Former University of Montana President Seth Bodnar has formally launched his campaign for U.S. Senate, six weeks after announcing his departure from the university amid widespread speculation he’d enter the race.
Bodnar will run as an independent, an unconventional choice that in part reflects the declining stature of the state Democratic Party in recent years. But he won’t be running against incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Steve Daines — because, just before the filing deadline Wednesday evening, Daines abruptly announced he won’t seek re-election.
In his place, the GOP powers-that-be have put forth U.S. District Attorney Kurt Alme, who registered to run for the seat Wednesday. But Alme isn’t the only Republican in the race — and the broader field includes Bodnar, several Democrats and a Libertarian, all vying for the now-open seat.
“The American Dream is getting crushed, and both parties are to blame,” Bodnar said in a campaign launch video posted Wednesday morning. “They pit us against each other, while they line their own pockets. D.C. politicians like Steve Daines are protecting a system that works for the wealthy and connected, and nobody else. Certainly not for Montanans.”
“The American Dream is getting crushed, and both parties are to blame.”
Bodnar, a former Green Beret, Rhodes Scholar and senior executive at General Electric who took the helm of the university in 2018, is perhaps not the best example of someone who isn’t wealthy and well connected. But he nevertheless says he’s the best candidate to tackle a statewide affordability crisis, Trump administration tariffs and partisan division.
“I’m not a politician,” he said. “I was raised by two public school teachers who inspired me to make service the foundation of my life — and when I raised my hand as a West Point cadet at 18 years old, I swore an oath to the United States, not to any political party. That’s exactly how I’ll serve Montana in the U.S. Senate.”
Daines filed for re-election in February, and his decision to withdraw seems to have caught even Republican officials and activists in the state by surprise, according to reporting from the Lee Enterprises Montana State News Bureau. He was heavily favored to win re-election.
“After wrestling with this decision for months, I have decided I will not seek re-election,” Daines said in a video posted to social media. “It is time for … new leaders like Tim Sheehy to spearhead the fight for Montana in the United States Senate.”
Kurt Alme, of Billings — a Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney and former budget director for Gov. Greg Gianforte — filed just before the deadline and immediately received Daines’ endorsement, followed by Trump’s.
“I’ve known Kurt Alme for years,” Daines said in a statement. “He was appointed U.S. Attorney by President Trump in his first term and then reappointed when President Trump was reelected because he did such a good job cracking down on crime.”
Bodnar attacked “political elites” Daines and Alme in a social media post Wednesday evening.
“Steve Daines has so little respect for Montana Republicans that he withdrew at the last minute to coronate his handpicked successor instead of giving them a voice at the ballot box,” he wrote. Then he posted a video describing it as a “sleazy insider plot.”
Daines’ announcement comes just days after another longtime Montana Republican lawmaker, Congressman Ryan Zinke, opted not to seek re-election. In other words, there are now two open seats in Washington, D.C., that until recently were held by well-known Republicans who were likely to win re-election. And while several prominent Republicans are running to replace Zinke, Alme isn’t exactly a household name outside of political and legal circles.
But Democrats aren’t putting forth any Senate candidates with significant name recognition, either, and the state as a whole has leaned solidly Republican in recent elections — hence Bodnar’s independent run.
Speculation about a potential political career for Bodnar has followed him since the beginning of his time as University of Montana president. That speculation intensified in January when former Montana Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester circulated a text that highlighted Bodnar as a strong candidate for this year’s Senate race — and in particular, a candidate who could run without the potential baggage of a political party that has proven unable to win statewide elections in Montana in recent years.
Bodnar “has a great family, came from business, has what I believe is the best job in Montana, is currently in the military and is a Rhodes scholar and would fight to stop all the insanity that is going on in our dictatorship today, not rubber stamp it,” Tester wrote in the text, which was first reported by the Lee Enterprises Montana State News Bureau.
At the same time, Tester, who served 18 years in the U.S. Senate before losing his re-election bid in 2024, wrote that the Democratic Party was “poison” in his past campaigns. As recently as 2020, Montana had a Democratic governor and Democratic U.S. senator, among other positions. Now, the party has no statewide or federal elected officials.
Soon after, Bodnar said he would step down from his position to pursue public service in other ways. But he avoided saying what form that service would take — or if he would indeed run as an independent, as Tester had suggested — until this week.
Bodnar joins a long list of candidates who are now competing for an open seat. Democratic candidates include former state lawmaker and publisher Reilly Neill, Air Force veteran Alani Bankhead, and Fort Belknap Indian Community historic preservation officer Michael Black Wolf. Michael Hummert, who ran for Tester’s seat in 2024, has also filed campaign paperwork.
In the Republican primary, Alme will face off against Charles WalkingChild and Bozeman businessman Trey Gregory. Kyle Austin is running unopposed in the Libertarian primary.
Daines was first elected to Congress in 2012 and the Senate in 2014. Born in Los Angeles and raised in Bozeman, he worked for now-Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte at his tech firm RightNow Technologies in the early 2000s before both men entered the political arena. In the 2024 election cycle, Daines was the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, helping orchestrate campaign victories for Republican Tim Sheehy over Tester, among other candidates.
In a statement on social media Wednesday, the NRSC sought to paint Bodnar as a liberal and attacked him because a transgender student participated in university athletics under his tenure. That student was Juniper Eastwood, who in 2019 became the first transgender athlete to compete in an NCAA Division I cross-country meet.
“Now, Both Ways Bodnar wants Montanans to believe he’s transitioning from a Democrat to a fake independent,” the committee tweeted.
Culture wars aside, Bodnar’s campaign does have some trappings of the Democratic Party. His communications manager, Roy Loewenstein, was a top staffer for Tester. Bodnar himself has previously donated to Democratic campaigns, as The Pulp has reported. And he’s soliciting donations to his campaign through ActBlue, an online fundraising platform typically employed by Democratic candidates.
But at least one Democrat in the race certainly isn’t interested in framing Bodnar as an ally.
Park County’s Reilly Neill took to social media Wednesday to pillory Bodnar and his independent candidacy, rattling off a list of grievances before saying, “He’s worse than Daines. … I won’t let this guy bully me out of the race.”
