushing me out and what you do is you insulate yourself so that you don't look like the bad guy."

- Has anyone asked you to drop out?

- Yeah!

Oh, yeah.

Ah, Alani Bankhead has asked me multiple times to drop out.

- How?

On the phone?

- Well, when we met and publicly, she said very publicly, "Seth Bodnar should drop out."

- And what did you say?

(Seth laughs) - What I just said!

I said, "Montana deserves options."

Montanans deserve an Independent voice who's gonna go and fight for them.

You know, I haven't asked anybody to drop out.

I've been very clear about that.

I've never asked anybody else to drop out of this race.

But yeah, my Democratic opponent has asked me many times to drop out of the race.

- Has anyone offered you any gifts or money or anything to drop out of the race?

- No.

(laughs) Definitely not.

- [Anna] Were you offered anything of value outside of their group?

Were there other people who offered you anything to drop out of the race?

- Yes!

- Really?

- They offered to be, and I'm probably gonna butcher this, but the DNC's head of female veteran candidates or something like that.

And I was like, "Why would I go work for an organization that is actively working against me and stabbing me in the back?"

Like, no, I'm not going to do that, so.

And I can't be bought anyway, but that was the only thing that was put on the table.

- [Anna] In a recent op-ed in "The Washington Post," Bankhead mentions this offer and other efforts she says high-ranking state and national Democrats made to try and convince her to drop out.

In the end though, nobody dropped out and the deadline to have a candidate's name removed from the ballot came and went.

Currently, political analysts and voters believe that split in the vote will hand Alme an easy win.

- It kind of speaks to the risk of this strategy from the very start of, "Well, we're going to run an Independent and just hope, you know, just hope that, you know, out of the kindness of their heart that whoever the Democratic nominee is decides to move out of the way."

It seemed like an extremely risky strategy from the start and it didn't play out for them very well.

- I mean, that does seem like her choice to make.

If she won the primary, then that would be her choice to make.

Typically, when people get involved in politics, they have an agenda, they want to achieve something.

Some of that is probably a little bit personal.

They kind of like the idea of being somebody who gets to influence what's going on.

- [Anna] While the drama between Bodnar and Bankhead was taking center stage, Republican Kurt Alme was cruising below the radar.

His website does not offer a calendar with public events, yet it's full of pictures of Alme meeting with friendly groups of people.

In the last month, Alme has made appearances at more events.

But without a public calendar, it's tough to know when those events will take place and where.

Do you think he's accessible to voters?

- No, not at all.

I think that if he really and truly believes in Montana, that he should get out here and talk to Montana voters.

He should be available to people.

I just think he avoids it, and I think he's just kinda trying to run on the Republican party's coattails.

But for God sakes, get out here and talk to us!

If you're gonna represent us, we need to know what you think and who you are and that you're accessible to voters.

- If they don't show up in our towns, how will they show up for us in Washington?

- It is fairly common for, if there's a candidate who looks like he's probably in the lead, for that candidate to not want to do a ton of political debates, for example, right?

Like, that happens all the time.

And from what I've heard, Kurt Alme has not done a ton of debates, he's not doing a ton of public appearances.

And it may just be because he doesn't feel like he needs to.

There might be a downside to some of it if something goes wrong.

There's not a huge amount of upside.

He's kind of looking favored to win anyway.

So why would you?

- I think that it's probably not great for democracy.

I think, you know, in an ideal world, elected officials would be highly accessible to their constituents.

- [Anna] His competitors say they want to see Alme engage with them and with voters at publicly advertised events.

- I shouldn't expect anything different.

I want something different because I want candidates to show up for the people.

- I think Montana voters deserve to see and hear from anybody who is asking for their vote to represent them in the United States Senate.

- Of course, voters are welcome to go online and read things about Kurt Alme, and maybe ask AI to synopsize Kurt Alme's particular platform, and so on.

Or, you know, maybe they could even go to one of these donor events.

They're for insiders, more or less.

Like, anyone could go to many of them, but, like, that's conditional on you knowing about it and most people don't know about it.

