Bodnar announces independent campaign for U.S. Senate
Micah Drew
(Daily Montanan) On the final day of candidate filing in Montana, former University of Montana President Seth Bodnar filed to run as an independent in the U.S. Senate race to unseat Steve Daines.
“For too long, Montanans have watched as the American Dream has been held hostage by a broken political system that allows Washington politicians to divide us and line their own pockets while families across our state face higher costs and fewer opportunities,” Bodnar said in an early morning press release on Wednesday. “I’m running for Senate as an Independent because Montanans deserve a leader who bridges divides with commonsense solutions, stands up to political elites in Washington, and answers only to Montana, not national party bosses or D.C. insiders.”
Bodnar had been rumored to be mulling a run for Senate for weeks after a text message attributed to former Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester expressed support for an independent Bodnar campaign.
News of the possible candidacy from the head of the Missoula flagship roiled political insiders, who debated whether an independent in a red state or a party-backed Democrat would be better equipped to face Daines — a popular incumbent who is well connected within the national Republican Party.
Bodnar resigned as president of the University of Montana in mid-January, a post he has held since 2018, overseeing a stabilization of enrollment after years of decline and racking up a list of other successes such as record gains in research expenditures.
A former U.S. Army Special Forces Green Beret, Bodnar spent time as an executive at General Electric before his stint in Missoula.
In a video announcement, Bodnar anchors his candidacy in his military service and emphasizes his outsider, independent status.
“The national debt continues to skyrocket, tariffs are taxes that are crushing our ag producers and small businesses, and the soaring costs of housing, healthcare, and child care are squeezing Montana families,” Bodnar said. “Meanwhile, the national parties are more focused on fighting with each other and trading power back and forth than on working together to solve the problems facing our state.”
Third parties are not historically successful pathways to public office. No third-party candidate has won a major office in Montana, and while there are some independent members of Congress, most were elected as members of the two-party system and later switched to an independent moniker.
Montana’s senate race is already a crowded field, with four Democrats — Reilly Neill, Alani Bankhead, Michael Black Wolf, and Michael Hummert — and Libertarian Kyle Austin having filed as of Tuesday evening.
While Bodnar’s announcement wasn’t unanticipated, his team had remained quiet after he resigned from UM until the final week of filing.
Rob Saldin of the University of Montana’s Mansfield Center and Political Science Department told the Daily Montanan that an independent candidate with a Democratic candidate will split the non-Daines vote.
“It’s an enormous challenge even if that opposition was united,” Saldin said. “I don’t see how an independent candidate makes any sense, unless the Democrats stand down and support either directly or indirectly that candidate.”
A recent poll released by Republican-leaning firm American Pulse Research & Polling showed Daines exceeding 50% among likely voters in head-to-head matchups with Bodnar and a Democrat, Reilly Neill, more than nine points up in each race. In a three-way race, Daines received 51.7% of support, with Neill coming in second at 25%, and an independent Bodnar receiving nearly 16%.
Daines has been in office since 2014, and he won his 2020 re-election race against former popular two-term Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock by 10 points.