Why Alani
This isn’t an out-of-context smear. It’s the full record of all four candidates for U.S. Senate, side by side, so you can judge for yourself.
Every line names its source. Money figures carry an “as of” date. Candidates appear in the same order throughout: Kurt Alme (Republican), Alani Bankhead (Democrat), Seth Bodnar (independent), Kyle Austin (Libertarian).
At a glance
| Kurt AlmeRepublican | Alani BankheadDemocrat | Seth BodnarIndependent | Kyle AustinLibertarian | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roots | Born 1966 in Great Falls; raised in Miles City. Montana native. | Born 1982 at the Presidio Army base, where her father was stationed; raised around the world, moving every one to four years. Moved to Montana in January 2022, the first place she chose. | Born 1979 in Franklin, Pennsylvania; raised in Franklin. Moved to Montana in 2018 to become president of the University of Montana. | Born and raised on his grandfather’s farm near Havre. Fourth-generation Montanan. |
| Wikipedia · Montana Free Press 8/24/26 · alaniformt.com/truth · Daily Montanan 6/11/26 | ||||
| Education | B.S. Business, University of Colorado (1989, summa cum laude); J.D., Harvard Law School (1992). | B.A. Latin American Studies and Crime, Law, and Justice (double major), Penn State (2004); M.S. International Relations, Troy University (2012); Air Command and Staff College; Air War College (2025). | B.S. Economics, West Point (2001, first in his class); M.Sc. Economic and Social History and M.Sc. Comparative Social Policy, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar. | Doctor of Pharmacy, University of Montana (2008). |
| Alme’s Senate Judiciary questionnaire · /service · Wikipedia · Independent Record 2022 candidate survey · NBC Montana | ||||
| Military service | None. | U.S. Air Force, 2004 to 2025: active duty until 2016, then the Air Force Reserve. Retired as a lieutenant colonel. | U.S. Army, 2001 to present: active duty until 2011, then the Army Reserve; Montana Army National Guard since January 2019. Lieutenant colonel. | None. |
| her DD-214s · his DD-214, posted by his campaign 7/22/26 · KTVH and Flathead Beacon 1/11/2019 | ||||
| Top jobs before this race | U.S. Attorney for Montana (2017 to 2020 and 2025 to 2026, both Trump appointments); state Revenue director (2001 to 2003); Gov. Gianforte’s budget director (2020 to 2021); president of the Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch Foundation (2013 to 2017); executive at the National Christian Foundation (2022 to 2024). | Air Force OSI special agent (2008 to 2016 on active duty); security advisor to the Secretary of the Air Force (2013 to 2016); Latin America investigations director at International Justice Mission (2016 to 2017); special agent in the Hawaii Attorney General’s child-exploitation unit (2018 to 2021). | GE executive (2011 to 2017); president of the University of Montana (2018 to January 2026). | Pharmacist (2008 to present); owner of Pharm406 in Billings and Butte. |
| Senate Judiciary questionnaire · /service · Wikipedia · Daily Montanan 6/11/26 | ||||
| Elected office ever held | None. | None. | None. | None. |
| How they got on the ballot | Won the Republican primary with 76%. Sen. Daines withdrew minutes after Alme filed, eight minutes before the deadline. | Won the Democratic primary with 43.6%, ahead of the runner-up’s 33.0%. | By petition. Of about 30,000 signatures, he personally collected 16. His campaign paid petition firms $591,382, and counties rejected 8,680 signatures. Paying per signature is legal for candidates in Montana. | Won the Libertarian primary with 53.3% (1,819 to 1,592), over the party’s endorsed candidate. The party then called him a “phony candidate.” |
| Daily Montanan 3/4/26 · Sightline Institute 6/3/26 · Montana Secretary of State petition records · FEC C00941708 · Daily Montanan 6/11/26 | ||||
| Which party they’d caucus with | Republican. | Democrat. | “I will not caucus with either party.” | With both, “when necessary.” |
| Oct. 11 Montana Broadcasters Association debate | ||||
| Corporate PAC money to their campaign | $222,500 from 51 corporate PACs. | $0. | $0. | $0. |
| FEC filings, whole cycle, as of 9/30/26 | ||||
| Share of itemized donor dollars from Montana | 45.1% | 59.6% | 36.1% | 100% (one itemized donor, in Billings). He is mostly self-funded: $215,000 of his own money. |
| FEC filings, whole cycle, as of 9/30/26 | ||||
| Outside money spent to elect them | $3.26 million. | $3.24 million, all in the primary and none since July 1, spent by groups aligned with her opponents to steer the primary. She never asked for any of it. | $8.39 million. | $0. |
| FEC independent expenditures, whole cycle, deduplicated, as of 10/16/26 · see the full chain | ||||
The record
Leadership
A senator has no one under them who can pass a bill. The job is getting people with their own bosses, their own budgets and their own reasons to say no to move together. So the test isn’t how many people reported to them. It’s what they got done with people who didn’t.
