Montana Democrats, it's time for a hard truth | Bryce Bennett

We cannot be sentimental about it. We can't choose candidates based on past friendships or long-standing alliances. We need to choose based on one criterion — who will deny a MAGA candidate like Kurt Alme a seat in Congress.

If we took a sober assessment of this race, we would arrive at a clear conclusion: there are two people who have the ability to win — Kurt Alme and Seth Bodnar. Everything else is wishful thinking.

I don't know Alani Bankhead personally, but I am concerned she has been sharing Republican polling, attacking the Montana Democratic Party, and hasn't shown focus on defeating Alme. If she sincerely wants to stop the MAGA majority in the U.S. Senate, the selfless and strategically sound thing to do is step aside. She simply does not have the money or the infrastructure to win. Staying in the race will only make it easier for Alme, giving the national GOP more resources to pour into the western congressional district and other tight races around the country.

The money tells the story

Politics is about persuasion, and persuasion costs money. The fundraising numbers in this race are not ambiguous.

Seth Bodnar has raised $2.1 million and has nearly a million dollars in cash on hand — after mounting an impressive statewide signature-gathering effort. He has demonstrated the ability to build a coalition and sustain a campaign. He's the son of public school educators and believes the wealthy and corporations need to pay their fair share to fund public education and healthcare. He's pro-choice and will protect women's right to make their own healthcare decisions.

Kurt Alme, handpicked by Steve Daines in a secret deal minutes before the filing deadline, has raised $1.2 million with nearly as much cash on hand, in part because he faced no real primary challenge.

Alani Bankhead has raised $24,000 total. That is not a typo. Twenty-four thousand dollars — just 1.1% of what Bodnar has raised. Her remaining funds are less than what many state legislature candidates have heading into fall. No serious statewide Senate campaign can be run on those resources. It simply cannot be done.

No cavalry is coming

Some will hold out hope that national money will ride in and save the day. It won't. The Montana Democratic Party doesn't have the resources to paper over a fundraising gap this catastrophic. The DSCC won't deploy resources here either — not because they don't care about Montana, but because early fundraising is the single most reliable signal donors and party committees use to assess viability. When a candidate hasn't demonstrated the ability to raise money at scale, attention and dollars flow to races where the investment has a realistic return. That's not cynicism. That's how campaigns work.

What this is really about

Seth Bodnar is a candidate who shares our values, has built a real operation, and can make this race competitive. Endorsing him isn't a betrayal of the nominating process — it's a recognition that the stakes are too high to let procedural loyalty become an excuse for losing.

I am endorsing Seth Bodnar as a proud Democrat. None of what we're fighting for happens if we split the anti-Alme vote or run a candidate who can't fund a field operation.

Montana Democrats deserve a real choice this November. Let's make sure they get one.