Bankhead holds early lead over Neill in Dem primary

Alani Bankhead holds an early lead over Reilly Neill in the Democratic primary for Montana’s open U.S. Senate seat, with thousands of ballots left to count.

With slightly over 18% of the vote in, Bankhead had drawn 42% of the ballots tabulated so far. Reilly Neill was second with 34%, Michael Black Wolf was third with 13% of the vote, with three other candidates drawing the rest as of 9 p.m. on Tuesday. 

About 146,000 ballots have been counted so far.

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 to federal jobs and seeing people around her struggle to provide for their families all helped encourage her to run, she said.

Bankhead is a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and has made child protection and public safety centerpieces of her campaign. She was also active in discussions around the city, giving public comments in favor of an immigration resolution in Helena earlier this year during her campaign.

Neill, who lives in Livingston with her family, started the Livingston Weekly Current in Park County in 2004 and before that had experience working in commercial kitchens. Neill 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.

Black Wolf is a preservation officer and community leader from the Fort Belknap Indian Community.

Neill was the first entry in the race, declaring her intentions shortly after the 2024 general election. She spent a significant amount of time in rural Montana during her campaign.

Bankhead saw significant support from the Progressive Veterans PAC, which spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to hit social media, mailboxes and text messages with support for Bankhead in the weeks leading up to the election.

The winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican Kurt Alme and independent candidate Seth Bodnar in the November general election.