Montana
The Democrats trying to stop a GOP takeover in Montana – Washington Examiner
BILLINGS, Montana — Republicans in Montana are on the cusp of achieving a feat only seen once before in the state’s history: a sweep of its Senate seats, governor’s mansion, and legislature at the same time.
It’s a scenario Ryan Busse, the Democratic nominee challenging Gov. Greg Gianforte (R-MT), doesn’t want to give much thought to.
“I don’t spend any time thinking about that right now,” Busse told the Washington Examiner. “I think people who care about this state, if that comes to pass, are going to have to buckle down and figure out what’s next. It’ll be a tough battle if that happens.”
Not since more than a century ago — in 1896, just seven years after Montana became the 41st state — has the GOP concurrently held both Montana Senate seats, the governorship, and both legislative chambers.
A loss by Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) to Republican rival Tim Sheehy, an outcome that would likely foreshadow other races for down-ballot Democrats like Busse, would almost certainly allow a sea of red to once again crash across the Great Plains State. The race is also on track to be the majority-maker for which party takes the U.S. Senate, a chamber currently held by Democrats by a one-seat margin.
The prospects of Montana Democrats avoiding a repeat of history, albeit for only the second time since the state joined the Union, looks increasingly dim.
Polling and nonpartisan election forecasters give an edge to Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL and Montana businessman, over Tester, a third-generation dirt farmer who’s served in the Senate since 2006 and is seeking a fourth consecutive term. Montana’s other senator is Republican Steve Daines, who is not up for reelection.
The race between Busse, an ex-firearms executive, and Gianforte, a former tech executive and congressman, is rated far less competitive and is considered a “solid” Republican seat.
Voters head to the polls for the contests in just a few weeks’ time against the backdrop of a legislature already held by Republicans with a super majority, although the party expects to lose some seats this year.
“That’s not healthy to have one party have extreme control over a state, be it Democratic or Republican, and that’s the case in Montana,” said Lou Hanebury of Billings, a retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employee who backs Busse and Tester. “I scratch my head. I don’t know what’s going on.”
Busse’s lieutenant governor running mate, Raph Graybill, pitched voters during a Tuesday night town hall on why they should embrace “divided government” by electing more Democrats like them.
“In my experience, when you have divided government, the legislators realize that their dumb ideas, the ideas that are just about phoning the other side or making a statement, it is going to waste people’s time,” said Graybill, who served as chief legal counsel to former Gov. Steve Bullock (D-MT). “They sink to the bottom because people know they’ll get weaker, and these good ideas percolate to the top.”
Sheehy certainly doesn’t see it that way, at least not at the national level. He makes the case that Tester is trying to deflect from the national importance of his election by projecting a more centrist image that leans into his Montana roots. He and other Republicans say that Tester would hand Democrats power in Washington even if he breaks with his party on occasion.
“He can’t be affiliated with the Democrats’ national platform,” Sheehy told rallygoers on Monday in Glendive, a small east Montana town near the North Dakota border that’s home to barely 4,000 residents. “He tries to make the election local and say, ‘Well, I’m a dirt farmer. I got a flat-top hairdo, and I got my fingers cut off in a meat grinder,’ and all those other things. ‘I’m a local guy, forget about what’s going on national.’”
Montana is no doubt a Republican stronghold for president; former President Donald Trump won by more than 16 points in 2020 and 20 points in 2016. But its ruby-red status at the state level is a newer feature that has eclipsed the once purple reputation that existed for down-ballot races throughout the more than 125 years since a Republican takeover of its state offices.
“There are cycles to all this stuff. But I think ultimately, Montana will always give a candidate a fair shake, and they’re not crazy about one party being in charge of anything,” said Eric Stern, an ex-senior adviser to Bullock and former Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D-MT). “There’s always going to be a place for Democrats in Montana, and there will be good years and bad years and good eras and bad eras.”
Montana Democratic state Rep. Paul Tuss placed the onus on state and local Democrats to better “focus on the core issues that are central to their families,” including affordable housing, infrastructure, and simply embracing a style of “government that works.”
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Tuss is a longtime friend of Tester, whose R+8 district overlaps with the state Senate district Tester once held before being elected to Congress.
“I think that sometimes we get wrapped up with regard to the cultural wars that seem to dominate national politics, and we sometimes lose the argument when those things occur,” Tuss said. “Rather than discussing these meat and potato issues that really are the issues that are so central to our party, sometimes we get lost in those culture war issues.”
WASHINGTON ― Montana Republican Senate nominee Kurt Alme, who previously served as his state’s U.S. attorney, cut a plea deal in 2020 that allowed a tribal police officer who sexually abused a 6-year-old girl to serve less than a year in prison and avoid being registered as a sex offender.
Alme, who has President Donald Trump’s backing in his bid for Senate, served as Montana’s U.S. attorney in two stints. Trump appointed him both times; Alme served in the role from September 2017 through December 2020, and then again from March 2025 through March 2026.
