Republican Kurt Alme and Democrat Alani Bankhead scored decisive primary wins Tuesday to advance to Montana’s U.S. Senate race in November.
Alme, a former Montana U.S. District attorney twice appointed by President Donald Trump, was declared the winner of the Republican primary less than an hour after polls closed at 8 p.m. He captured 77% of the early vote and maintained the margin over lesser-known candidates Lee Calhoun, of Whitefish, who had 14% of the vote, and Charles Walking Child, of Helena, who had 9%.
Alme is the chosen would-be successor of U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, who withdrew from the race minutes before the candidate filing deadline on March 4. Daines then endorsed Alme, who also acquired the incumbent’s campaign staff.
The Associated Press called the Democratic race for Bankhead shortly before 10 p.m. The retired Air Force special agent established a 44% share of the vote early and maintained it over second-place finisher Reilly Neill, who finished with 33% of the vote.
Bankhead entered the month-long absentee voting period with less than $10,000 to spend, but benefited from a newly formed political committee, unaffiliated with her campaign, that spent $3.2 million on advertising and live phone calls to voters to elevate her profile. The ad blitz played out as another independent PAC, More Jobs, Less Government, spent $1.8 million characterizing Neill as the true liberal in the race and Bankead as a Trump-friendly Democrat eager to work with the president on immigration enforcement.
Two years earlier, More Jobs spent $22 million advocating for the election of Republican U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy.
Democrats Michael Black Wolf, with 12% of the vote, Christopher Kehoe, with 7%, and Michael Hummert, with 4%, split the remainder.
The Democrats were underfunded and, according to polling, unfamiliar to most voters when voting started May 4. Neill had raised $294,000, including an $88,000 personal loan, and the rest of the field had $65,000 combined.
Alme and Bankhead will likely share the November ballot with independent Seth Bodnar, the former University of Montana president who resigned from his job earlier this year to launch a petition-drive to qualify for the ballot.
Bodnar recently submitted to elections officials more than double the signatures required to qualify for the ballot. Those signatures must be certified by Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen, who will take up the matter later this summer for Bodnar and a handful of other independent candidates.
