Helena, Mont. — Alani Bankhead, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Montana, conceded the race in a statement today and congratulated Senator-elect Kurt Alme.
“I want to congratulate Kurt Alme on his victory and thank everyone who supported our campaign,” Bankhead said. “It has been an honor to meet Montanans across this state and fight for the issues that matter to them. I’m grateful to everyone who gave their time, energy, and support to this campaign.”
“I have never seen people work harder for something they believed in,” Bankhead said of her staff and volunteers. “You knocked doors in every kind of weather. You drove hundreds of miles for a single event. You built this campaign from almost nothing, and you did it with heart.”
“To every person who gave five dollars, ten dollars, twenty-five dollars: you ran a campaign that owed nothing to corporate PACs, super PACs, or out-of-state money. You proved it can be done,” she said.
“Thank you for welcoming us, for trusting us, and for making sure Indian Country had a real voice in this race,” she said to Montana’s tribal nations. “That partnership doesn’t end with this election.”
Bankhead said she still backs the reforms she ran on, including rules that keep anyone in power from blacklisting a candidate by threatening their vendors, donors, or endorsers, and a requirement that every public poll disclose who paid for it. “I believed in those reforms before a single ballot was counted, and the final count hasn’t changed my mind about any of them.”
This cycle, prominent Democrats backed independent U.S. Senate candidates instead of a Democratic nominee in four states: Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Idaho. All four independents lost on Tuesday.
“The people are smarter than that,” Bankhead said. “We ran on the belief that the Democratic Party is worth rebuilding, not abandoning. We don’t fix the party by denouncing the party, or running from it. We fix the party by listening to the people and doing the work to give those people a voice and a place in the party. As for me, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be right here, doing the work to elevate those voices and bring them into the party.”
Her message to Alme: “You now represent every one of us, and we expect you to do the job. Show up, here at home and in Washington. Take the hard votes. Answer the hard questions on the record, including from the people who didn’t vote for you. … Answer to the people of Montana, not to your donors. When you do right by working families, we’ll say so. When you don’t, you’ll hear from us, every single time.”
The campaign website will soon post resources for supporters who want to get involved in their county party or run for local office.
“Thank you, Montana,” Bankhead said. “It has been a privilege.”
About Alani Bankhead
Alani Bankhead is a 21-year U.S. Air Force veteran and retired lieutenant colonel who ran as the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Montana.
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