U.S. Senate Race: Alme Runs on Montana Roots and a Budget-Balancing Résumé
Montana’s Republican nominee is a two-time U.S. attorney and former state budget director who has spent his career in public service. He is campaigning on fiscal discipline and familiarity with the state.
By Mariah Thomas
Editor’s note: Montana’s U.S. Senate race has been defined by its twists. On March 4, the filing deadline, Seth Bodnar entered the race as an independent, and Republican Sen. Steve Daines withdrew later that day, clearing the way for his preferred successor, Kurt Alme.
In June, a pair of unlikely candidates won the Democratic and Libertarian primaries. Alani Bankhead, virtually unknown in Montana political circles, beat former state legislator and gubernatorial candidate Reilly Neill after a boost from a mysterious PAC that later pulled its support. Kyle Austin, who previously ran as a Republican in the eastern congressional district, won the Libertarian primary even as the party denounced his candidacy and withdrew its support.
Bankhead remains in the race despite a barrage of attacks and an intense pressure campaign throughout much of the summer to leave it and improve Bodnar’s odds against Alme. The Beacon will roll out stories about all four candidates as part of its election coverage, all of which can be found on our 2026 Northwestern Montana Election Guide.
Kurt Alme has spent the bulk of his career in public service roles.
The 60-year-old lawyer, born to two teacher parents in Great Falls and raised in towns and cities across the state, has worked to balance the state’s budget across two Republican governors’ administrations, heading up the Department of Revenue under Judy Martz and working as Greg Gianforte’s budget director.
Twice, Alme, who now lives in Billings, has been tapped by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as Montana’s top federal prosecutor. He said he took the job in part because, as general counsel at the Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch Foundation, he saw firsthand the toll of meth trafficking sweeping the state and wanted to help solve that problem.
In his Senate bid, the Republican said he hopes to continue stepping up when Montanans call.
“The most rewarding part of this campaign has been to get back out around Montana,” Alme said in an interview with the Beacon. “You know, I’ve lived so many places in the state that just about everywhere we go, we know friends and family, so we’re seeing a lot of old friends and making a lot of new ones. But you know, Montanans want to look you in the eye, they want to shake your hand, and they deserve to know what’s going on in Washington and have their voices heard. So, I look forward to continuing to come back to the Treasure State as often as I can, and meet with Montanans, and again, you know, shake hands, listen, share what’s going on in Washington, but also importantly, being sure Montana voices get heard in Washington.”
Alme’s entry into the Senate race made waves in March. He slotted in during the final minutes ahead of the filing deadline, as incumbent U.S. Sen. Steve Daines dropped out. While Montana’s statewide elected officials and the president backed him, some took issue with what they saw as a backroom deal. One of his opponents, independent Seth Bodnar, called the move the “disgusting arrogance of Washington politicians and their party bosses who trade power back and forth like candy.” And in May, a legislator from Alme’s own party told the Beacon he would bring a bill during the next legislative session to prevent a similar stunt from happening again, calling it a problem that has impacted both political parties throughout Montana’s history.
On the campaign trail, though, Alme said that switch-up doesn’t come up.
“Having grown up here, guided by those Montana values … it runs deep in me that I’m gonna do what’s best for Montana,” Alme said. “And when I talk to Montanans, what they want to talk about is: how do we make life more affordable, and how do we make our community safer, and how do we protect our Montana way of life. And those are the issues we talk about.”
Polling suggests he may be right in his assessment. Alme leads all three opponents comfortably: last month’s Montana Free Press-Eagleton poll had him eight points ahead of Bodnar, his closest rival, and a late-September survey by American Pulse Research and Polling, sponsored by Nonstop Local, put his lead as high as 19 points.
The Republican has spent much of his time traveling the state in the company of friendly crowds. In the last month, he has visited the Flathead to accept an endorsement from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce at a local company run by a member of the Flathead County Republican Central Committee; and to speak to the Glacier Country Pachyderm Club, a Republican group.
He has skipped some debates, a point his three opponents have hit him on, arguing it shows a lack of accountability. He did appear with all three last weekend in a Bozeman debate hosted by the Montana Broadcasters Association and the Greater Montana Foundation.
Montana State University political scientist Jessi Bennion said his approach is unsurprising. He’s running like a frontrunner, she explained.
“He doesn’t have to make splashes,” Bennion said. “He doesn’t have to do that. He doesn’t have to take interviews. You know, when you’re the frontrunner, you just have this position where you don’t have to do quite as much. You can kind of lay low, or go to friendly audiences, especially in a state, again, that is as Republican as Montana is.”
Alme is playing it safe on policy, too. His primary issue is the one plaguing most voters hitting the ballot box this year: affordability.
It’s an issue he hopes to work on right away, should he come out on top in the Senate race. The first bill the career prosecutor hopes to carry is one requiring Congress to pass a balanced budget or forfeit their pay. In Montana, where Alme worked as the governor’s budget director in 2021, a balanced budget is the sole bill legislators must pass each session.
“In fact, when I was budget director for Governor Gianforte, we went further, and we ended our budget cycle with a surplus,” Alme said. “And with that, we were able to help pay off the state debt and become debt free.”
He said he hopes to bring that fiscal conservatism to Washington, along with efforts to rein in spending and keeping taxes and regulation low. Alme praised the tax cuts in 2025’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which Republicans have more often called the Working Families Tax Cuts this year. He said provisions critical to keep in place includes no taxes on Social Security, tips and overtime, and a higher estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer exemption. He also said rooting out fraud in social welfare programs would be a priority for curbing spending, another common Republican refrain.
As the race winds down, Alme said his deep Montana roots differentiate him from the rest of the field.
“I’ve spent my whole career serving and protecting Montana families, and I’m ready to step up and serve again to make life more affordable, make our community safer and protect our Montana way of life,” Alme said. “And I’d be honored to have the votes of everyone in Montana.”
Ballots were mailed to absentee voters Oct. 9. Election Day is Nov. 3. Voters can check their registration status and the status of their ballot here: https://voterportal.mt.gov/WhereToVote.aspx. To register to vote, voters can either bring their completed voter registration application to their county election office or visit their county elections office to fill out a voter registration application and receive a ballot there.