2026 Montana Federal Races

Seth Bodnar (I)

Website: sethformontana.com

Endorsements: Fmr. Senator Jon Tester, MT AFL-CIO, Forward Montana, Montana Conservation Voters

Do you support codifying federal protections for abortion access into federal law? 

• Yes

Do you support capping or reducing interest rates on federal student loans to ease debt burdens on young workers? 

• Yes

AI technology and the drain on our resources that data centers require are causing huge amounts of alarm and distrust amongst young people. What is your plan to invest in technology that promises real benefits in areas like medicine and quality of life while protecting our right to privacy, access to a healthy environment, clean air and water, and from further economic exploitation by business interests?

• I’m against data centers that raise your power bill, threaten our water and land, or automate away your jobs while companies keep the profit. I’m against algorithms building a file on you without your consent. If a company can’t meet that bar, they don’t belong here. I’m not against AI, but the world’s most powerful technology shouldn’t decide your future without being held accountable to you.

Many young Indigenous people are concerned about preserving cultures, community and environment. How would you champion and ensure adequate funding for issues that are important to Indian Country in Montana such as combatting the Missing & Murdered Indigenous Peoples epidemic, tribal water compacts and returning land stewardship of public lands to tribal peoples? 

• I’m committed to tribal sovereignty and treaty obligations. On MMIP, I’ll push for full funding for tribal police and BIA investigators. On water, I’ll fight to fund and ratify Montana’s tribal water compacts. On public lands, I support co-management giving tribal nations say over ancestral lands. As UM president, I grew Native enrollment over 40 percent. As Senator, I’ll keep listening to tribal communities and following their leadership.

Alani Bankhead (D)-
alaniformt.com

Kurt Alme (R)-
almeforsenate.com

Kyle Austin (L)-
kyleaustinmt.com  

Sam Forstag (D)

Website: samformontana.com

Endorsements: Senator Bernie Sanders, Montana Conservation Voters, Planned Parenthood Action Fund

Do you support an individual’s right to make their own decisions about their reproductive health, including gender-affirming care, abortion, and family planning?

• Yes

Do you believe housing is a human right?

• Yes

How do you plan to interact with your constituents and prioritize your constituents’ opinions when representing them at the state level?

• We’ve held well over 70 town halls and meet & greets across the district during this campaign, with many more planned. At these events, voters are encouraged to come with their own questions or ideas, and have a conversation with me face to face. When I’m elected, I’ll make sure Montanans have this sort of regular access and information that they deserve from our Representative.

With the increase of data center development and constituents statewide calling for their ban or moratorium— what is your plan to introduce federal legislation to protect public lands from data center developments? 

• The speed of the data centers buildout, without any federal regulation, is infuriating. I’ll fight for laws ensuring they can’t be built until & unless they provide their own power, don’t pollute our environment, and only use union labor. I’ll also regulate AI itself – if companies want our data, they should pay their fair share in taxes. Please visit samformontana.com to see my full platform on AI and data centers. 

Aaron Flint (R) –
flintformontana.com

Nick Sheedy (L) –
could not find candidate site

Brian Miller (D)

Website: www.miller4congress.com/ 

Endorsements: I don’t solicit or advertise endorsements. 

Do you believe AI Data Centers should be built in Montana?

• No

Do you support Title I funding for rural schools in Montana? 

• Yes 

As AI drives rapid demand for new data centers across the country, what role should Congress play in ensuring these facilities are sited and developed responsibly? What federal standards should guide where they are built and how they manage energy demand, electric grid capacity, water use, environmental impacts, and local community benefits so that AI infrastructure supports long-term economic growth without placing unsustainable demands on natural resources? 

• Ban them in Montana completely.  No federal standards could protect us from Data Centers.  This entire industry is completely corrupted and trying to run a 21st century application (AI) on 20th century data-storage technology. It will never work.   If Montana bans data centers, other states will follow, and it will send a message to the industry, forcing them to change.  But honestly, I would be very afraid of any federal legislation on this issue because it would be written by the data center industry and designed to deceive people.  Trust me, I know what I’m talking about here. I’m the only attorney in Montana who is currently fighting the data centers directly down at Broadview. 

How can Federal policy better support the development of affordable housing that middle- and lower-income Montanans can actually access?

• This is a super complicated question and honestly, I don’t really think anyone knows how to answer it right now because the whole thing is a mess.  We obviously need to build more houses, but doing that takes time because of all of the regulatory environments (which are not necessarily a bad thing, but they do slow everything down).  So we have to look at making some regulatory changes if we want to get that moving.  Then you get into the question as to how are you going to finance purchases?  Given all of the extreme income inequality in America, most people in the lower brackets can’t get the money together that quickly.  So, probably what we would want to explore are the land trusts because while those provide lower equity returns than traditional home purchases, they also provide stable and reliable mortgage payments which are not going to be subject to the ups and downs of, say, the rental market.  So even if people in land trusts aren’t going to come away with a ton of home equity, they get some, they are building some wealth and more importantly, they are going to know exactly what their mortgage payments are going to be for the long-term.  So that’s a trade off in this context that probably makes sense.

Troy Downing (R)-
troydowning.com/

Michael D Eisenhauer- (I)- eisenhauerforcongress.com 

Patrick McCracken (L)- mccrackenformontana.com