Helena, Mont. (Oct. 18, 2026) · The Alani Bankhead for U.S. Senate campaign today laid out the facts of its contract with Sole Strategies LLC, the firm it hired to run a door-to-door canvass in Billings in September.
This would normally be a private administrative matter. Sole Strategies signed a nondisclosure agreement with the campaign that covers non-public campaign business and makes Sole “responsible for” its personnel’s compliance. Only Sole and the campaign knew the details of this contract dispute. They have now been made public by a member of Sole’s canvass crew, in breach of that agreement, so the campaign is setting the record straight.
The Billings Gazette published a letter to the editor repeating these claims without verifying the facts with the campaign. We’re sharing the facts so that other outlets can verify any similar letters against the record before they run.
The facts
Sole was paid in full, before a single door was knocked. The campaign paid the contract’s entire $17,500 on Sept. 1, two weeks before the program began. The contract called for “50 shifts of field operations to knock 5,000 doors,” from Sept. 15 to Oct. 1, 2026.
The contract makes Sole responsible for paying its canvassers. In Sole’s own words, the price “covers the entire operation of the ground game including but not limited to: Canvasser pay; Captain and National Field Director pay; Payroll and HR; Our GPS Field Tracking System; Recruitment staff; Insurance and state and federal taxes.” The contract also states: “All canvassers and internal Sole Strategies staff are not employees of the campaign, they are contractors employed by Sole Strategies.”
Sole fell short, and the campaign told them so in writing along the way. On Sept. 13 the campaign asked Sole not to finalize its door script until the campaign’s questions were in. The first 1,194 doors went out without them. On Sept. 23, Sole’s own field director wrote that the crew needed “approximately 476 doors per day to complete the contracted goal by October 1.” By Oct. 1, the campaign’s voter-file records show Sole’s crew had knocked 4,281 of the 5,000 doors contracted.
The crew was pushed hard at the end. Sole’s canvassers averaged about 215 doors a day over the first two weeks. In the final four days they averaged more than 530 a day.
Sole won’t show its timesheets. The contract says “Sole Strategies is happy to provide timesheets upon request.” The campaign asked for them in writing twice. Sole refused, and has said it will no longer communicate with the campaign. So the campaign has no way to see the hours its canvassers worked or what they were paid.
“Sole’s canvassers in Billings were Montanans, and from everything we saw, they worked hard. It looks like Sole leaned on them to make up the gap in the last days of the program,” said Jeri Bucy, the campaign’s Director of Strategic Communications. “We paid Sole for that work, in full, before it started. Paying the crew was Sole’s job. If any canvasser wasn’t paid in full by Sole, we’re asking them to reach out to the campaign directly at press@alanibankheadforsenate.com, so we can work to make it right by them.”
Alani Bankhead is the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate from Montana. Ballots are in the mail; Election Day is Nov. 3.
###