Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Democrats vying for a pair of deep-red Senate seats are facing increasingly desperate calls from within their party to step aside for more promising independent candidates.<\/p>\n
But they say they won\u2019t drop out \u2014 unless there\u2019s divine intervention.<\/p>\n
Democrats Alani Bankhead of Montana and Julian Beaudion of South Dakota both told POLITICO they have no plans to exit the race, despite pressure from national \u2014 and even some state \u2014 Democrats to step aside. Numerous<\/a>polls<\/a>, coupled with stronger<\/a>fundraising<\/a> and campaign operations, show independents Seth Bodnar and Brian Bengs have a stronger \u2014 if still muddied \u2014 path to victory in November.<\/p>\n If the Democrats stay on the ballot, it will be almost impossible to claw these seats away from Republicans in Mountain West states that President Donald Trump dominated in 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cI’m a person of faith. If a lightning bolt from God struck me and was like, \u2018Alani, get out of the race,\u2019 sure,\u201d Bankhead told POLITICO when asked if anything would change her mind. Otherwise, she said there\u2019s \u201cabsolutely nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n Beaudion has a similar resolve: \u201cTo be clear, we are not considering dropping out of the race,\u201d he told POLITICO.<\/p>\n By digging in, the Democrats could imperil their party\u2019s hopes of regaining Senate control in an already uphill cycle. There\u2019s broad agreement across the many factions of the Democratic Party that a crowded race relinquishes any hope of victory. Bengs has argued<\/a> that Beaudion remaining on the ballot jeopardizes his chance of winning this fall against GOP Sen. Mike Rounds. Bodnar has maintained he has a viable path either way, and he could be helped out if the Libertarian candidate in the race pulls votes from Republican Kurt Alme.<\/p>\n The deadline to withdraw in South Dakota is Tuesday, and Montana\u2019s is shortly after, on Aug. 10. Democrats across the ideological spectrum in Washington<\/a> and their<\/a> home states<\/a> are calling on Bankhead and Beaudion to step down to help their party bank-shot a Senate majority, with the idea that a victorious independent candidate could caucus with a future Democratic majority \u2014 or at least not party up with Republicans.<\/p>\n \u201cThe math is inescapable. If it’s impossible for a Democrat to win, it is vital that the Democrats step aside and give the independent at least a shot of beating the Republican,\u201d said Matt Bennett, a co-founder of the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way. \u201cBeating the MAGA Republicans is priorities one, two and three. Who we beat them with is pretty far down the list.\u201d<\/p>\n Democrats have already had some luck setting up one-on-one independent vs. Republican matchups in other Trump-won states. The Democratic candidate in Nebraska withdrew to pave the way for independent Dan Osborn \u2014 though an ongoing court case from a Democratic anti-abortion pastor<\/a> could complicate things. And Idaho\u2019s Democratic nominee recently dropped out in favor of independent Todd Achilles.<\/p>\n \u201cKnowing that your campaign is not gonna break through, and just being able to recognize that is probably the hardest thing of all,\u201d Achilles said of Democrat David Roth\u2019s decision to step down. \u201cI do appreciate what David did in Idaho.\u201d<\/p>\n Bankhead and Beaudion insist they can win, even despite the headwinds. Bankhead expects to ride the anti-incumbency and pro-outsider wave into office, and Beaudion credits his relationships with voters throughout the state.<\/p>\n \u201cNobody ever knows what\u2019s actually going to happen in an election,\u201d Bankhead said. \u201cThe people decide on November 3.\u201d<\/p>\n But Idaho and Nebraska Democrats reached a conclusion that Bankhead and Beaudion did not: The party\u2019s brand is so tarnished in their states that the \u201cD\u201d label on the ballot line provides no viable path to victory.<\/p>\n \u201cI am a professional partisan Democrat, and I have every incentive to be on the Democrat\u2019s side here,\u201d said Pat Dennis, president of American Bridge 21st Century, an opposition-research firm. \u201cBut ultimately, the priority is to take the Senate majority away from Republicans. In some states, that path is very difficult to impossible for a Democrat. In those cases, it is both strategically and morally correct to take the path that is most likely to achieve the goal we’re going for.\u201d<\/p>\n Faiz Shakir, a longtime adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), did not go as far as to call for Bankhead and Beaudion to step aside. But he agreed that there\u2019s real opportunity for independents who aren\u2019t stuck with the Democratic brand\u2019s baggage.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing someone who’s not associated with the two-party system right now helps you greatly in many parts of this country, particularly those that have much more rural and conservative tendencies,\u201d said Shakir. \u201cThere’s frustration and anger with Trump, and there’s not as much of a love and appreciation for the Democratic Party.\u201d<\/p>\n Shakir also said that competitive races in these red areas \u2014 even if the independents can\u2019t pull off a win \u2014 could force Republicans to pull much-needed resources out of battleground races in order to defend their turf.<\/p>\n But he also offered a warning to his party: Talking too much about the independents’ strong fundraising and establishment backing risks tying them to the \u201cdonor class\u201d and turning them \u201cinto a worse version of what people assumed of a Democrat.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou gotta give them the space to be both independent in mind and in spirit,\u201d he said. \u201cThe argument for them is truly that they are building a movement in the state that people are hungry for, and that in the support of those people, they’re finding resonance. And that would be the argument for a Democrat to step aside.\u201d<\/p>\n Republicans, meanwhile, are working to paint the independents and Democrats as one and the same. They\u2019re also trying to elevate the Democrats in an attempt to stop the independents from gaining more traction: Trump on social media<\/a> attacked Bankhead in July, ignoring Bodnar entirely.<\/p>\n \u201cDemocrat-backed independents all support the same socialist policies and middle-class tax hikes that made Democrats toxic across the country,\u201d Joanna Rodriguez, the communications director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said in a statement. \u201cRepublicans will defeat them in November.\u201d<\/p>\n The inside calls for Beaudion and Bankhead to step aside aren\u2019t just coming from Washington. Many local Democrats in Montana and South Dakota have said publicly they should not continue their campaigns. Nancy Keenan, the former executive director of the Montana Democratic Party who has endorsed Bodnar, wrote in a June op-ed<\/a> that \u201cthere is not a viable path for a Democratic victory in this race.\u201d<\/p>\n Bennett, the Third Way co-founder, went further, saying if Democrats fail to flip the Senate in November, the blame would lie at the hands of Bankhead and Beaudion.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we fumble away a majority because these no hope candidates are too vain to get out of the race, that’ll be a political calamity,\u201d he said. \u201cThese people need to understand that they will become pariahs.\u201d<\/p>\n Bankhead doesn\u2019t see it that way.<\/p>\n \u201cI’m not swayed by it because I’m not here for power and money,\u201d she said. \u201cIt’s still the old, rich D.C. powerful political circles that are trying to keep more progressive candidates out of the fight so they can maintain the status quo.\u201d<\/p>\n