Growing up in Butte, I learned early that a union card means a fair shake and you finish the job you start. I managed Jon Tester’s first Senate campaign in 2006. Then I spent more than a decade as president of EMILY’s List, helping elect pro-choice Democratic women up and down the ballot, all over the country. So I don’t say this lightly: in Montana’s Senate race, the candidate who will protect reproductive freedom and stand with working people is not the Democrat. It’s independent Seth Bodnar.
Alani Bankhead argued in The Washington Post last week that Montana voters should choose their own Senate candidate. She’s right, and they will. But choosing well means looking clearly at the choice in front of us.
Start with viability, a concept Bankhead has waved away. “So often we hear terms like electability and viability, and it’s all made up,” Bankhead said in August. That is absurd. At EMILY’s List, the nation’s largest organization working to elect women, viability was never an insult. It was a promise to the voters counting on us to deliver leaders. Every dollar raised and every volunteer hour given is an investment on who can win and then govern.
In an even darker turn, Bankhead told a group of her own supporters she is not “emotionally invested in the outcome of the race.” This is a fireable offense for anyone working on any campaign, and for no one more than the candidate.
The numbers aren’t made-up either. In the Montana Free Press–Rutgers poll taken in late August and early September, Republican Kurt Alme had 38%, Bodnar 30% and Bankhead 16%. Even among Democrats, Bodnar led Bankhead 53% to 41%. Bodnar has raised more than $4 million. Bankhead’s own fundraising had not cleared $60,000 by August. That isn’t an establishment plot. It’s Montanans voting with their wallets and their support.
Bankhead says Washington machines are trying to pick Montana’s senator. On that, we agree, just not about who. This seat opened because Steve Daines withdrew minutes before the filing deadline and anointed Alme. And look at who has been helping Bankhead. Daines’ super PAC, More Jobs, Less Government, spent more than nearly a million dollars boosting her in the Democratic primary. Another Alme-aligned super PAC solicited donations for her before the withdrawal deadline. Republican operatives don’t spend money on a Democrat because they hope she wins. They spend it because a split vote is Alme’s best path to the Senate.
Make no mistake about what a split vote buys. Alme served as U.S. attorney in both Trump administrations, and Trump, Daines and Gov. Greg Gianforte lined up behind him from the start. SBA Pro-Life America, the extremist national group driving abortion restrictions and wants a national
abortion ban against the wishes of Montana voters, calls him “a true pro-life champion.” Kurt Alme has been given every opportunity to distance himself from President Trump’s war in Iran or the tariffs crippling the economy. Instead, he’d doubled down and made those priorities his own, all while Montana farmers and ranchers suffer. He says he’ll protect public lands, but his campaign website is silent on the issue so important to Montana.
Montanans know a hand-picked yes-man when we see one.
Now to the issue that has defined my career. In 2024, Montanans voted to write the right to abortion into our state constitution. But only the U.S Senate can stop a national ban. When Planned Parenthood Action Fund asked candidates to go on the record, Bodnar did, and earned its endorsement. Bankhead’s campaign said it “chose not to pursue” that endorsement. In a year when the Senate majority could turn on a seat like this one, “chose not to” isn’t good enough for the women of Montana.
Working Montanans have made their choice, too. The Montana AFL-CIO, the Montana Federation of Public Employees, Teamsters Local 2 and SEIU 775 have all endorsed Bodnar. Erin Foley, a Butte native who leads the AFL-CIO, put it plainly: “Working people over party. Period.” Bodnar sat down with union members, answered hard questions and stayed in the process from start to finish. That’s what I want from my senator.
He’s the son of two public school teachers, and a father of three sixth-generation Montanans. He graduated first in his class at West Point, served as a Green Beret in Iraq and led the University of Montana to top-tier research status. He doesn’t owe his candidacy to either party’s leadership, and Jon Tester, who knows a thing or two about winning in this state, is behind him.
I respect Alani Bankhead’s service to our country in the Air Force, and I respect anyone willing to put their name on a ballot. But respecting a candidate is not the same as voting for a spoiler. Montana voters should choose, and the choice is clear. If you believe in reproductive freedom, in the dignity of work and in a senator who answers to Montana, vote for Seth Bodnar.
Stephanie Schriock, a proud Butte High Bulldog, was president of EMILY’s List from 2010 to 2021. She writes in a personal capacity.