- [Anna] Montana PBS figured out where one of those RSVP-only donor events was.

It was in Missoula, the night before the Griz Homecoming Parade and game.

Around five o'clock, vehicles began arriving.

At 5:30, Kurt Alme and his wife arrived hand-in-hand to meet privately with politicians and donors.

The next morning, Alme skipped walking in the Griz Homecoming Parade.

(crowd cheering) What would you say if Alme was in town last night and still didn't walk in the parade today?

- I would say that's a foul.

- Yeah, he should have been here and, you know, he should be reaching out to people 'cause, you know, it shows you that he's generating money for the Republican Party, but he's not listening to this part of Montana.

- When you're trying to understand candidate behavior, ask yourself, "Would the candidate need to do this in order to be elected?

Yes or no?"

Right?

And I think when it comes to doing things, like walking in parades or doing debates, or, you know, whatever the case may be, there are a lot of things that candidates before have done where, you know, increasingly candidates in these safer districts or safer states for their party are saying, "We don't really need to do that."

- [Anna] For Bankhead's part, she was out amongst the people during the Griz Homecoming Parade, just not in Missoula.

Instead, she was at the Fall Festival in Townsend for about an hour before heading to Billings for another event.

- Bye, y'all!

- Welcome to the Montana Broadcasters Association, Greater Montana Foundation Debate for United States Senator.

- [Anna] The recent Montana Broadcasters Association Debate was the first time all three major candidates were on the stage, finally giving voters a chance to compare and contrast, and hopefully make a decision on who gets their vote.

Even if some feel like that vote will be wasted in a race with three major candidates.

- If I really thought one of them had a legitimate chance of winning, I'd definitely vote for them, but I think it's kind of been carved out myself.

- I think they kind of screwed themselves when he decided to go from Democrat to Independent because now people had to vote two different ways.

So that's gonna take their voting ratio down.

Republicans are in.

- The Democrats didn't get together on a strategy.

They had a great opportunity to win a seat in this election.

- Is there a path to victory for Bodnar?

- No!

I mean, frankly, no.

I believe strongly that any path to victory, those were all closed off when the deadline for candidates to withdraw from the race passed and neither Bankhead nor Bodnar did so.

- So I'm assuming when I ask you, if I ask you, "Is there a path for Bankhead?"

You're gonna say, "No!"

- Correct!

Yeah.

I think, I mean, neither one of them really has a path, but Bankhead, you know, surely no.

Absolutely not.

- That's great news for Alme and a bleak assessment for Bodnar and Bankhead.

Despite this, both of them insist they will prove the critics and the pundits wrong on election day.

Do you believe that you can win this race in a Ruby Red state with four candidates?

- I absolutely think that we can win.

- [Anna] Why do you think that?

- Um, I mean, a lot of different reasons.

Well, here's the thing is what I love the most, I think, out of this entire democratic process is you can have all the money, all the polls, all of the resources, everything, but until the people get in that voting booth, you won't know what the outcome's gonna be.

And I think this is the year that not only do we take our government back, but I think Montana's really gonna surprise the rest of the country.

- Absolutely we can win.

We're gonna win!

And you've seen the polls moving pretty dramatically in our favor over the last couple of months.

We've gained seven points.

Both of the major party candidates have been falling and we're within striking distance, 'cause we're gonna win on November 3rd.

We are!

- Political analysts say voter turnout will be a key factor in this election for both the Senate race and the House race.

Since Montana is such a Red state, a high voter turnout usually benefits Republicans.

That's all we have for you on this episode of "IMPACT."

You can find all our previous episodes on our website or on the PBS app for your phone or smart TV.

If you have questions, feedback, or story ideas for us, send us an email at impact@montanapbs.org.

Thanks for joining us.

I'm Anna Rau.

(pensive music) (pensive music continues) (pensive music continues) - [Announcer] Major funding for "IMPACT" comes from the Greater Montana Foundation, encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans.

Funding also comes from viewers like you, who are Friends of Montana PBS.

Thank you!

(air whooshes) (bright music)