Let's Talk About Alani Bankhead

      In any election cycle, including this one, Montana never gets mentioned with the states that are legitimately in play. In 2026, Democrats speak hopefully about North Carolina, Maine, Texas and other purple or red states that could realistically flip to Democrats. But Montana for years has been a solidly red state. Just recently, Jon Tester, a Blue Dog Democrat, lost his Senate seat.

     But for some reason, no one is talking about this year's Senate race to replace retiring Montana Senator Steve Daines. I'm not getting any indication that Bankhead's landed on the DSCC's radar or is getting any help from them at all. In fact, the one biggest weakness in her campaign is her accepting $4,000,000 in PAC money despite railing against PACS since her campaign began in January.

      But setting that aside, Bankhead has solid credentials. She's third generation military and is a retired Lt. Colonel who'd spent part of her career as a counterintelligence agent, federal law enforcement officer and as a bodyguard. She's no AOC. She has strong beliefs that people coming across the southern border have to do so legally. But she also decried the Trump administration's incalculably cruel policies and actions against migrants and even American citizens. She understands that there are serious problem in our for-profit health care system.

     She won her Democratic primary on June 2nd against a field of four other Democrats and only got serious competition from Reilly Neill, a former Montana state rep and publishing executive. That placed her in a head-to-head matchup against Kurt Alme.

     Alme got Trump's endorsement immediately after filing to run for the Senate with eight minutes to spare. He has Republican endorsements stacked to the ceiling. He also has solid credentials and, unlike virtually all of Trump's other endorsed candidates, has avoided scandal and fiery polemics his entire career. He's not only a former US Attorney with a proven track record prosecuting drug traffickers and has been a fixture in Montana politics for decades.

     In other words, a solid Republican who seems to have a "passion for service."

     He also got about 4000 fewer votes in his primary than Bankhead got in hers. 

 

      That same night, this was the result of the GOP primary..

 

     Again, it's always a slippery slope trying to predict general election outcomes by primary results. Everyone knows primary voter turnout tends to be significantly lower than that of general elections. And, let's face it, even in a state with a population of just over 1.1 million, 32,000 primary votes is nothing to brag about.

     But the number don't lie and if the DSCC was smart, they'd be putting some oomph behind her campaign because Democrats are going to need to pick up every state they can in these Senate races.