Bodnar expected to join candidates seeking U.S. Senate seat
Micah Drew
(Daily Montanan) News that University of Montana President Seth Bodnar might try to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Steve Daines has roiled politicos in the Treasure State but insiders are at odds over how the military veteran and former GE vice-president’s potential independent candidacy could influence the race.
Although Bodnar has not announced his intentions himself, multiple people have confirmed to the Daily Montanan that he has been considering a run for the Senate seat and is likely to make a decision soon.
While Bodnar is widely believed to be considering running as an independent, some Democrats believe a better chance of unseating Daines would run through party infrastructure.
Bodnar himself has not declared a party affiliation and has been largely apolitical while at UM. He did not respond to an email from the Daily Montanan.
The last Democrat to hold statewide office, former U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, allegedly expressed support in a text for an independent Bodnar campaign while beating down on the Democratic Party, calling it “poison” during his own re-election attempts, according to a report from Lee Enterprises.
Tester did not respond to calls from the Daily Montanan, but Thursday on his podcast, “Grounded,” he said Lee’s headline incorrectly painted him as unsupportive of Democrats.
On the national scene political analysts are expecting a blue wave during the midterms as voters swing away from the incumbent Republican Party, which holds a governing trifecta in D.C.. But Democratic candidates in Montana are not very well known.
Bodnar, on the other hand, is already a familiar name in Montana to both political players and the public.
He was floated as a potential candidate against Daines during the 2020 election, according to one state political operative, before former Gov. Steve Bullock was recruited into the race.
The Rhodes Scholar and Truman Scholar at the University of Oxford also has a resume that matches many Montana politicians.
He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. In the military, Bodnar served as a Green Beret in the Army First Special Forces Group and when he moved to Montana he joined the state’s National Guard. His military service puts him in line with other recently elected Montanans, including Navy Seals Ryan Zinke in the western house district, and Tim Sheehy, who unseated Tester, the last Democratic official to win the state’s other senate seat in 2024.
Daines is the only Montanan in Congress without a military record.
Bodnar worked for General Electric as a senior executive, and in 2018, was tapped as president of the University of Montana, where he has been ever since.
A spokesperson for UM would not provide any comment about the speculation of a candidacy, other than confirming that no decisions had been made by the university president.
But independent candidates are a longshot in any political race, much less a U.S. Senate race with a hugely advantaged two-term incumbent.
Daines, now the state’s senior senator, chaired the powerful National Republican Senatorial Committee, the campaign organization for Senate Republicans, last election cycle, achieving a major goal of unseating Tester, and in doing so, eliminating Democrats from all state-wide offices.
In his 2020 re-election race, Daines came away with a 10-point victory in a race that had been seen as more competitive, due to the recruitment of popular two-term former Gov. Bullock as the Democratic nominee.
Despite Daines’ inherent advantages, and perhaps buoyed by a national narrative that voters will swing left during the midterm, multiple Democrats have jumped into the race to challenge him.
Reilly Neill, a former legislator from Livingston, has been the primary figure in the race since she announced in late 2024. Neill briefly ran in the Democratic primary for the 2020 governor’s race, and mounted a write-in campaign for the state’s eastern House district in 2024 after Democratic nominee John Driscoll ran a low-budget campaign.
Neill said she isn’t concerned about the possibility of Bodnar’s third-party run, calling him a “corporate shill" and saying she wants to know who is backing his run — including her suspicion that money might be flowing from powerful Republicans seeking to split the votes against Daines.
The Cook Political Report ranks the Montana seat as “Solid Republican.”
Neill also said that the alleged message from Tester, which disparaged her chances of beating Daines, was “not a good look” for the former Senator.
“Honestly, he can say whatever he likes about me,” Neill told the Daily Montanan. “I’m interested in the people of Montana, I’m on the ground, out there every day, meeting people face to face.”
“We’re having a good Democratic primary for the Senate, and Daines is on the run,” she added.
Alani Bankhead, of Helena, announced her candidacy for the seat in a video last week, touting her background with the Air Force, as a bodyguard to a “top Pentagon leader,” and her work on a task force combating internet crimes against children.
The Federal Election Commission also shows Michael Hummert, a self-described “realist liberal Democrat,” and Michael Black Wolf, a preservation officer and community leader from the Fort Belknap Indian Community, have both filed to run as Democrats, while perennial candidate Charles Walking Child has filed as a Republican.
Other candidates could not be reached for comment about the likelihood of a high-profile challenge from the UM president in time for this story.
Shannon O’Brien, the Democratic Party chair, said that the party’s role during the primary is to be unbiased and support all Democratic candidates, and that it is always recruiting and encouraging individuals to run for office.
“We believe there is a blue wave that is happening right now,” O’Brien said. “Daines is vulnerable. Zinke is vulnerable. All of the Republicans are vulnerable right now. People are not happy with what’s happening in D.C.”
She answered questions about whether the party would consider supporting a third party bid by emphasizing her role in getting Democrats in office. But she also pointed to a value that unites the party.
“We’ve got a job to do to get Republicans interested in tax breaks for the wealthiest out of office. That’s our job, as a party, and it’s my job to keep us laser-focused on that.”
At least in theory, a political party can also serve as a vehicle for a structured campaign. Some in the state Democratic Party have thrown additional doubt on the efficacy of Bodnar’s potential run as a third-party candidate without the cohesion of a party’s statewide campaign machine. Candidates at the top of the ticket — congressional seats for the 2026 election — can bolster or suppress support down the ballot, and convening multiple candidates for events is easy if they’re under the same party umbrella.
But a financially-backed independent candidate could peel off voters from either party. As president of one of Montana’s flagship institutions, Bodnar would not be a new face to at least some voters, having traveled the state to boost enrollment and respond to calls to help UM form a deeper connection to communities in eastern Montana.
Tester’s text message, which cast doubts on the state party’s ability to continue winning in Montana, seemed to hold up an independent run as the way forward, but on his podcast, Grounded, Tester said that reporting on the subject had mischaracterized his views and support of the Democratic Party.
“I spent the last 25 years, quite frankly, working to make sure that the Democratic Party can win, and that not only goes from Montana, but around the country,” Tester told his cohost Maritsa Georgiou.
Tester, held up as the last remnant of Montana’s former hybrid-purple political scene, has clashed with the state party since he left office..
O’Brien said she’d seen Tester’s text, but said there was likely some missing context, and her job remains to “get Democrats elected at all levels.”
“I’m proud to be a Democrat and serve as chair of our party,” O’Brien told the Daily Montanan.
Reporter Keila Szpaller contributed to this story.