Montana’s sleepy Senate race is heating up as Republicans take aim at a potential independent candidate who hasn’t even launched a campaign yet.
A new site, “BOTH WAYS BODNAR,” launched — and Republicans are texting the microsite to voters and launching a statewide ad campaign. One Montana political veteran told the Washington Reporter that the site “is getting texted to every R voter in MT.” The newly-launched website, paid for by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), relies on the Reporter’s latest coverage of the race.
Seth Bodnar, the now-former president of the University of Montana, is likely to run for Senate against Sen. Steve Daines (R., Mont.) as an independent. The Reporter previously covered how Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and ousted Sen. Jon Tester (D., Mont.) are closely involved in Bodnar’s efforts. Bodnar’s extensive ties to Democrats would likely still sink his bid in the conservative state.
“Chuck Schumer and Jon Tester know a Democrat can’t win in Montana, so they recruited a fake independent to carry their torch. Montanans deserve to know the truth about Seth Bodnar’s radical agenda,” NRSC Regional Press Secretary Samantha Cantrell told the Reporter.
While Bodnar has not formally launched a statewide bid, Montana Republicans are already criticizing his “record of broken promises during his tenure as president of the University of Montana.”
Leadership in Action, a super PAC tied to Montana’s GOP Attorney General Austin Knudsen, has an ad that criticizes Bodnar’s alignment with East Coast academic elites, steep tuition increases, and policies on women’s sports that the ad claims are out of step with Montana voters.
“An East Coast academic elitist who loaded up on woke liberal professors, hit Montana students with 30 percent tuition hikes, and allowed men to compete in women’s sports is not what Montana voters are looking for in a United States Senator,” Jake Eaton said following the ad campaign’s launch. “We are not going to stand idly by while Bodnar and his left-coast allies try to scam Montana voters. He will be held accountable for his record.”
Leadership in Action’s ad criticizes Bodnar for hiking in-state tuition at the University of Montana and for “allow[ing] a biological male to compete against women” in women’s sports.