Handed the job, every time
His top public jobs were all political appointments: state Revenue director under Gov. Martz, U.S. Attorney twice under President Trump, budget director under Gov. Gianforte. Even this nomination was arranged. Sen. Daines withdrew minutes after Alme filed, eight minutes before the deadline, and told Semafor he coordinated it.
Alme’s Senate Judiciary questionnaire · Daily Montanan 3/4/26 · Semafor, March 2026What he did with the authority
As U.S. Attorney he ran an office where the cases came to him. That record includes a plea deal with no sex-offender registration for a tribal officer indicted for abusing a child under 12, and the declined Indian Country cases, both detailed under Controversies below.
Sources listed under ControversiesCoalitions of people who didn’t work for her
In Hawaii she pulled more than seventeen federal, state, local and military agencies into Operation Keiki Shield and got the state to put its own money into the fight for the first time. Together they helped arrest more than 80 child sex abusers, with a conviction rate over 97%.
Hawaii ICAC on her service record · The prosecutor’s letter · TEDx, 11:42 · Justice & Coffee, 41:17Teams across agencies and borders
She led an FBI and Defense Department counterintelligence task force that caught spies, and on her final Air Force tour oversaw 60 investigators from seventeen law enforcement agencies: 120 arrests and a 96 percent conviction rate, per her medal citation.
Her 2024 medal citation · Press kit bioTrusted with the Secretary’s life
As senior bodyguard to the Secretary of the Air Force she led more than 200 agents on 700 protective missions to over 100 locations, including three combat zones, and led more than 180 agents across 48 locations in eight countries, working with international, federal and state agencies.
Her medal citation, signed by Secretary James · Her 2015 performance reportBills, budgets and lawmakers
She has worked budgets and legislation through in nearly every role she’s held, from Air Force acquisition budgets as chief of research, development and acquisition to Hawaii’s ICAC unit winning its first-ever state funding from the Legislature.
Research, development & acquisition on her service record · The prosecutor’s letter on state fundingTeaching the system to do better
She has trained law enforcement, prosecutors, judges and governments at the local, state, federal and international level on how to protect vulnerable people and write better laws to do it. Her medal citation credits her with training agents, prosecutors and analysts on one of the Defense Department’s largest operations against child sex abuse.
Her training work on her service record · Her medal citation · Penn State Outstanding Alumni Award, 2024Around the red tape
“In all my years of hunting pedophiles and traffickers, the biggest impediment we had was the government… I’ve been very successful. And I look forward to doing it again in DC.”
CNN, The Lead with Jake Tapper, 10/14/26Led by authority
For eight years he ran the University of Montana, where the people doing the work reported to him. Four months in, with that authority, his first big move was a plan to cut about 50 faculty positions, with the humanities hit hardest.
Chronicle of Higher Education, April 2018 · MTPR 4/17/18Organizing Montanans
To get on the ballot he needed about 30,000 signatures. He collected 16 himself, none in his own Missoula County, and his campaign paid three out-of-state petition firms $591,382.
Montana Secretary of State petition records · FEC C00941708His own business
He founded Pharm406, a Billings pharmacy company that began by staffing rural pharmacies and ran mobile COVID-19 clinics.
KULR-8, May 2021Coalitions built
We found no record of him leading a public agency or a coalition of organizations.
In the news
From their jobs and public records: what happened, what came of it, and the candidate’s answer.
