r/MontanaPolitics • u/UpAlongBelowNow Montana • May 01 '26

Election 2026 Democrats in Peril, From Barcelona to Boise

https://alivetampabay.com/culture/democrats-in-peril-from-barcelona-to-boise/

The Montana part of the story: “Efforts by national Democrats to field independents in other states aren’t faring well. In Montana, Democratic donors are backing the independent candidacy of former University of Montana president Seth Bodnar, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer hasn’t publicly pushed back. According to reporting by Michael Scherer of The Atlantic, that has created a fiasco. Grassroots Democrats are up in arms, determined to run a real Democrat. That could divide the anti-Trump vote. Similarly, Idaho and South Dakota Democrats seem intent on fielding their own candidates while out-of-state big-wigs support left-leaning independents.”

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12

u/phdoofus May 01 '26

The Democrats are going to need someone inspirational at this point because 'anti-Trump' isn't the way to go with this. Unfortunately, not seeing a lot of inspirational. Seeing a lot of 'well it's my turn now-ism'

11

u/Turkino Montana May 01 '26

And that hasn't really worked the past 2 times a democrat ran against Trump.
Oddly enough, both times were women candidates too so there is the whole gender thing in play there as well, but aside from a "first ____" tag, there wasn't anything super exciting about either candidate other than "Not Trump".
As unlikely as him winning may be, at least Bernie when he ran in the primary got people excited.

8

u/phdoofus May 01 '26

Yeah, misogyny is a thing. We're not a smart people.

2

u/Spacepirateroberts May 01 '26

Its too late to choose someone insperational for 2026 elections, filling deadlines are over so we have Rilley. Seeing her speak a few times and I didn't feel particularly inspired. Haven't seen Bodner speak yet so TBD.

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u/phdoofus May 01 '26

Not disagreeing but I think it highlights the problem that no one who might fill that role wants to run because they see the dysfunction. Then this just highlights the national level problem where the D's seem to have simply given up on having a 50 state strategy where every state is considered important. You can't just pay attention to a state when it's possible to flip a seat. You have to lay the groundwork for flipping a seat. Exactly like 'regime change'.

2

u/Spacepirateroberts May 01 '26

I 100% agree with this, there's no pipeline of folks gaining experience and name recognition its just random person who has been around awhile. But that takes large amounts of people being interested, money, structure etc which it dosent feel like the state has outside of the election time frame.

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u/Rocky_Missoula May 01 '26

Call up NWE and ask for justification of their latest rate increase in audio form, and the effect is comparable to hearing Bodnar speak.

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u/ResidingHereNow8256 May 01 '26

We don’t have to have Reilly. There are several democrats on the ballot. MTPR has been doing interviews with each candidate if you are interested.

1

u/Spacepirateroberts May 01 '26

I mean I have seen zero coverage of the other candidates and looking at their fundraising its pretty abysmal for trying to reach across MT and fight off both R and I candidates.

Alani Bankhead (D) $15,240 $5,775 $10,625 Michael Black Wolf (D) $26,144 $25,616 $528 Michael Hummert (D) $10,900 $3,125 $8,519 Reilly Neill (D) $277,088 $173,150 $103,938

(Source) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_United_States_Senate_election_in_Montana

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u/ResidingHereNow8256 May 01 '26

As I mentioned above there is coverage of candidates by MTPR:

https://www.mtpr.org/tags/candidate-q-a

If you want to decide based on money that a choice you can make.

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u/Rocky_Missoula May 01 '26

For illumination read the campaign guidebook of the Seth Bodnar backers:

“How to Visit the Western Territories, Choose Tribal Chiefs, and Make Treaties” - by the Office of Indian Affairs Staff, Washington, DC, 1865.