Mailer mayhem: Super PAC spending surges in Montana’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate

A liberal PAC formed less than three weeks ago has poured nearly $600,000 into the Democratic primary race for Montana's open U.S. Senate race, stoking conspiracies about influence in the final weeks before the June election.

Progressive Vet PAC registered with the Federal Election Commission on April 27 and made its first expenditure for Democratic candidate Alani Bankhead on May 1: $188,175 for digital ad production and distribution.

By Thursday, its total spending on Bankhead’s behalf had reached $592,000 with additional digital ad purchases and direct mailers.

Through the most recent FEC report, Bankhead herself had raised a bit more than $15,000 during the campaign so far.

On the surface, the spending appears to be part of a war between super PACs working to push their preferred candidate through a field that, collectively, has raised less than $350,000 between five candidates and is widely seen as unlikely to flip the seat from GOP control. However, Seth Bodnar’s independent campaign looms over the race, as does outside pressure on state Democrats to back him over Democratic contenders who have struggled to gain momentum.

Progressive Vet PAC’s last-minute formation and spending spree has given suspicious Democrats something to point at when suggesting there may be a larger plan afoot.

There’s not much information to be found about the group, adding to the speculation. Its website states the surge in the Senate race is in response to the sudden Republican involvement in the Democratic primary. Last month, American Leadership Fund began sending out mailers ostensibly attacking Bankhead’s Democratic opponent Reilly Neill; its framing was widely appealing to Democrats, and Neill saw a fundraising bump and her profile elevated.

“MAGA superpacs are spending thousands of dollars trying to boost their preferred candidate — Reilly Neill — in the Democratic primary,” Progressive Vet PAC’s website states in endorsing Bankhead. “We’re not going to stand for it.”

It's so far unclear who "we" is. Progressive Vet PAC treasurer Moffie Funk, a former state Democratic legislator from Helena, declined to comment for this story. American Leadership Fund has filed no records with the FEC showing the scope of its campaign to “boost” Neill.

Reached by phone Thursday, Bankhead said she only heard about the flood of advertisements bolstering her candidacy after they had started hitting mailboxes. She added that she had never spoken with anyone associated with the group – at least not knowingly.

“I think they just like me as a candidate,” Bankhead said when asked about the support.

Bankhead said the reaction to the PAC’s activity was getting “blown out of proportion” when compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars poured into the 2024 U.S. Senate race between then-Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester and GOP newcomer Tim Sheehy.

Relative to this election cycle, though, the Progressive Vet PAC’s spending dwarfs the total cash on hand in the Democratic field.

Neill, a former state lawmaker from Livingston and a perennial candidate, has emerged as the presumed frontrunner in a field that’s struggled to catch on with supporters. Neill raised $277,000 between Jan. 1 and March 31, according to the latest available fundraising reports.

Neill acknowledged that the opposition mailers sent out by the American Leadership Fund had given her campaign a boost.

“If the Republicans want to do it and it benefits me, is that purposeful? I don’t know. I don’t know why they’re running them,” Neill said on Thursday. “The question is where’s the dark money that’s coming into this campaign coming from? I don’t have anything to do with it.”

In the information gap around these groups, the prevailing theory in Democratic circles was that the donors of Progressive Vet PAC are propping up Bankhead because she’s more likely to step aside in the general election to consolidate support behind Bodnar.

Brian Miller, a Democratic candidate for the eastern congressional district, has posted several videos about the Progressive Vet PAC spending on his campaign social media. He points to the items on the PAC’s website that the group claims to support, finding no real difference in Neill’s or Bankhead’s position on those items.

“This doesn’t even really pass the smell test,” he said in the video. “It doesn’t meet a rational standard. And if it doesn’t, we can imply that something else is going on here. And what that something else is, I don’t exactly know. But some people in this state do.”

Tester already loosely called for the winning candidate to exit the race if their campaign is flailing by fall. And, this week in Nebraska, voters elected a Senate Democratic primary winner who plans to bow out and back the independent.

Bankhead was adamant that she would never play along with such a scheme, and that if there was some grand plan brewing to elevate her campaign just to eventually clear the way for Bodnar, she’d been left out of the loop.

“I have never spoken to Bodnar’s camp. We have never been offered money. I would never step aside,” Bankhead said. “Somebody please explain to me one good reason why I would do these things.”