Montana Democratic Party chair resigns, endorses independent in Senate race

Shannon O’Brien, chair of the Montana Democratic Party, on Monday announced her resignation and endorsed Montana independent Senate candidate Seth Bodnar weeks ahead of the November midterm elections.

O’Brien, who had served as the state party chair since 2025, wrote in an op-ed on MS NOW that “the Montana Democratic Party is more divided than ever” because of the Senate race. She slammed Republican Senate candidate Kurt Alme as someone who “will be a puppet” for President Trump.

Of Senate Democratic candidate Alani Bankhead, O’Brien wrote that there are “real questions” about her “commitment to protecting a woman’s right to choose, her support of working people and her views of people living in poverty.”

“I’m a person with a positive outlook,” O’Brien wrote. “I’m uncomfortable being negative about anyone, especially a Democratic nominee. But sometimes it’s impossible to stay quiet; sometimes you have to make people uncomfortable for the greater good. The winner of this race will almost certainly vote on a nominee to the Supreme Court.”

She accused Bankhead of not having the resources “or will” to win the Senate race, and argued that she “came out of the gate mudslinging at Bodnar, a decent human being, seemingly ignoring the Republican and her ideological opposite.”

“Democrats should ask themselves why Republicans so badly wanted her on the ballot,” she wrote.

The Hill has reached out to Bankhead’s campaign for comment.

O’Brien closed her op-ed writing that Bodnar built his campaign on fixing a Washington that “stopped working for [Montanans] a while ago.”

“Our solutions must be bold, and sometimes uncomfortable, steps toward positive change,” she wrote. “The future of our state and our country is at stake. I hope all Democrats across Montana will join me in choosing the best person this year, even if he’s not from the party they were expecting.”

Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ), The Hill’s election partner, finds that Alme has a 91 percent probability of winning the Senate race, with Bodnar holding a 9 percent probability.

If the race were held Monday, DDHQ’s aggregate polling suggests that 43.4 percent of Montana voters say they would back Alme, followed by 27.1 percent who would vote for Bodnar and 18.3 percent who say they would support Bankhead.

The race has remained somewhat competitive, with all three candidates and Libertarian Kyle Austin competing for retiring Sen. Steve Daines’s (R-Mont.) open Senate seat. Early polling showed Bodnar could beat Alme in a one-on-one race, but Bankhead has repeatedly said she would not drop out of the race to assist Bodnar’s chances.

“I’ll never bow down … I am in this race to win it, and I am staying through Nov. 3,” she said in August.