These types of races are tough—and Republicans in deep blue states face similar challenges: finding a candidate who serves as a sacrificial lamb for the general election. There are some contests where the opposing party has no chance: a Democrat has no chance to win in most of the Plains States, and a Republican seldom has a shot in Massachusetts. It’s what it is. Still, one Senate Democratic candidate is clamoring for help, but she must realize that the national party campaign apparatus is leaving her in the wilderness for a simple reason: she has no path.
The candidate is Alani Bankhead of Montana, who is taking on Republican Kurt Alme. Has she seen the polling? Does she get internals? They’re brutal. Even polling from Democratic firms has Alme up by at least six points; one has him up 22. Are some within the margin of error, or close? Not really. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee knows she’s cooked (via Semafor):
Alani Bankhead, the Democratic nominee in Montana’s Senate race, bashed the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee this week for its “absolute lack of support” and said “it’s not too late” for the DSCC to get behind her campaign against Republican Kurt Alme and independent Seth Bodnar.
That’s not going to happen.
DSCC executive director Devan Barber told Semafor that “the DSCC partners with viable campaigns who have a path to victory, which Ms. Bankhead does not.”
The DSCC did not comment directly on Bodnar, but by traditional metrics he’s the more viable candidate: He’s raised more than $3 million so far and has nearly $1 million on hand; Bankhead has raised only $58,000 thus far. But Bankhead creates a problem for Bodnar by splitting the anti-Alme vote.
Montana was never a state the GOP has to worry about. Alaska is a different story, and let’s see how things rest in Maine.