The ranch case
A 10-year-old boy in the Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch’s care was sexually assaulted by other youths around 2013–14; he said staff didn’t believe him. In 2018 a jury found the Ranch liable for negligent supervision and misrepresentation ($300,000), 10 months after Alme left. Alme was president and general counsel of the Ranch’s Foundation, by his own description its “tort risk liability and damage mitigation” lawyer. There was no finding against him personally, and the Ranch denied wrongdoing.
NBC Montana (AP) and Billings Gazette, July 2018 · Alme’s Senate Judiciary questionnaireA plea deal in a child-abuse case
His office took a Fort Peck tribal officer indicted for abusive sexual contact with a child under 12 to a plea for felony child abuse, with time served (324 days) and no sex-offender registration (February 2020). His campaign says Democrats are “twisting the facts” and points to DOJ’s “most serious readily provable” policy.
U.S. Attorney’s Office release, Feb. 2020 · KULR8, KTVQ, NBC Montana · HuffPost 6/30/26Declined cases
DOJ data showed the Montana U.S. Attorney’s office declined 64% of Indian Country sexual-assault referrals over four fiscal years, a window that partly predates him; a declination can also mean a referral to tribal court. His answer: it “has to be worked on.”
Scripps News, “A Broken Trust” · DOJ Indian Country reportsOpen questions for him
After the Oct. 11 debate, former Montana Assistant Attorney General Roy Andes sent Alme an open letter with 13 questions, two of them following up on debate questions Alme didn’t answer. Closer to the Edge published its own list, “Questions for Kurt Alme.”
Roy Andes’s open letter · Closer to the Edge, “Questions for Kurt Alme”None. The attacks made on her, and the record that answers each one, are on the fact-check page and Rumors, answered.
Faculty cuts
Four months into his presidency (April 2018), UM proposed cutting about 50 faculty positions; the faculty union objected to the process.
Chronicle of Higher Education, April 2018 · Montana Kaimin 4/17/18A settlement during his presidency
In 2024 UM settled for $350,000 a suit by 18 women alleging a “good ol’ boys club” culture. The suit named him in its allegations as president; he wasn’t a defendant, and there was no admission of liability. His campaign says “no wrongdoing was ever found.”
Montana Kaimin, Jan. 2024 · Montana Free Press 6/19/26Divestment
Asked in 2018 whether he backed students’ 80% vote to divest from fossil fuels: “No, I cannot.” The UM Foundation never divested during his tenure.
Montana Kaimin 1/29/18Cameras on campus
UM ran a multi-year contract for more than 300 AI-capable Verkada cameras with no formal announcement; Verkada was breached in 2021 and later fined $2.95 million. Facial recognition was not active. It isn’t established that he signed the contract. In September his ad on surveillance cameras said, “nobody is holding them accountable. I will.”
Montana Kaimin 9/10/26 · Missoulian 7/7/26 · FTC and DOJ, 2024–25None.
This race
How each candidate got here, and what happened on the way.
How he got the nomination
Sen. Daines withdrew minutes after Alme filed, eight minutes before the deadline, leaving no time for another Republican. Alme said on the record that Daines waited “to try to discourage Jon Tester and Steve Bullock from entering the race.”
Voices of Montana 4/13/26 · Sightline Institute 6/3/26 · Flathead Beacon 10/16/26Her own party’s national committee walked away
According to the campaign, the DSCC’s Montana representative told Alani the week of the primary that the committee would not support her. After she won, DSCC executive director Devan Barber told Semafor the committee “partners with viable campaigns who have a path to victory, which Ms. Bankhead does not.” Through Aug. 31 the DSCC sent the Montana Democratic Party $0, against $1.4 to $2.8 million by that point in past Senate years.
Semafor 7/24/26 · FEC C00010033The petition
Of about 30,000 signatures that put him on the ballot, he personally collected 16, none in his own Missoula County. His campaign paid three out-of-state firms $591,382 for petitioning. The signature gathering is under criminal investigation in Cascade County (opened Aug. 28); no campaign is suspected of wrongdoing.
Montana Secretary of State petition records · FEC C00941708 · Cascade County Attorney, 8/28/26A Republican on the Libertarian line
He ran in the Republican primary for Montana’s U.S. House seat in 2022 and again for the eastern House district in 2024. At the AAUW Glendive forum on Sept. 10, 2026, running as the Libertarian nominee, he said: “I am a Republican.”
