BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Former University of Montana President Seth Bodnar is launching an independent campaign to challenge Republican Sen. Steve Daines in November, after Democrats in the state lost elections in recent years.
Details of Wednesday’s announcement were obtained in advance by The Associated Press. Bodnar’s decision to run without party backing underscores the diminished status of Montana Democrats, who control no statewide offices following the 2024 defeat of three-term incumbent Sen. Jon Tester.
Major party candidates faced a Wednesday deadline to file for the November election. No well-known Democrats had yet entered the senate race as of Tuesday.
Daines, who is seeking a third term, is a former business executive and close ally of President Donald Trump. Republicans have a slim majority the Senate, where they hold 53 seats versus 45 for Democrats plus two independents.
Bodnar said in a video message that America's political system is broken and elected officials in Washington are looking out only for the wealthy and connected.
“The American dream is getting crushed, and both parties are to blame. They pit us against each other while they line their own pockets,” Bodnar said in the video. “We need a new approach, an independent senator who will fight for hardworking Montanans.”
The 47-year-old Grove City, Pennsylvania, native graduated first in his class from West Point and served in the Army special forces before working as an executive at GE Transportation.
Bodnar spent eight years as president of the University of Montana and stepped down last month. If he collects the 13,327 petition signatures needed to qualify, his name would appear on the general election ballot, not during the primary.
Federal Election Commission campaign filings show Daines has raised more than $8 million since his last election in 2020. He had almost $5 million in campaign cash on hand as of Dec. 31, according to the filings.
Those amounts could increase exponentially if the race heats up: Total spending in Montana's 2024 senate race between Tester and Republican Tim Sheehy topped $300 million, a record for a congressional race on a per voter basis, according to party officials.
Daines, 63, who was born in Van Nuys, California, and grew up in Bozeman, Montana, was an executive at Right Now Technologies prior to his election to the House in 2012.
He served one term before a successful 2014 run for the senate seat formerly held by Democrat Max Baucus. Daines won by a wide margin over a little-known opponent after Baucus’ would-be Democratic successor, former Lt. Gov. John Walsh, dropped out of the race following reports that he plagiarized parts of his thesis while attending the U.S. Army War College.
In 2020, Daines beat Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock by 10 percentage points. The race at the time was the most expensive in Montana political history, only to be eclipsed by the Tester-Sheehy race.
From 2023 to 2025, Daines led Senate GOP fundraising efforts as chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Montana until recent years had a history of “ticket splitting” among voters willing to back officials from both major parties. That purple streak faded as national issues including immigration and health care took a more central role in Treasure State politics.
The shift came at the expense of Montana Democrats, who since 2014 lost control of the governor’s office, the state's two Senate seats and all other statewide positions they once held. In the 2022 election, independent Gary Buchanan outperformed Democrat Penny Ronning in the general election for a Republican-held House seat representing eastern Montana.
The Republican that race, former Rep. Matt Rosendale, received more votes than Buchanan and Ronning combined.
FILE - University of Montana President Seth Bodnar speaks during spring commencement at the Adams Center in Missoula, Mont., on May 10, 2025. (Ben Allan Smith/The Missoulian via AP, File)
FILE - University of Montana President Seth Bodnar, right, and his wife, Dr. Chelsea Bodnar, ride in the university's homecoming parade in Missoula, Mont., Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025. (Ben Allan Smith/The Missoulian via AP, File)
Explosions sounded in Tehran Wednesday as Iran's war with the U.S. and Israel entered a fifth day following earlier strikes on an Iranian nuclear site and retaliatory strikes by the Islamic Republic across the Gulf region.
The explosions around Tehran came at dawn, according to Iran state television, while Israel’s military said its air defenses had been activated to intercept incoming Iranian missiles and explosions were heard around Jerusalem.
Five days into a war that U.S. President Donald Trump suggested could last a month or longer, nearly 800 people have been killed in Iran, including some Trump said he had considered as possible future leaders of the country.
Explosions also hit Lebanon, where Israel said it is retaliating against Hezbollah militants. Lebanon’s state-run media reported that at least four people were killed in an Israeli strike that hit a residential complex in the city of Baalbeck.
