Mark Thane Voted Against His Own Party's Voters. What Does That Tell You?
For Immediate Release: August 9, 2026
(Lyn Hellegaard) – Montana Democrats picked their U.S. Senate nominee back in June. Alani Bankhead won that primary by more than 12,000 votes.
Her own party has spent the summer trying to talk her out of the seat she won.
On July 8, seventeen Democratic state legislators signed a letter asking Bankhead and independent candidate Seth Bodnar to meet and decide between themselves who would stay in the race.
My opponent, Rep. Mark Thane, was one of the seventeen.
The letter argued that a three-way race “substantially increases the likelihood of a Republican victory through a divided center-left vote.”
In plain terms, party leaders decided the voters got the wrong answer in June and set out to fix it.
Bankhead has said no every time she has been asked. She has stated more than once, publicly, that she is the nominee and intends to stay on the ballot through November.
Reporting has also surfaced messaging materials, circulated by outside political operatives, suggesting ways to pressure Bankhead to withdraw, including reaching out to people close to her.
Those materials are still being verified, and I am not going to build an argument on something unconfirmed.
What is confirmed, on the record, with his name attached, is that Rep. Thane joined sixteen colleagues in asking his own party’s primary winner to step aside for someone national Democratic figures preferred.
I bring this up not because it is a Missoula issue. It’s not.
It’s a U.S. Senate race and Rep. Thane is one of dozens of legislators who signed a letter about it. But it tells you something worth knowing before you vote in House District 89.
When Rep. Thane’s own party’s voters chose a nominee he didn’t prefer, he signed on to an effort to overturn that choice.
That is his call to make as a private citizen. But it raises a fair question for the people he represents in Helena:
When push comes to shove, does he answer to the voters in front of him, or to the party leadership behind him?
That is not a hypothetical question in a legislature.
Every session, representatives get pressure from caucus leadership, from lobbyists, from national party organizations, to vote a certain way regardless of what their own district wants.
The Bankhead letter is one data point, but it is a clear one.
It shows Rep. Thane is willing to publicly organize against the outcome his own party’s voters chose, when leadership decided a different outcome would be more convenient.
I am not asking you to care about a Senate primary. I am asking you to notice the instinct.
I’ve spent my time in the legislature answering to the people who sent me there, not to whoever happens to be running the party at the moment.
That’s the standard I hold myself to, and it is a fair standard to hold any elected official to, including my opponent.
Voters in House District 89 deserve a representative who answers to them first. Judge us both by what we do when the party and the voters don’t agree.
Lyn Hellegaard is the Republican candidate for Montana House District 89. The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nevada News & Views. Digital technology may have been used in the research, writing, or production of this article. Please verify information and consult additional sources as needed.
