BILLINGS — Seth Bodnar, the former president of the University of Montana, is running for one of Montana's U.S. Senate seats as an independent candidate, saying Montanans deserve a senator who works for them rather than for political parties.
Bodnar joined Montana This Morning recently to discuss his campaign, his policy priorities, and the challenges of running without a party affiliation in a state where no independent has ever won a U.S. Senate seat.
Watch the full interview here:
Question: You're running for Montana's U.S. Senate seat as an independent. An independent has never won a U.S. Senate seat in Montana. Why do you think you can be the first?
Answer: "I think Montanans are hungry for a new approach. Montanans are an independent people, and they deserve an independent voice who is in the U.S. Senate working every day for them and their priorities, not for party bosses or the political class in Washington, DC."
Q: You have support from former Sen. Jon Tester and his team, but you're being accused of splitting the Democratic vote. How do you respond to that?
"This is a campaign for all Montanans. I am working to earn the support of independents, of Republicans, of Democrats, of all Montanans who want a U.S. Senator who's going to go and fight for them in Washington, DC."
Q: What are your political priorities?
"Well, it's pretty simple. I believe we need to revive the American dream for every single Montanan. I think that the American dream has been held hostage by a broken political system in Washington. Montanans continue to see higher costs, fewer opportunities, and we see political leaders in our nation's capital that are more focused on fighting with each other, distracting and dividing us than they are on generating solutions to the challenges we face."
Q: You've said you won't caucus with a party if elected, and you've called for new leadership in the U.S. Senate. Can you explain that?
"I think one of the big problems is that our elected leaders, they go to Washington and they put a jersey on. You know, a blue jersey with a D or a red jersey with an R, and that becomes the team that they fight for. I'm going to go to the U.S. Senate with a jersey that says Montana on it, and I'm going to fight every single day for Montanans. I'm not going to be a soldier for any party. I'm going to be a soldier for the people of this state. When I was 18, I joined the U.S. military, and I swore an oath to this country. My work at the university has been about serving all Montanans, Republicans, Democrats, independents. When I go to the U.S. Senate, I'm going to be a soldier for the people of this state, not for any political party."
Q: What are your thoughts on President Trump's term so far?
"I don't think that either party has a monopoly on good ideas. And as I think about what happens in DC, I have one lens. I don't view it through party, I view it through what's good for Montanans. I think about immigration. I believe we need to enforce our borders. I believe that we need to ensure that violent criminals are removed from this country. I also believe that we can do that without infringing upon the individual liberties of Montanans. I look at the soaring costs that Montanans are facing, and I'm glad to see a focus on reducing prescription drug prices. I'm glad to see a focus on preventing private equity from buying up single-family homes. At the same time, I think we have tariffs that are being used more like toys than they are tools, and those are driving up costs for our farmers. They're destroying export markets, and I think we need common sense trade policy."
Q: You are a veteran. What are your thoughts on the war in the Middle East?
"This is very personal to me, and I want to state right up front, Iran has been the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism. But I know firsthand the difficulty and the chaos of leading soldiers in the aftermath of an ill-planned regime change. And if you're going to send American sons and daughters into war, the American people better know, number one, why this is an imminent threat. Number two, what is our strategy? What are we aiming to do? And number three, what is our endgame? And how are we going to avoid yet another protracted war in the Middle East? I'm very disturbed that we haven't seen that, and it's their responsibility to make that clear to the American people."
Q: You don't necessarily criticize or applaud President Trump. Why is that?
"I'm not about criticizing leaders. I'm about policy. I'm about talking through what's good for Montana. And the fact is, there are common-sense solutions out there. We see our political leaders too often engaging in name-calling, slogans, beating each other up, working to fight and defeat each other, rather than working to make life better for Montanans. That's what I'm focused on."
Q: Are you receiving any money for your advertisements from the Democratic Party?
"No. We just launched our campaign last week and we got off to a great fundraising start within the first 48 hours, raised over half a million dollars. And that's from people across the political spectrum. We've had donations from people who identify as Republicans, people who identify as independents, and people who identify as Democrats. And I think that's a great indication of the excitement people have and the desire people have for a new approach."
Q: A lawsuit was filed in 2021 accusing the University of Montana of mistreating female employees and alleging that you were perpetuating a culture that, "continued to create wage, promotion and opportunity gaps for women." It was settled in 2024. What can you say for this of your characterization of leadership?
"Our leadership is always focused on getting results, serving the people of the state of Montana. That lawsuit was shown again and again through a legal process to have no merit. Those claims had no merit. And if you look at our leadership team at the University of Montana under my leadership, our executive team was more than 50 percent female. We had the largest number of women deans at the university in the history of the university. We have incredible leaders, men and women at the university and incredible people who are committed to the important mission of public education here in this country."
Q: You need to collect (13,000) signatures by May 26 to appear on the ballot. How is that going?
"It's going well. We're off to the races, and we have people gathering signatures, and a lot of people are reaching out saying, 'Hey, how can I sign? How can I sign my own Declaration of Independence?' Two hundred and fifty years ago, our founders signed a very important document. And I think a lot of Montanans are ready to sign their own Declaration of Independence from the political gridlock that's doing a disservice to the people of this great state. Please, I'd encourage people to go to our website, sethformontana.com, and find ways to volunteer."
Q: You won't side with Democrats or Republicans, but everyone knows where you stand on the Bobcat versus Griz rivalry. How do you appeal to Bobcat supporters?
"There's a lot of families across Montana that live in a house divided. My own is a house divided. My wife is a Bobcat. And obviously, it was a great privilege to serve the University of Montana over the past eight years. But I worked very closely across the Montana University System on the very important mission of this university system. It really is a treasure of the Treasure State. We cheer for all our teams. Obviously, there's rivalries we have one on one Saturday in November. But we cheer for MSU. We cheer for UM. And we're excited to serve all Montanans. The Griz-Cat divide might be almost as strong as the Republican-Democrat divide."