Here is the latest:
The Iranian vessel that was sinking off of Sri Lanka, the IRIS Dena, is one of Iran’s newest warships.
The frigate was the centerpiece of a two-ship international tour in 2023 that included port calls in countries including South Africa and Brazil. It was accompanied by the support ship IRIS Makran, a converted oil tanker.
The U.S. Treasury Department included both ships on a sanctions designation in February 2023 along with eight executives of an Iranian drone manufacturer that supplied the weapons to Russia for use against civilian targets in Ukraine.
The Israeli military is ordering people living in dozens of villages in southern Lebanon close to the border with Israel to evacuate and move “immediately” north of the Litani River.
The Israeli army’s Arabic spokesperson warned people on X that if they decide to move south of the river they will be endangering their lives.
The area south of the Litani River is mostly along the border with Israel. The Lebanese government says it has cleared the area of Hezbollah’s military presence there over the past months.
Israel is seeing a decline in launches from Iran as the campaign enters its fifth day, military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said.
Defrin also said Israel is not surprised by any new weapons Iran may use and had prepared extensively for the confrontation.
He said Israel would continue to “hunt and destroy” Iran’s military capabilities.
Israel has struck more than 250 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon over the past 48 hours, an Israeli army spokesperson said Wednesday.
Spokesperson Effie Defrin said in a recorded statement that the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah had been launching rockets at Israel overnight.
Defrin said Israel would continue to target Hezbollah until “the threat is removed.”
“I emphasize: We have no issue with the people of Lebanon. The people of Lebanon are paying the price for the Iranian regime,” he said.
A top Sri Lankan official says 32 people have been rescued from a sinking Iranian naval ship off Sri Lanka’s southern coast have been admitted to a hospital.
Dr. Anil Jasinghe, a top health ministry official, says one of them is in critical condition, seven are receiving emergency treatment and others are treated for minor injuries.
Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath told Parliament that Sri Lanka’s navy received information that the ship IRIS Dena with 180 onboard was under distress, and that the island nation sent ships and air force planes on a rescue mission.
There were no immediate details as to how the sailors were wounded and how the ship was damaged.
Kuwait’s military said a new wave of Iranian missiles and drone was targeting the tiny Mideast nation.
Iran’s judiciary chief threatened “those who say or do anything” in support of the U.S.-Israeli airstrike campaign targeting the Islamic Republic.
Gholam Hosseini Mohseni Ejehei’s remarks raised the possibility of those detained facing death-penalty charges, as cooperating with an enemy can carry execution if convicted.
Speaking on state television, he said: “Those who say or do anything in line with the will of America and the Zionist regime are on the enemy’s side and must be dealt with on revolutionary, Islamic principles and in accordance with the time of war.”
The British government says a chartered flight will take off from Oman late Wednesday to bring back some of the thousands of U.K. nationals in the Gulf.
It says the most vulnerable will be prioritized for the first of what is expected to be a series of flights.
The Foreign Office says more than 130,000 British nationals in the Middle East have registered their presence with the government since the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict broke out, though not all are trying to leave. Many of those are in the United Arab Emirates, and the government has advised against trying to travel overland to Oman.
Commercial airlines are also starting to resume some flights, with Etihad, Emirates and Virgin Atlantic all due to operate flights from the UAE to London on Wednesday.
The Israeli military said one of its F-35 stealth fighter jets shot down a piloted Iranian Air Force YAK-130 fighter over Tehran on Wednesday. Israel described it as the first air-to-air combat kill of a piloted aircraft by the fighter jet.
Iran’s top diplomat is again criticizing U.S. President Donald Trump as America and Israel continue their airstrike campaign targeting his country in the war.
Abbas Araghchi said that “Trump betrayed diplomacy and Americans who elected him.”
“When complex nuclear negotiations are treated like a real estate transaction, and when big lies cloud realities, unrealistic expectations can never be met,” Araghchi wrote on X. “The outcome? Bombing the negotiation table out of spite.”
