BILLINGS— Candidates for Montana's open U.S. Senate seat are criticizing the sharing of personal cell phone numbers in political attack ads this campaign cycle.
Reilly Neill, who lost the Democratic primary race to Alani Bankhead in June, and independent Seth Bodnar have had their personal cell phone numbers shared publicly in dark-money ads sponsored by independent political action committees — a tactic that is becoming more common across the country.
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Neill showed MTN flyers paid for by the American Leadership Fund, which backed Bankhead. Neill said the flyers were mailed to Montanans in May before the primary election.
"To my knowledge, these were sent to pretty much every household in Montana," Neill said. "I found out because we started getting hundreds and hundreds of telephone calls.”
Neill said her campaign chose to engage with the callers.
"I got a chance to really speak to those people and find out about their concerns," she said.
Nevertheless, Neill said the practice crosses a line.
"That's not who we are, in Montana. We don't… put out people's personal phone numbers, and ask people to harass them," Neill said. "This is all very dirty and very dark money.”
A more recent post on X by Maritsa Georgiou, a former Scripps anchor who now hosts a podcast with former Montana U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, this week showed the same thing happened to Bodnar. A text message circulated, encouraging people to call his number and ask him, “why he’s staying in the race.”
A written statement to MTN from Bodnar's office said, "This is exactly the kind of dirty politics Montanans across the political spectrum are sick and tired of. Seth won’t be intimidated by partisan bullying. He’ll keep showing up in every corner of this state to listen to Montanans—Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike—who want a leader who’ll actually fight for them."
Bodnar's campaign has ties to Tester, with multiple staffer having previously worked for the Democrat who served three terms in the Senate before losing his seat in 2024.
Gary Buchanan, an Billings independent who ran unsuccessfully for eastern Montana U.S. House seat four years ago, said voters have become more receptive to independent candidates since his race.
"I think things have even gotten harder and nastier in the last four years," Buchanan said. "You kind of take that on when you run.”
He said he thinks Bodnar can change minds of callers who find his number in campaign ads.
"If for some reason they get through to Bodnar, they're going to change their mind and vote for them anyway if they have a conversation with him," Buchanan told MTN in an interview.
President Donald Trump acknowledged doing a similar thing to the late Sen. Lindsey Graham during the 2016 presidential nomination race, expressing regret at Graham's funeral Tuesday.
"I did something that I shouldn't have done. I shared his personal cell phone number with the millions of people that happened to be watching that particular day as I made a speech, a very important speech. And I remember the number 202-228-0292 if anybody wants to give it a shot," said Trump.
MTN also reached out to Republican candidate Kurt Alme and Democrat Bankhead's campaigns for comment and did not receive a response from either.
