A text message allegedly sent by former U.S. Sen. Jon Tester states not only that a Democrat cannot win the race, but that the party’s brand had become a drag on his last two elections.
By Tom Lutey MONTANA FREE PRESS
University of Montana President Seth Bodnar is expected to run for U.S. Senate as an independent, part of an elaborate plan apparently backed by former U.S. Sen. Jon Tester in a move that has angered Democrats.
A spokesperson for Bodnar confirmed the plan to Montana Free Press on Tuesday, saying that the president will wait to discuss the election until he’s ready to make a formal announcement. The spokesperson said Bodnar would resign his presidential post to run.
Rumors of the move swirled through Democratic circles last week as it appeared that Tester intended not to support a Democratic challenger to two-term Republican U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, who played a heavy role in unseating Tester in 2024. The Republican has never had a close race for federal office.
Democrats Reilly Neill, a former state Legislator from Livingston, and Air Force veteran Alani Bankhead have registered Senate campaigns with the Federal Elections Commission.
A text message — allegedly sent by Tester, who did not return multiple calls from Montana Free Press on Monday or Wednesday — states not only that a Democrat cannot win the race, but that the party’s brand had become a drag on his last two elections.
“Every race I ran as Montana Senator and U.S. Senator it was about distancing myself from the Democratic Party…. During my last two races the democratic Party was poison in my attempts to get re-elected,” the text reads. The message ends with a declaration that Neill will lose badly.
Several people had forwarded copies of the text to MTFP, but no one could confirm Tester as its source. The phone number from which the text was originally sent had been removed from the circulated message, which was signed with the initials “JT.”
Todd Buchanan, the chair of the Montana Board of Regents, which oversees state universities, said in an email Tuesday that he had heard nothing about a Bodnar Senate run. Buchanan’s father, Gary, was an independent candidate for Montana’s eastern U.S. House district in 2022. In that race, won by Republican Matt Rosendale in a blowout, Buchanan received 21.8% of the vote, slightly better than Democrat Penny Ronning’s 20%.
Neill, who registered her Senate candidacy in November 2024, three days after Tester lost his reelection bid to current U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy, a Republican, said she didn’t have time for political scuttlebutt when asked about a Bodnar run.
“I don’t hear on the ground anything other than we need better health care. Whether you’re in Glendive or whether you’re in Kalispell, the rent’s too damn high. The rent’s high, people. The cost of living is high. Groceries are high,” Neill said. “I think Daines not showing up in any of these places that I’ve been is a huge issue.”
Neill was a write-in candidate for Montana’s eastern U.S. House District in 2024. She entered the race out of disappointment with the candidacy of Democrat John Driscoll, who won a four-way primary, then proceeded to run a low-dollar campaign.
Driscoll never crossed the $5,000 threshold in donations or spending that would have required him to report his finances with the Federal Election Commission. It was the first time since 2008 that a major party nominee in a Montana congressional race didn’t have to report finances to the FEC. Driscoll was the Democrats’ 2008 House candidate as well. In both races, Driscoll picked up better than 32% of the vote, about 10 points less than the Democrats who ran conventional campaigns from 2010 through 2020, according to state election data.
The specter of Montana’s last statewide elected Democrat supporting an independent for federal office angered many within the party.
“This text from Tester, or whatever it is, we don’t know if it exists really, or where it started, and all the rest of it. This helps Steve Daines. It helps the Republican Party. It helps [Republican Gov. Greg] Gianforte, who is well-equipped because he has the Board of Regents. And the Board of Regents, they direct the activity of the person who is theoretically running,” said former Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer in an interview with MTFP on Wednesday.
Schweitzer won more than 65% of the votes in his 2008 reelection campaign, the highest vote share for a Montana Democratic candidate for governor in at least 50 years. He told MTFP on Wednesday that it was important for Democrats to back their candidates, even ones with little name recognition.
“That was the case when [Republican] Conrad Burns was U.S. senator in Montana. A state senator nobody had heard of from Big Sandy was going to run against him. You could have made the case that the Democrats didn’t have a good candidate,” Schweitzer said.
That no-name state senator from Big Sandy was Jon Tester, who won the race. “There’s a lot of time,” Schweitzer said. “That’s why we have primaries. People are able to start connecting with people and the two-party system narrows it down.”
Schweitzer was one of several Democrats contacted by MTFP since last week who suggested the push for an independent Senate candidate was being driven by “the consultant industrial complex,” that is to say, professional campaign analysts capable of organizing significant third-party investment from political action committees.
The former governor suggested that the 2024 U.S. Senate race in Nebraska is a model for an independent Senate campaign. In that race, independent Dan Osborn challenged incumbent Republican Sen. Deb Fischer. Without a Democrat on the ballot, Osborn won nearly 47% of the vote and outraised Fischer $15 million to $8.4 million according to FEC data. Outside spending in the race also favored the independent, $20 million to $9.3 million, again according to the FEC.
Daines is one of the Republican Party’s better performers in Montana. His lowest margin of victory since 2012 was a 9.4% in a U.S. House race. In 2014, his margin approached 18% as his Democratic opponent, John Walsh, dropped out because of a plagiarism scandal concerning an academic paper Walsh wrote as a student at the War College. The National Republican Senatorial Committee later admitted leaking the Walsh paper to the New York Times days before the deadline for Democrats to select a replacement candidate.
Amanda Curtis, the current president of the Montana Federation of Public Employees, finished the 2014 Senate race for Montana Democrats.
In 2020, Daines won reelection to the Senate by defeating then-Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock by a 10% margin. That year, Republicans won every statewide race in Montana.
Bodnar has been president of the University of Montana since late 2018. He is a West Point graduate and veteran of the Green Berets. He is still active in the U.S. Army Reserve. Prior to becoming president of the University of Montana, Bodnar was an executive at General Electric working on next-generation freight locomotives.
Fault lines between Tester and Montana Democrats about the party’s future emerged at the Montana Democratic Party officers’ convention in Livingston. Party members didn’t back Tester’s pick for party chair, Mike Jopek.
Tester, who participated remotely, told voters that “The Democratic Party is in trouble. We have done it to ourselves. We have focused on blue districts and not other districts throughout the state. We are seen in polling as woke and weak.”
The party’s newly elected vice chair, Max Johansen, at the convention told MTFP that Tester should have been “more proactive and forthright” about Tester’s 2024 Republican opponent Sheehy during the election.
Johansen resigned as vice chair a few days after the remarks and the party apologized to Tester.
In a post-convention interview with MTFP, Tester said “Things have changed. There’s too many people in the party right now that don’t think I have any value. And I’m OK with that.”
This story was updated Jan. 14, 2026, after the spokesperson for Bodnar, following publication of this story, clarified the University of Montana president’s plans for his position during a potential Senate bid.
