–Great Falls, Montana
So what happened in the 2026 legislative primary election in Great Falls?
We saw some wild dark money spending in Montana’s U.S. Senate Race culminating in Alani Bankhead triumphing in the Democratic Primary. Along with consultants playing 4D chess for “Independent” Bodnar while he is building a war chest of campaign money.
After the rash of wild spending and fake Dem filings in Cascade County, how did things turn out?
Primarily Okay!
On the Republican side, George Nikolakakos triumphed over Randy Pinocci, maybe because he spent tens of thousands of his own money on his campaign or maybe because Randy Pinocci is a goober who sleeps on the job and threw us under the bus with his votes as a Public Service Commissioner.
Randy Pinocci sleeping on the job
Ed Buttrey fell to Steve Galloway in the Republican Primary for Montana Senate District 11 (SD 11). That was a nasty race with PACs dumping buckets of money to paint Buttrey as a RINO, “pretending to be a conservative” and “Obama’s MVP”. Which is laughable as we’ve discussed previously. Some of the Libertarians were taken out (Tony Rosales and Kevin Leatherbarrow) but Jessica Dyrdahl triumphed in SD 10.
Actual Democrats Won!
On the Democratic side, both Mindy Sterner Leach and Valynda Holland handily beat their fake Democratic (actually MAGAs) opponents. Woo hoo for informed voters! The slate is set for November, with the Great Falls area Democratic vs. Republican legislative lineups shown below.
