BILLINGS — Alani Bankhead, a retired lieutenant colonel and special agent, is running as a Democrat for one of Montana's U.S. Senate seats with a focus on accountability, affordable housing, and combating child sex trafficking.
Bankhead announced her campaign in January, prior to Sen. Steve Daines dropping out of the race.
Recently, Bankhead joined Montana This Morning to discuss her campaign.
Watch the full interview here:
You have a special guest with you. Let's introduce this one as well.
Answer: ""I do. This is K-9 Lulu. She's an electronic detection canine. She finds evidence in child sex abuse material cases."
Let's talk about your history and politics to start.
"I have zero history and politics. I looked around at what was happening in Montana and seeing my neighbors struggle with putting food on the table and a roof over their heads. And I knew I had a set of skills that could benefit the population in terms of having a better quality of life."
You announced your run in January. That was way before this big shakeup that we saw with Senator Daines dropping out. What are your thoughts on that?
"I believe that whatever the people of Montana need in terms of having the best form of representation in D.C. is what's most important. And so if it was his decision and in the best interest of the people of Montana, then I think that's a great option."
You're one of five Democrats running for this one. How are you different than the rest of them?
"So I'm a retired lieutenant colonel and special agent. I've hunted terror spies and human traffickers all over the world. I was a senior Pentagon bodyguard. So I had a front row seat to Capitol Hill, the White House and the most senior levels of government. And so I already have 20 years worth of trusted relationships with amazing people who serve community through federal government and military service. And it's those relationships that I'm looking to capitalize on when we take Montana values to D.C. next January so that we can again get those results for our folks to alleviate issues with housing and affordability and what's happening in the national security space."
Now, you're not technically from Montana. Tell us, if someone who is from Montana says 'they're not going to be a voice for a Montanan like me.' What would you say to them?
"Yeah, that's a really great point. I'm third-generation military. So my family has served America going as far back as World War II. And I was taught that we work hard and we serve our community and we are family-focused and all about our freedoms and common sense. We do the right thing to serve our community. And those are Montana values and traits. And so we fit right in as a family in terms of what's happening here in Montana. And my husband himself is retired active duty. So after 20 years, he was one of the first people in Afghanistan after 9/11. We chose Montana because it fit our value set the most and we feel very lucky to call ourselves Montanans. But at the end of the day, it is about having the skill set to create results in D.C., which I'm the only Senate candidate that does."
Tell me about some of your political priorities.
"My priorities are first and foremost accountability. So I believe that if you address a core issue first, then it doesn't become a bigger issue down the road. That's part of the reason why we're here with housing and with health care, because these little issues with venture capital and not holding Wall Street accountable before 2008, 2009 have partially contributed to the situation that we're in today. Additionally, obviously, Epstein. So I'm actually a child sex crimes and child sex trafficking expert. I teach internationally and I'm very good at putting corrupt government officials in jail. And that's exactly what we plan on doing when we get to D.C. next January. Obviously, here on the homeland, affordability is a big thing. So housing and health care are the two things that we hear a lot about. And I'm a big proponent of Medicaid for all and providing affordable housing for Montanans. And I know how we're going to do it, which is by using the excess defense spending through use lose funding, which we saw on the news a lot of last week with the $90 billion that the Pentagon spent just in September of 2025. And we're going to start clawing back that money so that we can provide affordable health care options for Montanans, but not impact the national security mission."
Sex trafficking is a huge issue here in Montana. If you were to be elected, what would be one of the first things you do to fight for that?
"The first thing I would do is create top-down legislation to better enforce the laws and create better protections for the most vulnerable. So we would love to mirror statute of limitations laws throughout the state so that we can ensure that whenever a survivor is ready to come forward, they can and they will have the support of the justice system. Additionally, law enforcement everywhere is really strapped for time and resources and they're really struggling. So getting access to additional resources and training would be a top priority for me to make sure that one, survivors decide and have the courage to approach law enforcement about making a report that they're met with excellent law enforcement officers. Amazing prosecutors who are willing to go toe-to-toe with these traffickers who can be very powerful and influential and get accountability on behalf of the survivors."
What are your thoughts on President Trump's term so far?
"I am not a fan of what's happened so far. He campaigned on no new wars and affordability. And as you can see, we are in Iran and dealing with issues in South America. And additionally, the price of everything has gone up because of the closure of the Straits of Hormuz to U.S. freight. We are seeing gas prices more than 30 percent increase kind of since the war started. And so he's not keeping up with his promises. And that's disappointing."
What are your thoughts on the war?
"I am opposed to the war. So I'm a retired lieutenant colonel and special agent, like I mentioned. I actually was the commander of the counterintelligence unit in Kuwait. So that's the same unit that lost three F-15Es a few weeks ago. And that is my worst nightmare. So, frankly, it's an illegal war because Congress was not did not provide the approvals for that conflict to begin. And additionally, international law, which I have a master's degree in, does not allow for countries to invade other countries without an imminent threat, which President Trump himself said there was none. And so I'm opposed as a senior military officer as well as a national security expert and a law enforcement officer to what's happening in Iran."
So she's [K-9 Lulu] basically a co-worker of yours, right?
"She is my co-worker and she's on the campaign trail with us."
Tell us a little bit more about kind of her role in your day-to-day work that you do.
"Yeah. So, Lulu is an electronic detection canine. She finds evidence in child sex abuse material cases, which is the proper term for child pornography. And Lulu helps protect kids from cyber child sex exploitation. So she's been all over the world. And the United States, we've actually been to Capitol Hill to testify on why more of these dogs need to be around the country to protect our children. And she's heading the campaign trail with me. Number one, because she's a great tool to talk about these very difficult topics like child sex trafficking and the Epstein list and whatnot. But also she's a great example of the innovation that exists right here in the United States. So Lulu was created by an arson canine handler, a firefighter who knew a bunch of law enforcement officers like me. And they asked him, do you think you could create a dog that can find digital media evidence? And he tried something difficult. He made it happen. And now there are over 150 dogs worldwide. And so we love to showcase Lulu as an example of what Montanans can do if you just have a little bit of creativity and want to serve your community."
