With Early Voting Underway, Montana Democratic Party Chair Resigns, Backs Independent Senate Candidate

Montana Democratic Party Chair Shannon O’Brien resigned Monday over disagreements with the party’s Senate candidate, Alani Bankhead.

With early voting already underway in the state, O’Brien announced her exit in an MS NOW op-ed, where she pledged her support for independent candidate Seth Bodnar and wrote that the Montana Democratic Party is “more divided than ever not because of our values but because of the race for the U.S. Senate.”

“There are real questions about Democrat Alani Bankhead’s commitment to protecting a woman’s right to choose, her support of working people and her views of people living in poverty,” O’Brien wrote in her op-ed, adding that Bankhead is “almost brand new” to Montana.

In an emailed statement to The Epoch Times, Bankhead pushed back on each of O’Brien’s accusations and said O’Brien had been working against her election campaign since the summer.

According to Bankhead, O’Brien met with the Montana Democratic Party’s executive board in late July to discuss leaving the party’s Senate nominee line empty this midterm cycle. O’Brien was also accused of seeking a legal opinion on whether the Democratic Party would be forced to name a replacement if Bankhead withdrew.

O’Brien did not address any of these claims in her op-ed. Her publicly listed email on the Montana Democratic Party’s website returned an address not found message in response to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.

“She’s using her exit to campaign for a man who never ran in our primary,” Bankhead said. “Montana Democrats chose their nominee in an open primary, and a party chair’s job is to stand with that choice.”

Addressing O’Brien’s questioning of her support of a woman’s right to choose whether to keep or abort an unborn child, Bankhead said she is pro-choice and would support a constitutional amendment in favor of abortion.

Bankhead also wrote that she grew up as an “Army and embassy kid” and then served for 21 years in the Air Force.

“Every home before Montana was chosen by the military,” the statement read, and the first place Bankhead chose to live herself nearly five years ago was Montana.

Aside from questioning the Democratic nominee’s policies, O’Brien took aim at Bankhead’s Senate campaign.

“Bankhead does not have the momentum, resources or will to win this race,” O’Brien wrote. “Her refusal to listen and learn is puzzling and jarring.”

In the months after Bankhead’s nomination, O’Brien accused her of refusing advice from business and political leaders across Montana.

By contrast, Bankhead said the only thing she refused to listen to were calls for her to withdraw from the race. She added that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee had sent zero money to the Montana Democratic Party this midterm cycle through Aug. 31, compared to $2.8 million over the same time frame in 2024.

“National Democrats had already decided to back an independent in Montana, so whoever won the Democratic primary was going to get no national support or resources this year,” Bankhead said. “The national party starved its own nominee, then cited the starvation.”

Meanwhile, independent candidate Bodnar, a former Green Beret, welcomed O’Brien’s endorsement in a news release.

He echoed the former party chair’s call for Democrats and independents to join together to defeat GOP nominee Kurt Alme.

“Montanans of every political stripe are coming together in this race because they know what’s at stake, and they’re ready to send an Independent senator to Washington who answers only to them,” Bodnar said.

In closing her op-ed, O’Brien wrote that she remains committed to advancing Democrats’ values, and the clearest path in doing that is through electing Bodnar.

The Epoch Times reached out to Alme’s campaign for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.