Bodnar’s Senate run: An historic opportunity | Michael Punke

Montana in the last quarter of the 19th century led the nation in a dubious category — political corruption. Dominated by Butte’s Copper Kings, miners’ election ballots were collected by shift bosses, then submitted for counting only if workers voted for the approved candidate. In one notorious 1899 incident, Copper King William Clark paid $431,000 to purchase 47 votes in the Montana Legislature — which then elected him to the U.S. Senate.

Montanans today might wonder if anything has changed. The week before last, Sen. Steve Daines waited until three minutes before the filing deadline for Senate candidates before informing his constituents that he would not seek reelection. Daines had shared the news with one person — Kurt Alme — who used his insider knowledge to file his candidacy just eight minutes before the deadline, ensuring he needn’t worry about the pesky process of competing for the nomination.

Democratic lawmaker Jesus Garcia of Illinois deployed the same cheap trick last year to grease the skids for his chief of staff to take his place, a move condemned by a bipartisan House resolution as undermining “the process of a free and fair election.”

Seth Bodnar’s bold candidacy for the U.S. Senate as an Independent offers Montanans an historic opportunity to strike back at the two-party system that has put our nation in a tragic state of division and disarray. Instead of being stuck with candidates foisted on the rest of us by insiders, a vote for a credible Independent like Bodnar presents the opportunity to break the two parties’ grip on our national politics.

Today’s two-party system has fostered extremism in both parties, disenfranchising the estimated 45% of Americans who describe themselves as independent.

Many Republicans may find a lot to like about Bodnar: a former Green Beret who served two tours in Iraq; a believer in rule-of-law who will demand accountability on issues like the Epstein files; a fighter on issues like public lands and reproductive freedom — where the Republican Party now answers only to its extremists.

As for Montana Democrats — it’s time to get real. The Montana Democratic Party should ask itself a hard question. Does it have a 2026 candidate for the U.S. Senate who is stronger than Jon Tester? For all Tester’s strengths, he couldn’t win two years ago because he was saddled with a national Democratic party dominated by its extremists on issues like protecting the border and women’s sports. Bodnar rightly wants to keep the focus on issues that matter to Montanans — like affordability and rural health care.

Let’s hope the Montana Democratic Party has the wisdom to do something meaningful and historic — joining a coalition to elect Bodnar. But whatever the party does — Montana’s voters have the power to make their own choices this year — choices not dictated by either political party.

Independents, centrist Democrats, and centrist Republicans finally have an option other than “least worst.”

The corruption in Montana politics in the late 19th century led Montanans to support reforms — like passage of the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — which took U.S. Senate elections away from corrupt state legislatures and put them directly in the hands of individual U.S. voters.

Today we live in a new age of corruption by elites. We also live in an age of disruption. Is there any institution more ripe for disruption than America’s two-party system? Support for Independent candidate for U.S. Senate Seth Bodnar is an historic opportunity to say something with our votes.