Nearing ballot threshold, cash-flush Senate candidate Seth Bodnar vows 'new direction'

Needing 13,327 total signatures, independent Montana U.S. Senate candidate Seth Bodnar is betting he can get his name on the ballot by the end of May.

Bodnar nears candidate qualification with help from nearly $1.4 million in first-quarter contributions — more than all his competitors combined, according to Bodnar.

Federal reporting shows Bodnar with 2,374 accepted signatures. He claimed many more are being processed.

“You don’t have to vote for me, but let’s have the discussion, let’s have an independent candidate in this race,” Bodnar recently told the Chronicle. “I’ve become deeply frustrated by a country that is less prosperous, less secure, more in debt, more divided than the country I grew up in. We need a new direction.”

Bodnar, a Pennsylvania native son of two public school teachers, joined the Army at 18 years old, graduating from West Point months before 9-11. After the disaster, he served 10 years of active duty with the “Screaming Eagles”, the 101st Airborne Division, before becoming a Green Beret.

Bodnar’s private sector career included selling locomotives and technology in the General Electric railway division. He was president of the University of Montana, where he started in 2018.

Aside from significant criticism over a 2021 sex-discrimination lawsuit alleging a “good ol’ boys club” culture, which UM settled for $350,000 in 2024, Bodnar’s leadership is otherwise credited with stabilizing enrollment, achieving record-high retention rates, securing top-tier research status, and launching the largest fundraising campaign in the university’s history.

Bodnar said his soldiering career keeps him from placing opportunity for private gain ahead of constituents.

“When I was in the military, I learned to be a good lieutenant, when it’s time to eat, you need to make sure your soldiers eat first,” he said.

Current Sen. Steve Daines, who withdrew from re-election at the last minute, was a wealthy executive before his 14 years in Congress. However, his net worth grew significantly during his time as a U.S. senator.

Based on available financial disclosures and analysis, Daines’ estimated net worth increased by more than $10 million between 2012 and 2018, according to Ballotpedia, a digital political encyclopedia.

“We’ve somehow come to accept a model in this country where so-called leaders are focused on filling their plates and are not focused on the people who sent them there,” Bodnar said.

Bodnar is also against representatives hedging their investment portfolios based on the policies they enact.

“We need to eliminate the numerous ways in which our elected leaders are using their offices to enrich themselves,” he said. “Insider trading — we need to stop that immediately.”

As of May 2026, the U.S. Senate unanimously has approved a bipartisan measure to withhold senator pay during government shutdowns, placing salaries in escrow until the government reopens.

“If we can’t pass a budget, if federal workers aren’t getting paid, our federal leaders also shouldn’t be getting paid,” Bodnar said.

Bodnar blames both parties for ceding increasing power to the president. He also favors term limits.

“Three terms in the U.S. Senate, 18 years, that’s a long time,” Bodnar said. “We don’t need people sitting in D.C. for more than half a century.”

As of April 2026, Gallup polling shows public disapproval of Congress hit 86%, tying the record high set in 2013. With only 10% approving, the findings highlight extreme bipartisan dissatisfaction.

“I’m running against a system that is not working,” Bodnar said. “We have a system where our leaders are spending more time fighting to win that next election, losing (at the polls).”

Bodnar attended a veterans meet and greet at the Gallatin Labor Temple last week.

“The promises this country made (veterans) are broken,” Bodnar said. We have waiting times for mental-health appointments lasting more than one month. It might take a veteran experiencing a mental-health crisis a lifetime to develop the nerve to make that appointment, and then they wait one month to get in.”

Although Bodner’s Democratic challengers are proposing similar reforms to housing, healthcare, childcare and grocery affordability, Bodnar contrasts the pack with his stances against partisan redistricting and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Bodnar blames both parties for giving the president increasing authority.

“One of the fundamental failings of this country is Congress ceding its power to the executive branch; both parties,” he said. “Extreme partisanship is causing people to swear loyalty to their party, while not holding the executive branch accountable on either side.”

“I’m a leader who wants to work across that partisan divide to move us more toward common-sense solutions, to address the problems we’re facing,” Bodnar said. “There are two things that are different from me than every other candidate in this race. There are no split loyalties, and it is very clear who I work for if I’m elected. I answer to the people of this state.”

Housing

Bodnar’s zoning and coding reform ideas closely mirror Democratic goals. He is proposing federal infrastructure investment in water, sewers and roads to encourage housing construction, while positioning himself against large corporations owning single family homes.

ICE

Bodnar does not favor abolishing ICE, instead preferring to legislate accountability.

“The problem is our political leaders (from both parties) seem to prefer to use immigration as an issue to beat each other up with than an issue we should solve,” Bodnar said. “We are not a nation state if we don’t have strong borders. We can enforce our borders without infringing on the individual liberties of American citizens.

“We need ICE to operate with clear parameters and accountability. No arm of the U.S. government should operate with impunity. We can also provide clear, simplified pathways for people to come here legally. We need that from a workforce, an innovation and ingenuity standpoint.”

Healthcare

Bodnar proposes incentivizing preventative treatment measures and broader care coverage to decrease population risk and expense.

“We incentivize treating people when they’re sick, we don’t reward keeping people healthy,” Bodnar said. “That needs to switch.”

Aiming to lower prescription drug costs, Bodnar wants to emulate and spread preexisting aspects of the system that already work to the broader populous.

“Why does Veterans Affairs have a price list that is 40%-60% lower than Medicare?” Bodnar asked. “That’s hundreds of billions of dollars you could save just with changes there.”

Iran

Bodnar is an advocate for Congress taking back war-making authority from the executive branch.

“It is the role of Congress declaring war,” he said. “We need to understand if we’re taking this country to war, why Iran was an imminent threat. What is the end game? We need to ensure we don’t get involved into yet another protracted war in the Middle East.”