Montana Free Press 2022 election guide · Daily Montanan 6/11/26 · AAUW Glendive forum recording, 1:16:51Disowned by his own party
The Montana Libertarian Party called him a “phony candidate” who used its ballot line. He called the party “bitter” and says he’s a proud Libertarian.
Daily Montanan 6/11/26Endorsers and money
Who backs each candidate, the money behind them, and the records of the opponents’ endorsers.
Donald Trump; Sen. Steve Daines; Gov. Greg Gianforte
Gianforte pleaded guilty in 2017 to misdemeanor assault of a reporter and apologized.
MTPR 6/12/17Sen. Tim Sheehy
In 2024 the Washington Post reported that Sheehy told a park ranger in 2015 he accidentally shot himself in the arm, and later said that account was false and the bullet came from Afghanistan; he says no medical records exist.
NBC News, Nov. 2024More Jobs, Less Government (Daines-tied)
Gave Alme’s campaign $10,000; spent $1.96 million against Bodnar and $901,179 “for” Bankhead in the primary.
FEC C00693838American Mission
The Republican arm of the AI industry’s super PAC, Leading the Future: $496,826 for Alme.
FEC C00916692 · as of 10/1/2651 corporate PACs
$222,500 to his campaign, including SpaceX, PwC, Amgen, Koch Inc., Boeing, BlackRock, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan. About $852,000 in all PAC and party money.
FEC C00942060 · as of 9/30/26Montana Democratic Party; Executive Director Emily Marburger
The DSCC sent the state party $0 this year through Aug. 31, against $1.4 to $2.8 million by that point in past Senate years. Chair Shannon O’Brien resigned Oct. 12 and endorsed Bodnar.
FEC C00010033 · Bozeman Daily Chronicle 10/14/26NOW PAC; National Women’s Political Caucus; Democrats Abroad Veterans and Military Families Caucus; Courage for Democracy
Member-funded groups.
/endorsementsGov. Brian Schweitzer; Speaker John Driscoll; Mayor Wilmot Collins; Penny Ronning; Jonathan Jameson; Russell Rowland; Ed Smith
Montana leaders backing her campaign.
/endorsementsHer own donors
$0 from corporate PACs. Her only PAC gift: National Farmers Union PAC, $500. 59.6% of itemized dollars from Montana.
FEC C00937201 · as of 9/30/26Jon Tester
His PAC gave Bodnar $10,000. Named in 2025 to Anthropic’s National Security and Public Sector Advisory Council. Called the Democratic Party “poison” in a leaked 2026 text, and in October called the nominee “the Democrat who is really a Republican.”
FEC C00941708 · Anthropic 8/27/25 · Montana Free Press 1/14/26 · Washington Post 10/10/26Max Baucus
His PAC gave Bodnar $10,000. Paid director of AirJoule, a data-center water-tech company, until May 2026 ($177,230 in 2025).
FEC · SEC filingsSteve Bullock
Was named to Google Public Sector’s board in 2023.
Google Cloud, May 17, 2023Marc Racicot (R)
Was a registered lobbyist for Enron and others while chairing the Republican National Committee. Bodnar promises a lifetime lobbying ban.
Center for Public Integrity 12/20/01Nancy Keenan
As NARAL president, backed Joe Lieberman over the Democratic nominee in 2006. Called Alani the day after the primary to ask her to step down; appears on Independent PAC mail.
The Nation 9/21/06 · Montana Free Press 7/31/26Gary Buchanan
Ran as an independent for the U.S. House in 2022 against the Democratic nominee.
Daily Montanan 8/23/22Montana Conservation Voters; Wild Montana Action Fund; Forward Montana
Funded in part by A Better Big Sky ($280,000, $465,000 and $175,000 in 2024). Wild Montana’s PAC arm runs Montanans for Public Lands, which canvasses for Bodnar and took $50,000 from the Sixteen Thirty Fund.
ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer (990s) · FEC C00868604Planned Parenthood Action Fund; Reproductive Freedom for All
According to the Bankhead campaign, a PPAF board member called her three times the week before the withdrawal deadline to urge her to exit, and no questionnaire was sent.
/truthEnd Citizens United; VoteVets; Independent Veterans of America
End Citizens United received $35,000 from the DSCC and DCCC on June 26. Independent Veterans of America took $199,000 in 2024 from a nonprofit that doesn’t disclose donors.
