Bankhead, Bodnar remain on the Senate ballot, setting up a three-way race

MTPR is sponsored by Mountain Roofing, a family-owned company offering wind damage inspections and roofing installations throughout southwestern Montana. More info at mountain-roofing.com. The day is starting to heat up in East Helena. A small crowd is gathering in Main Street Park. It's August 10th, the last chance for Montana candidates to change their minds before ballots are finalized. Five hours before the deadline, voters gathered to see Democratic candidate for Senate Alani Bankhead announced one more time that she has no intention of dropping out. There has been a lot of noise about this race. So let me cut through it, plain and simple. I am in this race to win it and I am staying through November 3rd. Yay! Bankhead won her party's primary, but both voters and some prominent Democrats have been pressuring her to quit and make room for a prominent independent candidate, Seth Bodner, who has already raised more money than her and Republican Kurt Almaty combined. The day before the deadline, Bankhead said on social media that she's being harassed to drop out and fears for her family safety. She said her family is taking personal and legal actions to protect against threats. On Tuesday, Emily Marburger, the executive director of the Montana Democratic Party, pinned the attack on the independent candidate Seth Bodner, though she didn't name him explicitly. It seems that the independent candidate had no plan other than to get on the ballot and then enlist bullies to go after the Democratic nominee with intimidation tactics that threatened her safety and her family safety. Jim and Terry Gunderson have lived in Townsend for 27 years. Both voted for Bankhead in the primary. But after a campaign event in town last week where voters asked her to back out, neither was sure they'd stick with the Democrat in November. It was an eye-opening. We just want to see Allme be defeated. And whatever that takes might be the way it has to go. If Republican incumbent Steve Daines was running, there'd be less hope from opposition. But he's retiring, and the field is clear. Washington's reckless spending has left us with inflation and enormous debt. It's time to fix the broken system. That's Kurt Olme in a political ad. He left his job as U.S. attorney for Montana to be the Republican candidate. He's never held elected office, but jumped into the race at Danes' behest at the 11th hour. Almese lack of name recognition and President Trump's plunging poll numbers are reason independent candidate Seth Bodner thinks he can win. He says Montanans don't like either party and are hungry for a new choice. This battle in Montana today is not between Republicans and Democrats. It's between the extreme and the rest of us. On the day of the deadline, Bodner said he respected Bankhead's decision to stay in.

but claimed she has, quote, no clear path to the resources it takes to compete statewide. Since no one dropped out, Republican Ulmi is almost guaranteed victory, says Cal Munis, a political science professor at Montana State University. You know, even if she were to only garner 10% of the vote in the state, that would just be disaster for Bodner's hopes of... potentially being able to flip control of the seat. Almie hasn't commented on the other candidate's choices to stay in the race. In Helena, I'm Jay Clayton Murphy.