Montana’s 2026 congressional races have drawn a collective 681 PAC contributions, but there’s another story behind the top-line totals. It’s the power position and access to quick cash afforded to candidates — at least some of them — by donations from leadership funds and national party committees.
A Montana Free Press review of contributions to federal candidates shows $1,776,969 on their collective ledgers, with PAC contributions to Senate frontrunner Kurt Alme and incumbent Eastern House District Rep. Troy Downing accounting for nearly 76% of the total.
Finance, accounting and insurance make up the most identifiable business bloc supporting Downing, the only federal incumbent in the 2026 general election.
Alme is Montana’s biggest recipient of donations from leadership PACs and political party committees, which aggregate dollars from Washington, D.C.-based political networks and direct the support to targeted races. Western District House candidate Aaron Flint, a Republican running for the seat currently occupied by Rep. Ryan Zinke, is second.
Leadership PAC and party committee donations signal who holds institutional power in an election, with national political networks strategically raising money and investing to shape influence in Congress from the top down. These national networks, staffed by some of the best fundraising talent in the country, can raise money quickly.
“The party at the national level has access to all the resources to make these things happen. They have the people. They know who the people to hire are. And they have all the resources available to do something like this quickly,” said Brendan Glavin, director of insights at Open Secrets, a nonpartisan campaign watchdog.
Montana’s Republican candidates hold a $516,200-to-$40,000 advantage in funding from party committees and leadership PACs over the independent, Democratic and Libertarian candidates running for Montana’s federal offices in 2026.
Independent Seth Bodnar has $40,000 from leadership PACs, including Treasure State PAC, the leadership fund of former U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, and $10,000 from Narragansett Bay PAC, the leadership fund of Democratic Rhode Island Sen. John F. Reed.
Democrat Alani Bankhead has no reported funding tied to leadership PACs or party committees. Neither does Brian Miller, the Democratic candidate in Montana’s Eastern House District.
Leadership PACs controlled by federal officeholders including U.S. Sens. Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy and Western District Rep. Ryan Zinke are heavily represented across Montana’s Republican campaigns. Both Daines and Zinke committed funding to their preferred successors — Alme in the Senate and Flint in the House — when they decided in March not to seek reelection.
Leadership PAC donations to Alme total roughly $292,000 — no small amount given that donations from individual PACs are capped at $5,000 per election — and include a contribution from Working for Ohio, the leadership PAC of Vice President J.D. Vance. Flint’s leadership PAC donations are roughly $147,500 from donors including the Eye of the Tiger PAC created by Louisiana representative and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise.
The largest single party committee donor in Montana’s U.S. Senate race is the National Republican Senatorial Committee. The campaign arm of Senate Republicans has donated $62,000 to Alme, and can direct large amounts of money to Senate campaigns as needed. Daines chaired the NRSC in 2024. The current chair is Sen. Tim Scott, R-South Carolina
That kind of party power isn’t being invested in Montana Democratic candidates for Senate or the state’s Eastern U.S. House District this cycle, as national party committees sit those races out. The exception is Sam Forstag, the Democrat running against Flint in the Western U.S. House District.
Forstag’s campaign organization includes five joint fundraising committees, which are capable of moving money quickly into the campaigns when necessary. One of those committees, the Democratic Bench Fund, is tied to The Bench, a left-leaning committee distributing donations to a farm team of up and up-and-coming candidates.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the official campaign committee for electing Democrats to the U.S. House, has put Forstag on its Red to Blue program, meaning it provides direct fundraising support, strategic guidance, staff and candidate training.
Labor unions are heavily represented among Forstag’s PAC donations. In 2025, Forstag was elected vice president of the local National Federation of Federal Employees chapter representing Forest Service employees.
Several donating PACs represent industries of note. American Mission PAC, funded by Lonsdale Enterprises and tied to the artificial intelligence and defense tech ecosystem, is a donor to Flint. Space Exploration Technologies Corp., the owner of Space X AI and the Grok language model featured on X, is an Alme donor.
Other top donors to Montana candidates include Fight on PAC, a leadership PAC connected to Iowa Rep. Ashley Hinson; the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association PAC; and Fair Isaac Corporation PAC, which belongs to a credit score and analytics company.
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