Tester rips Democrats, signals support for UM president as best bet to challenge Daines

In the race to unseat Republican Sen. Steve Daines, the last Montana Democrat to win a statewide election has signaled the most compelling candidate may not come from within his own party.

Rather, former U.S. Sen. Jon Tester’s faith is with a political novice with no existing party baggage: current University of Montana President Seth Bodnar.

The 46-year-old military veteran turned higher education administrator found himself at the center of a political firestorm over the weekend when his rumored entrance as an independent candidate – and possible spoiler for any hope the Democrats have – became the topic of online chatter and spread rapidly to political insiders.

“Bottomline is this. Bodner [sic] has a great family, came from business, has what I believe is the best job in Montana, is currently in the military and is a Rhodes scholar and would fight to stop all the insanity that is going on in our dictatorship today not rubber stamp it,” he wrote in a text widely circulated within Democratic political circles in recent days.

The Montana State News Bureau confirmed the authenticity of the message, and spoke with a dozen people who had it forwarded to them.

Bodnar declined to comment for this story through a university spokesperson and has made no public declaration that he intends to enter the race, which analysts say leans solidly Republican.

But it was the text message from Tester that kicked the drama into high gear. It suggested that if Tester, a folksy moderate who had already served three terms in the U.S. Senate, couldn’t win a statewide race as a Democrat, then who could?

“You can send this around because I don’t care,” the text begins.

After an anecdote about his own time in politics and the need to distance himself from the Democrats, Tester turned the message’s aim at the party.

“Things have changed greatly, politically in this state since I first ran for US Senate. During my last two races the democratic Party was poison in my attempts to get re-elected,” Tester wrote. “That is not to say that is the only reason I got beat in 2024…but it was hell of an anvil.”

Tester briefly picked up the phone on Tuesday when called by a reporter. He hurried off the call and said he would call back, but never did. He also did not respond to multiple calls or text messages earlier in the week seeking comment on this story.

The text message, which names Bodnar as a more favorable alternative to the current four-candidate roster of Democrats, thrusts into public view questions about how the party should move forward in an era when Montana’s politics have changed from purple to deep red.

Bodnar’s biography is, to some, tailor-made for public office in Montana. An unconventional candidate and a fresh face to the political scene, he spent much of his career sailing through the executive ranks at General Electric before he was selected for the UM job in 2018. Bodnar graduated from West Point, served in the U.S. Army Special Forces and earned two graduate degrees from the University of Oxford.

Through a spokesperson, Bodnar declined to comment on whether he plans to enter the race or if he has taken any steps to explore what a campaign might look like.

Though Tester lost his 2024 re-election bid to then-political newcomer Republican Tim Sheehy, he has remained an influential figure in Montana Democratic politics even as the party looks to chart a new path forward without their longtime frontman.

A high-ranking Democratic official resigned last summer after remarking that Tester’s political philosophy no longer served the party’s best interests, comments that garnered a sharp-tongued response from the former senator who called the vice chair “a fox in the hen house.” The party official was replaced by a former Tester staffer.

Reactions to Tester’s latest behind-the-scenes commentary varied among Democratic loyalists.

Some told the Montana State News Bureau they were off-put by the drama it would inevitably create. Others wrote it off as poor political strategy. And a few were shocked at what they said felt like a major departure for someone who had helped build up the party for so long.

Jesse Mullen, a former statewide Democratic candidate and critic of party leadership in recent years, thought it was an overstep on the part of the former senator, specifically referencing a line in the text where Tester appears to disregard transgender rights as a valuable issue.

“I am extremely disappointed in the tone and the suggestions in it,” Mullen said in an interview. “But more than that, I think it is below Senator Tester to punch down.”

The text message, signed “JT,” appears to confirm the widespread speculation that, should Bodnar run, it would be as an independent candidate, a route Tester suggests is pragmatic in a harsh, divided political climate.

“I actually have been encouraging not because of party, but because of the man and I fully know to win anybody has to run a near flawless race that is well funded and well staffed,” it says.

Montana Democrats are on a losing streak in statewide and federal contests, swept by Republicans in every race on the ticket in 2020 and 2024. Party officials point to a handful of legislative seats Democrats picked up in the 2024 election cycle as wins; although many of those gains can be attributed to redistricting.

That track record has some skeptical that today’s Montana Democrats know how to win in places outside of traditional strongholds like Missoula and Bozeman, and it’s fueled a desire among some to back candidates and political strategies closer to the middle.

Three Democratic candidates have filed paperwork to challenge the heavily-favored Daines: Reilly Neill, a former state lawmaker from Livingston; Michael Black Wolf, a tribal historic preservation officer from Hays; and Michael Hummert from Helena. A fourth, Alani Bankhead from Helena, announced her bid last week to enter the fray.

“My number one job is to get Democrats elected,” said Shannon O’Brien, chair of the Montana Democrats. “So I will support any Democrat who decides to run for office in any way that I can.”

When asked what she thinks of a major Democrat pushing an independent candidate instead, O’Brien declined to comment further.

Editor's note: This story was updated to include additional context and clarity to Jesse Mullen's quote.

Montana State News Bureau reporters Victoria Eavis and Seaborn Larson contributed to this reporting.