Kurt Alme breaks silence as Senate front-runner, Montana Republicans still hesitant

Kurt Alme has been especially discreet in the three weeks since he became the presumed front-runner for the highest office on Montana’s ballot this November, a pitch that shifted Monday as his campaign released its first ad and the former federal prosecutor took questions in an interview with the Montana State News Bureau.

“When I was given the opportunity late in the process to step up, I stepped up,” he said. “Now, I’m just going to work as hard as I can to earn people’s votes all the way across Montana.”

Until only moments before the state’s filing deadline on March 4, all signs pointed toward two-term Republican Sen. Steve Daines running for reelection in what was expected to be an easy cruise to victory. He was the first person to officially register his candidacy when the filing window opened and had already piled up $4 million for his reelection campaign.

The senator’s surprise exit from the race with only minutes to spare cleared the way for Alme, who resigned from his post as U.S. Attorney for Montana on the same day, to enter in his stead as the de facto GOP favorite with the backing of President Donald Trump and the rest of Montana’s federal delegation teed up.

The ruse — which Daines said was orchestrated, at least partly, to keep competitive Democrats out of the race and give Republicans the best chance at holding the seat — rankled people on both sides of the aisle who felt it torpedoed the possibility of a robust GOP primary and took away an opportunity for voters to consider a full lineup of candidates.

In the quiet days of his campaign rollout, one of Alme’s only confirmed public appearances was at the Beaverhead County Lincoln Reagan dinner on March 14. GOP central committees throughout the state host these events every year to raise money for local races and give residents a chance to meet candidates for office.

Carl Malesich, who chairs the Beaverhead GOP committee, said Alme spoke for 10 minutes in front of a crowd of about 140 people and impressed attendees with his conservative values and friendliness. Still, Malesich said there were grumblings among party members about how Alme had ascended in the race without the input of voters.

“It left a little bit of a sour taste in many people’s minds,” Malesich said. “I’m not saying he’s not a good candidate. I’m just saying we thought it was not right.”

In Monday’s ad, Alme made no mention of how he entered the race but acknowledged he’d have to earn every vote. He touted his career of public service and close ties to the Trump White House.

“We’re going to continue to travel the state, shake hands with old friends and make new ones,” Alme said over the phone. “I’m looking forward to … hearing about issues on people’s minds and we’re going to just work tirelessly from now until the primary and then hopefully on to the general to earn the votes of the people of Montana.”

Alme had most recently served as the top federal prosecutor in Montana, a post he’d held since 2025, as well as from 2017 to 2020. Both times he was appointed by Trump. In between, Alme spent less than a year as budget director for Gov. Greg Gianforte, but stepped away citing the toll of commuting between his home in Billings and the capital in Helena.

This is Alme’s first run for public office, a fact he celebrates rather than shies away from.

“I’m not a career politician,” Alme said. “My whole career has been about being a doer and delivering results, and that’s what I’m going to keep focusing on.”

Two approaches

Until this week, Alme did not advertise any public appearances and there were no splashy advertisements. A campaign website was nowhere to be found, and even whispers of who would be staffing his team were few and far between.

Such a subdued launch is a far cry from the approach taken by Seth Bodnar, the independent candidate who also registered to run on the final day of the state’s filing window and has received a publicity boost as a result of the Daines departure.

Bodnar invited reporters for a photo opportunity as he signed paperwork in the secretary of state’s office and took questions for a few minutes afterward. His campaign announcement, which had been rumored for weeks, garnered a few national headlines that morning as well as stories in local media, but the attention was cranked up when news broke of the changeup.

Since then, Bodnar has interviewed with outlets such as the Washington Post and Politico. He had an eight-minute segment on CNN. Bodnar has hosted meet-and-greets with voters throughout the state and walked in the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Butte, a customary stop for candidates on the campaign trail.

Some political analysts have since downgraded the Senate race from a surefire Republican win, generating additional Bodnar buzz.

It’s also given his campaign daylight to double down on its central message, already delivered time and time again, that Bodnar is running as an independent because he believes the two-party system is broken, even as critics position him as a Democrat in disguise.

“The same DC politicians who handpicked Kurt Alme are responsible for the rising costs that are making housing unaffordable for Montana families, hurting Montanans at the gas pump and jacking up the cost of groceries,” campaign spokesperson Roy Loewenstein said. “Since he has support of party bosses, he doesn’t seem to think he owes Montanans any explanation about what he would do to make life more affordable in this state. The last two weeks have made crystal clear that Kurt Alme was picked by Washington and that he will serve Washington, not Montana.”

When asked, Alme did not respond directly to the criticism, and he declined to weigh in on the Bodnar campaign specifically, noting that there are two other Republicans in the race he has to beat first.

Off to the races

Daines, he said, called him a few days before the filing deadline, floating the idea of retirement, but only if someone like Alme could step up and hold the seat.

“I’m running because Montana’s my home. I’ve been a public servant my whole life, and I’m stepping up to serve our state and our country again,” Alme said.

Along with the appointed positions, Alme held leadership roles at the National Christian Foundation and the Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch Foundation.

If elected, Alme said he has three priorities: making life affordable, making communities safer and protecting “the Montana way of life.”

“I think I have the experience to get those things done,” he added. “…I’ve worked with people from all walks of life, lived in great communities that look after their neighbors and I want to bring the values of faith, service and hard work to D.C.”

Both Bodnar and Alme said they’ve been traveling the state to meet with voters for the last two and a half weeks, even if not always in the public eye. Bodnar’s campaign said it had raised more than a half million dollars in its first 48 hours; Alme’s team declined to provide any information on fundraising efforts so far.

“I’ve been meeting with Montanans from all political stripes around the state…,” Bodnar said in a statement for this story. “That’s how I’m going to spend the next seven months until Election Day, because Montanans deserve an independent leader who is going to show up, look them in the eye and fight every day for them, not for political elites in Washington, DC.”

Bodnar needs to collect around 13,000 signatures by late May to qualify for the general election ballot in November.

Alme will be on the Republican primary ballot on June 2. There is also a four-way Democratic primary, where the leading candidate is believed to be former state legislator Reilly Neill, who has been campaigning for months.