Neill, Bankhead court rural voters in Senate primary

For two of the front-running Montana Democrats in this year’s U.S. Senate race, part of the strategy has been to court voters in areas that rarely “go blue” — rural towns and counties.

Reilly Neill and Alani Bankhead have looked to parts of Montana that they said are unheard and underrepresented. State Democrats are also fighting a branding issue and have a strong independent candidate, former University of Montana president Seth Bodnar, in the race as well.

Neill views herself as a non-establishment candidate, and has focused large parts of her campaign heavily away from Democratic strongholds such as Missoula and Bozeman. Instead, Neill highlighted trips to Culbertson, Libby, Miles City and other small towns that dot the north, central and eastern parts of the Treasure State. 

“The working people of Montana deserve a voice, and nothing has been clearer over the last year-and-a-half, two years, that people on the ground do not feel like their representatives in D.C. are responsive to them,” Neill said in an interview. “And that doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or Republican.”

Bankhead is also something of an outsider, saying she “never” imagined herself in politics. In the first phone call with the party after announcing her intention to run, she said she was told to stay away from eastern Montana counties that “don’t move the needle.” She added that strategically that “wasn’t incorrect” but what she was trying to do was a little different.

“The spirit of the campaign that we’re running, and I think what the people of Montana want is they want to know that their voice in every Montanan is important,” Bankhead said. “We’ve heard on the campaign trail quite a bit, especially in the rural areas, where people are like, I used to be a Democrat, and I was abandoned by the party. When we go out to rural areas, people are like, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re here, we haven’t seen anybody come out here.”

Neill and her staff have made it a point to sit down in small, rural communities via roundtables that were sometimes as small as two people.

Whether or not this will work is up for debate. Longtime Montana political reporter Mike Dennison said things can’t get much worse for Democrats in rural communities. Essentially, they need to find some way to pick up votes in those areas in statewide races, even if the candidate loses the county.

Dennison also noted it could be difficult for Democrats to pick up primary votes in rural communities, as rural voters in Montana would be more likely to vote in the Republican primary. Most of the Democrat primary votes come from larger cities.

“As long as Democrats are just getting killed in those rural counties, there’s not enough votes statewide, in Democratic areas, to make that up,” Dennison said. “If they have any chance to win, they’re going to have to find some way to make some inroads in those rural areas.

“I think for them to have that strategy to go out there and meet people in rural areas is a sound strategy. I just don’t know how much it is going to work, or if they’re the right candidate to do that.”

In interviews, both candidates said people feel left behind, or that their representatives aren’t hearing them. 

Responsiveness and meeting people where they’re at is important, Neill said.

“People are frustrated with what’s going on in D.C.,” Neill said, “And rightly so, there’s a lot of unconstitutional bullsh–t going on there.”

Neill, who lives in Livingston with her husband, founded the Livingston Weekly Current in Park County in 2004 and served as a one-term legislator in 2012 from House District 62. She was a write-in candidate in the 2024 U.S. House race, gathering about 1,000 votes, which was ultimately won by Rep. Troy Downing, a Republican.

Neill’s pitch includes expanding the Family Medical Leave Act and pushing for new educational grants for associate’s or vocational degrees, pointing out cuts to Pell grants. Rural healthcare is also a priority, she said.

“There’s so much pain, we’re feeling it, real financial pain, doctors, nurses, healthcare providers, and clinics, and hospitals in our rural communities,” Neill said. “All we hear this over and over, trouble hiring people, trouble training people.”

Bankhead, who lives in Helena, is a veteran and has leaned into her understanding of the federal government as part of her campaign pitch. Rising prices, cuts from “DOGE” and seeing people around her struggle to provide for their families all helped encourage her to run, she said.

Her pitch also includes cutting “red tape,” something Bankhead added that she has experience with. Government accountability and protecting vulnerable people, particularly children and the elderly, is also near the top of her list.

Bankhead spent 21 years in the Air Force and has pointed to her work fighting terrorism and human trafficking.

“D.C., any government entity, you have to get there and then like figure the place out, and that takes a few years to do,” Bankhead said. “Montana doesn’t have two to three years for a new legislator with no DC experience to figure it out. I already have all those contacts in place.”

In recent weeks, more than $500,000 has been spent on advertising in support of Bankhead through the Progressive Veterans PAC, which lists former Montana legislator Moffie Funk as its treasurer.

Bankhead said she had no knowledge of the PAC and isn’t affiliated with it.

“I’ve said it 1000 times, but we haven’t had anything to do with that,” Bankhead said. “We’ve had no contact with them. From the beginning, we’re anti-dark money, we’re anti-PAC money. We take grassroots donations only, individual contributions, and you can see that in my FEC report.”

While Bodnar is running as an independent, his campaign donation system is set up through ActBlue — the Democratic Party’s main fundraising platform. Neill, Bankhead, Michael Hummert and Michael Black Wolf are the names on the Democratic primary ballot.

Leaked text messages from former U.S. Senator Jon Tester expressed support for Bodnar and called the Democratic Party “poison” during his own re-election attempts, according to a report from Lee Enterprises.

The notion that Democrats are poisonous is something Neill bristles at.

“I don’t see a powerful leadership force in the Democratic party right now, but that doesn’t mean that the people engaged in the Democratic party aren’t working their tails off,” Neill said.

Both candidates have stated they’re not looking to drop out of the race in favor of Bodnar, with Bankhead addressing the rumor on Instagram earlier this week.

“This is my 6,320,445th reminder that I wouldn’t drop out of the race,” Bankhead wrote in a post.

Bankhead also pointed to how she views leadership, which stems from her experience in the military. Party politics wasn’t abundant in her work while serving, adding that she worked with people from different political backgrounds.

“People try to put you in a box, right? I did an interview and somebody was like, ‘How do you feel about being a progressive?’” Bankhead said. “I’m like,’What does that even mean?’ I don’t care for labels, and I don’t think most people do, and I think people just want a leader who’s going to bring common sense.”