FEC C00573261 · FEC C00891879His super PACs: $8.39 million
Independent PAC, $5.69 million: funded by Richard Masson ($3M), Americans Together, Heather Manchin’s nonprofit ($1.3M), David Sokol, Ron Burkle, and Bill and Lydia Addy ($1M each), Shari Redstone ($250K) and Chris Rufer ($100K). Montana Freedom PAC, $2.51 million for Bodnar plus $1.37 million against Alme and Bankhead: funded by Government That Works PAC ($2.75M), Way Back PAC ($1.2M) and Western Futures Fund ($825K).
Independent PAC, FEC · Montana Freedom PAC, FEC · the full chainNo endorsements found
The Montana Libertarian Party endorsed his primary opponent and disowned him after the primary. No outside money has been spent for or against him.
Daily Montanan 6/11/26 · FECPositions
Positions from the candidates’ own words, debates and sites. Changes over time are shown with dates. Every issue, compared, is in the voter guide.
No Citizens United position; yes to a congressional stock-trading ban. Takes $222,500 from 51 corporate PACs.
Overturn Citizens United; pass the DISCLOSE Act. $0 from corporate PACs.
Overturn Citizens United; “reject corporate PAC money” (true for his campaign). Called for “an immediate end to the dark money” while $8.39 million in super PAC money has been spent for him.
Urged voters in September to “stand behind I-194”; on Oct. 9: “Vote NO on I-194.”
April: Congress “has to exercise its authority.” Oct. 6: “We can’t vote to limit the use of force in the Gulf.”
Opposes the war; invoke the War Powers Resolution; cut off funding for an unauthorized war.
Would “absolutely” vote to check the war power; calls it “a complete and total strategic failure.”
June: “I support Trump and his efforts with Iran.” Oct. 11: “No, I do not defend the war in Iran.”
“Let the local communities make that decision.” Backed by $496,826 from the AI industry’s super PAC.
A federal moratorium on large AI data centers (S. 4214), plus local pauses and regulations.
Said no to a two-year moratorium (July); his August pledge leaves it to local communities; by Oct. 13 his campaign says he opposes construction of AI data centers, still with no moratorium.
September: “I’m completely against data centers in Montana.” Oct. 11: “We’re not stopping it.”
Endorsed by SBA Pro-Life America; left a voter guide’s abortion questions blank.
Codify Roe; the Women’s Health Protection Act; a constitutional amendment; no federal ban.
“I will vote to codify the protections of Roe v. Wade.” Would keep the filibuster.
Abortion only in cases of rape or the mother’s life; enforce the Comstock Act.
Send “healthcare dollars to patients to shop.”
Universal coverage in steps, building on what works, paid for by cutting administrative waste and fair-share taxes.
“Universal coverage option… while maintaining choice and competition”; no to Medicare for All.
“Health Care 2.0”: fold federal programs into one chartered nonprofit.
“Never support a cut in benefits”; fraud recovery.
No cuts, no privatization; lift the wage cap.
Lift the cap; no benefit cuts.
Calls it “outdated”; personal-account trust fund.
“Keep our public lands in public hands.”
No sale or transfer, ever; protect corner crossing; defend the Roadless Rule.
Opposes any sale or transfer, “full stop”; keep the Roadless Rule.
“Public lands will remain public lands.”
NRA “AQ” rating.
Gun owner; no bans on lawfully owned semi-automatics; universal background checks; red-flag laws with due process.
Opposes an assault-weapons ban, a universal background-check mandate and a federal red-flag law.
“Unrestricted access.”
Runs as tough on crime; created the first MMIP coordinator. See the plea deal and declination record above.
21 years of investigations, including child-exploitation cases (120 arrests, 96% conviction rate, per her citation); restore tribal jurisdiction.
No record.
No position found.
Ban members of Congress from becoming lobbyists.
Members of Congress and senior executive officials never lobby the committees or agencies they served, never lobby for a foreign government, and can’t dodge it by calling themselves “advisors.”
Lifetime lobbying ban.
“Get lobbyists out.”
Balanced budget or Congress forfeits its pay.
A wealth tax on fortunes over $50 million, enforced; no tax increase for anyone under $400,000.
“Not all debt is bad”; no wealth tax.
Cut waste; 0% USDA financing.
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