Alme oversaw the case of Mychal Thomas Damon, who was indicted in June 2019 by a grand jury on one count of abusive sexual contact with an individual under 12, which carries a maximum punishment of a lifetime in prison, a $250,000 fine and no less than five years to a lifetime of supervised release. The average sentence for this crime is less severe, but still significant: 62 months in prison, no fine and 143 months of supervised release, based on an analysis of 2025 data provided by the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
Damon, 28, had admitted he touched the 6-year-old’s genitals. But in February 2020, Alme’s office filed a plea deal in his case that reduced his charge to felony child abuse.
The changes in the plea deal raised the alleged age of the victim from below 12 to below 14, stripped out the language of sexual intent and moved the offense out of the federal sex crime framework, meaning Damon would no longer be required to register as a sex offender. It jointly recommended Damon be sentenced to the time he’d already served of 324 days, and required only a sex offender evaluation. Alme’s name appears on the bottom of the document, along with a signature by his assistant U.S. attorney, Cassady Adams.
In June, Alme filed a sentencing memorandum that described Damon’s conduct, which included details of him touching the child’s vagina with skin-to-skin contact, and the adverse effect it had on her mental health. Local reporting at the time said the victim had told a therapist “Mychal touched me” and hurt her by putting his fingers in her “hoo hoo.”
Ten days later, Alme announced Damon was being sentenced to time served of 324 days and two years of supervised release. As of June 2026, Damon is not listed in the national sex offender registry or in Montana’s Sexual or Violent Offender Registry.
It’s not clear why Alme reduced the charges against Damon as significantly as he did. During part of his tenure as U.S. attorney, his office declined 64% of sexual assault cases. He conceded in a 2019 interview that this “is something that has to be worked on,” and noted that a lot of these cases are declined due to “weak or insufficient evidence.”
Asked what happened in Damon’s case, an Alme campaign spokesman on Thursday lashed out at unnamed Democrats for trying to make him look bad.
“Kurt’s liberal opponents are twisting the facts to manufacture a fake narrative that exploits crimes against women and children,” said Alme’s spokesperson. “Department of Justice policy required defendants to plead to the most serious charge readily provable from the evidence. Kurt strongly supported the Multi-Disciplinary Teams on our Native American reservations, led by his office, to support investigations of crimes against children and to support victims.”
His spokesperson also pushed back on the idea that Alme unreasonably declined a large number of sexual assault cases during his tenure as U.S. attorney.
“Kurt’s office prosecuted every viable sexual abuse felony referred to it and pursued the most serious charge readily provable from the evidence,” the spokesperson said. “Many ‘declined’ cases were to allow more appropriate tribal prosecutions ― they were not dropped. Kurt will bring his years of experience prosecuting criminals and working with the Sexual Assault Response Teams on our Native American reservations to the U.S. Senate to strengthen investigations, support victims, and better protect women and children.”
The campaign pointed HuffPost to a 2010 report by the Government Accountability Office that found the most common reason for U.S. attorney’s offices to decline sexual abuse cases referred in from Indian country was “weak or insufficient admissible evidence.” It also highlighted statements of support for Alme in an October 2025 press release by Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), when he celebrated Alme being confirmed as U.S. attorney.
Alme is currently running for Daines’ Senate seat, and Daines went out of his way to clear the path for him. In a stunning and orchestrated maneuver, the two-term senator in March abruptly withdrew from reelection as Alme filed to run for his seat, minutes before the state’s filing period closed. Daines’ last-minute change-up was an effort to block potential Democrats or any major Republican challenger from jumping into an open Senate race.
Alme is taking on Democrat Alani Bankhead and independent candidate Seth Bodnar in the November election. Bankhead and Bodner have been duking it out for weeks, with each appealing to different factions of the Democratic party and calling on the other to drop out.
Bankhead, a retired Air Force officer, unexpectedly won the Democratic primary earlier this month, boosted by grassroots supporters and more than $2.5 million in outside money from a progressive veterans’ PAC. But Bodnar, a former University of Montana president who did not appear on the primary ballot, has bipartisan endorsements from prominent establishment figures, including former Democratic Sen. Jon Tester and former Republican Gov. Marc Racicot. He’s also significantly outraised Bankhead and Alme.
This Senate seat is rated “solid Republican” by the nonpartisan Cook’s Political Report, meaning Alme is well-positioned to win the general election. But this race would be more competitive if Bodner and Alme were going head to head, without Bankhead in the running.
Where Khloe Kardashian Stands With Ex French Montana More Than 10 Years After Breakup
French Montana is done keeping up with reality TV.
In fact, he only agreed to appear on Keeping Up With The Kardashians and Kourtney & Khloé Take the Hamptons over a decade ago as a favor to then-girlfriend Khloe Kardashian.
“She said to get on the show,” he exclusively told E! News at the BET Awards on June 28. “And I got on the show. Shout out to Khloe.”
The “Ever Since U Left Me” rapper, who split with Kardashian in December 2014 after eight months of dating, said the experience was “fun” because her family kept it real.
“They filmed their real life,” he continued. “And we were part of something together that one time. So it felt great. It didn’t feel like work because they film what they do everyday.”
As for his future in reality TV, the 41-year-old said those days are over, shutting down any prospective offers with a simple, “Negative.”
Although the “Unforgettable” artist—whose real name is Karim Kharbouch—may not be returning to television anytime soon, he has no problem hanging out with his ex-girlfriend these days.
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