HELENA — Montana’s candidate withdrawal deadline has passed, so the argument over whether one of the candidates in the state’s U.S. Senate race should drop out is over – but there’s still lingering tension within Democratic Party circles.
On Tuesday morning, a day after Democratic Senate candidate Alani Bankhead confirmed she wasn’t quitting the campaign, Montana Democratic Party executive director Emily Marburger held a news conference at the party’s headquarters in Helena. Marburger expressed frustration with what she called “bullying tactics” to pressure Bankhead out of the race.
“These past few weeks have tested me and my staff and our candidates up and down the ballot in ways that are, frankly, shameful,” she said.
(Watch the video for more on the aftermath of Monday's candidate deadline.)
Marburger said the party has room for disagreements over the best strategy for challenging Republicans, but that what happened in the last few weeks was “unacceptable.”
“No one should ever feel unsafe because they refuse to participate in an effort to overturn the decision Democratic voters made at the ballot box,” she said.
Starting last month, there was an increasingly visible campaign calling on Bankhead to drop out, as supporters of independent candidate Seth Bodnar argued he would have a better chance of defeating Republican nominee Kurt Alme in a head-to-head race.
Sofia Perez, a spokesperson for the Montana Democratic Party, told reporters party staff members received “countless” phone calls and that funding for specific projects was threatened.
“It got pretty intense, especially towards the end,” she said. “Honestly, I've never seen anything like this before, especially within the party.”
Perez said in a statement to MTN she believed the pressure came from “many people at the national level,” but she wasn’t aware of specific links to national Democratic Party organizations.
Marburger criticized people who she said had created a narrative that Democrats can’t win in Montana. She said leaders would be building a new version of the state party “from the ground up.”
“Enough with the coronations and the backroom calculations,” said Marburger. “Nobody gets to pronounce the Montana Democratic Party dead while we are this damn busy rebuilding it.”
While Marburger didn’t name any specific critics, former U.S. Sen. Jon Tester – the last Democrat elected statewide in Montana – has endorsed Bodnar, and he reportedly described the Democratic label as being “poison” to his 2024 reelection campaign.
Even among current elected Democrats, there have been divisions about how to approach the Senate race. Last month, a group of Democratic state lawmakers sent a letter encouraging either Bankhead and Bodnar to drop out and endorse the other, to avoid splitting the vote against Alme.
Over the weekend, a CNN political reporter posted on social media that another group of lawmakers had signed onto a letter supporting Bodnar as the best choice to beat Alme and urging Bankhead to withdraw. The letter said a continued three-way contest would harm Democratic campaigns elsewhere on the ballot.
Rep. Melody Cunningham, D-Missoula, was one of the lawmakers listed on the most recent letter. She is also the state party’s elected secretary and a member of its executive board.
MTN reached out to Cunningham on Tuesday after Marburger’s news conference. She responded in a statement.
“I absolutely think that we can come together in the fight for what Montanans need and want,” she wrote. “In talking with nearly all E Board members, it is crystal clear that all Montanans want the same thing. Democracy and the ability to discuss differences of opinion. That is the way to have a healthy democracy and fight most effectively for Montanans and the E Board and Montana voters are up for that challenge.”
Cunningham said she has heard from constituents that the party needs “more, rather than less, open and transparent differences of opinion.”
MTN also reached out to Shannon O’Brien, the Montana Democratic Party’s elected chair. She also sent a statement in response.
“The Montana Democratic Party has strong shared values,” O’Brien said. “We all know that we must fight Republicans to achieve those Montana values. At the same time, we are able to have differences in opinion on how to get there.”
During Tuesday’s news conference, MTN asked Perez if the Democratic officeholders who had supported Bodnar would have that held against them within the party.
“No, absolutely not,” she said. “I think there's enough room for everyone to come back into the fold. That's what we're hoping for.”
