Steve Daines surprise Senate resignation independent candidate : NPR

Seth Bodnar, former president of the University of Montana, is now running for Senate as an independent candidate.

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BUTTE, Mont. — It’s long been an adage in Montana politics that if you’re running for office, you better have a float in the Butte St. Paddy’s Day parade, which draws thousands of people to the mining town’s historic downtown, soaking up the nostalgia — and the Guiness.

Here you’re just steps away from the towering old mining headframes and the mile-long, half-mile-wide Berkeley Pit. Now closed, it was once one of the largest copper deposits in the world.

Larry Carden, in a Notre Dame sweatshirt, never misses the parade.

“You’ll see a lot more booing at Republicans than at Democrats, I can guarantee you that,” he said.

It’s a nod to Butte’s long history of Democratic politics and a strong labor movement dating back to around 1900, when the “Copper King” mine owners ran Montana’s businesses and media and bribed their way into political office. Today, Carden, who is retired, worries that the mega-rich are once again influencing politics here and the high cost of living in his home state.

“Between health care and gas and food, and you go to the store the other day, there’s rib-eye steaks for $19.99 a pound, you know,” Carden says.

A political group marches in the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Butte, Montana, March 17, 2026

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This year’s parade follows an unusually turbulent few days on Montana’s political scene — half of its congressional delegation abruptly retired. Despite the state’s recent tilt from purple to deep red, the races for their seats may be more in play now because of how Sen. Steve Daines and Congressman Ryan Zinke, both Republicans, abandoned them and chose their successors. In Daines’ case, he withdrew his candidacy just minutes before the filing deadline.

Like many people in Butte, Carden is a lifelong Democrat. But he says he is disillusioned with party politics.

“I would prefer it to be independent, without party designation, and then there would have to be more attention paid to who the person actually is,” Carden says.

A new candidate chooses to become independent

That’s exactly what Seth Bodnar, a former Green Beret running for U.S. Senate, is trying to capitalize on. He joined other contestants mixed with Irish dance troupes and fire department floats, as he walked the parade route along Park Street, occasionally shaking hands and tossing candy.

In an interview with NPR earlier in Missoula, Bodnar, who recently resigned as president of the University of Montana, outlined what he says is his bipartisan appeal.

“I’m independent,” Bondar says. “When I raised my right hand at the age of 18 and took an oath to this Constitution when I joined the army, not to a political party.”.

Partying was once the playbook in Montana, which some call one long main street. This is how former Sen. Jon Tester won as a Democrat as the state became redder.

The day after Bodnar officially announced he was gathering signatures to get on the ballot, his long-term candidacy was taken much more seriously.

Senator Steve Daines, elected to the Senate in 2014, sent shockwaves through the state’s political scene when he announced in a video posted on X that he had decided not to run again.

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., speaks during the Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing for Scott Bessent, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025.

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“I am also very grateful to have served alongside President Trump and my colleagues in the Senate,” Daines said in the video. “Together, we built a conservative majority on the Supreme Court, delivered the largest tax cut in U.S. history, unleashed American energy dominance, and secured our southern border.”

Daines’ late withdrawal likely clears the way for his chosen successor, Kurt Alme, the U.S. attorney in Montana until he declared his candidacy for Daines’ seat. Daines later said that withdrawing earlier might have enticed a prominent Democrat like Tester to enter the race.

Independent Seth Bodnar says it reminds him of old-time Montana.

“We have direct elections for senators in the United States in part because of the political corruption that reigned in this state 125 years ago, with the Copper Kings trying to buy seats in the United States Senate,” Bodnar says. “It didn’t work then and it won’t work now.”

But Democrats say Bodnar’s entry as an independent will only split the liberal vote.

The Republican base is also angry

“Montanans are very outraged at what they see as pure dishonesty,” says Roger Koopman, a former Republican lawmaker and Montana civil service commissioner in Bozeman.

Koopman says the party establishment’s behind-the-scenes negotiations are a gift to Democrats and especially to Seth Bodnar, who he says is a liberal running as an independent.

“They’re going to say, ‘Hey, I’m done with these Republicans playing games with me, you can’t do this and expect me to vote for you, I’m not going to vote Democratic, but here’s this guy who says he’s an independent, let me try him,'” Koopman said.

Alme kept a low profile. Political experts say this could be intentional. A campaign spokesperson sent NPR this statement: “Anyone can run for this seat. Kurt is running based on his record as a common-sense, Trump-backed candidate who knows how to get tough on violent crime, dismantle drug cartels and deliver historic tax breaks. Voters will decide, and Kurt is confident in his work serving Montana and helping President Trump put America First.”

At Montana State University, political science department chair Eric Austin says he expects interparty tensions to calm and Republicans to rally around their candidate by November.

“I think some of that reflects changes in the state’s electorate,” Austin says. “As the state became redder, people affiliated more with the Republican Party and less as independents.”

However, Austin says the midterm elections will be a referendum on President Trump and that there is growing economic anxiety in Montana. Farmers are suffering the consequences of Trump’s tariffs. His war in Iran caused fertilizer prices to skyrocket, raising interest rates and the cost of gas.

Back in Butte, at the St. Paddy’s Day parade, longtime Democratic activist Evan Barrett says there’s a resurgence of populist resentment in Montana.

Longtime Montana Democratic Party activist Evan Barrett during the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Butte, Montana on March 17, 2026

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“It’s almost like a repeat of the past,” says Barrett, a former economic aide to former Gov. Brian Schweitzer.

Ducking into an old storefront to take a break from the spectacle of the parade, Barrett told NPR that the electorate feels like a lot of outside money is coming in to influence policy, but not staying in Montana and not being invested in things like schools.

“So it’s a really crazy and different year,” Barrett says. “Anyone who tells you they know what’s going to happen, well, be a little skeptical.”

President Trump made a last-minute endorsement of Senate candidate Kurt Alme, but it’s unclear what kind of effect that might have on voters in November.