Unite behind Bodnar

by Russell Conti, Bozeman

I grew up hunting and fishing in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and I’ve called Montana home since I came here for college. I’m an enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota Sioux, and my family carries five generations of farming and ranching — a legacy built on being responsible stewards of the land. 

Today I work as a water quality scientist, doing everything I can to protect the clean water our communities and our way of life depend on.

None of that makes me a straight-ticket voter. I hold conservative views on plenty of fiscal questions and lean more progressive on several social issues. But when it comes to choosing who represents Montana in the U.S. Senate, I vote for the candidate who will fight hardest for our landscape, our water, and the people who rely on both. That candidate is Seth Bodnar.

Public lands access, healthy rivers, and working farms and ranches are not partisan issues in Montana — they’re the foundation of who we are. Seth understands that defending them takes more than talking points; it takes a real commitment to the people who hunt, fish, farm, and depend on clean water here every day.

Montana can’t afford a divided field that hands this seat away by accident. That’s why as someone who cares about public lands and clean water, I respectfully ask Democrat Alani Bankhead to drop out of the race. 

I’m also asking my fellow Montanans, whatever their party, to unite behind Seth Bodnar — the candidate who can win and who will put our land, our water, and our people first.