The war began Saturday after Israel launched an airstrike killing Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The U.S. and Iran had held three rounds of nuclear negotiations prior to the start of the war, but no deal had been reached.
As the fighter jets roared overhead, those still in Tehran looked anxiously to the skies.
One man who ran a clothing shop said he didn’t know what, if anything, he could do.
“It’s very difficult to decide what to do. If I leave the city, how am I supposed to earn money and survive?” said the man, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
“I just hope the Arabs do not get involved. If they do, their missiles won’t be as precise as these.”
By Jon Gambrell
Airstrikes also were reported in the Iranian cities of Urmiah and Kermanshah.
The Israeli military said it had begun “broad scale strikes” in Tehran.
Airstrikes struck eastern Tehran later Wednesday morning, witnesses said.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Tuesday he discussed the rapidly evolving situation in the Middle East and its global security implications with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan.
Sybiha expressed solidarity with Saudi Arabia and condemned what he described as Iran’s aggression, saying it threatens regional stability.
He said the two sides discussed the risks of further escalation and the need for diplomatic solutions, stressing that protecting civilians must remain a priority.
Sybiha noted that Ukraine has firsthand experience with missile and drone warfare, including daily attacks involving Shahed drones.
He said Kyiv is ready to share its expertise with partners facing similar threats.
Earlier, he spoke with his Kuwaiti counterpart, Sheikh Jarrah Jaber Al Sabah.
“For Ukraine, this threat is not abstract. We face daily missile and drone attacks, including Iranian-made Shahed drones used by Russia against our cities and civilians,” Sybiha wrote on X.
Israel’s defense minister on Wednesday threatened whoever Iran picks to be the country’s next supreme leader, saying he will be “a target for elimination.”
Israel Katz made the statement on X.
“Every leader appointed by the Iranian terror regime to continue and lead the plan to destroy Israel, to threaten the United States and the free world and the countries of the region, and to suppress the Iranian people — will be a target for elimination,” he wrote.
Israel targeted a building Tuesday associated with Iran’s Assembly of Experts, which will select the new supreme leader.
Israel killed the 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a strike Saturday that started the war.
Qatar Airways will remain grounded until at least Friday, the airline said.
Israel’s military said it began new airstrikes in Beirut.
People staying in a hotel in a southeastern suburb of Beirut said the strike that hit the second floor came without warning.
Maggie Shibli, wife of the owner of the Hotel Comfort in the Hazmieh neighborhood, said they were sleeping when the missile hit.
“We live in a country where a missile can fall on your head at any moment,” she said.
Abbas Najdeh, who was displaced from the southern port city of Tyre and was staying at the hotel, said “we were sleeping then suddenly I, my children and my wife were thrown away.”
He added there was no warning.
The U.S. State Department has ordered non-emergency staff and their families working in the consulates in Lahore and Karachi to leave the country due to safety concerns.
Staff at the embassy in the capital Islamabad were not affected by the order.
Pakistan shares a long western border with Iran and has a sizable Shiite Muslim minority.
At least 10 people were killed in Karachi on Sunday after protesters attempted to storm the consulate in the city, Pakistan’s largest.
Starting Wednesday, there will be three nights of public mourning with the casket containing the body of the late 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Iran’s capital, Tehran, Iranian state television reported.
The ceremony will take place at the Grand Mosalla of Tehran.
Iranian state television said the latest salvo in the war saw Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launch 40 ballistic missiles at targets associated with the U.S. military in the Mideast.
It said it targeted Irbil in Iraq, two military bases in Kuwait, and two U.S. warships.
Strikes hit Lebanon overnight, including in several towns and on a hotel in a suburb right next to the capital.
Beirut woke up to the sounds of drones whizzing overhead.
The Israeli military warned residents in a southern suburb to flee ahead of a morning airstrike, as more displaced people fleeing the conflict pour into the capital seeking shelter.
Overnight Israeli strikes on towns near Beirut have killed at least six people, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said early Wednesday.
Israel struck the towns of Aramoun and Saadiyat just south of Beirut’s international airport, killing six and wounding eight others.
It also struck a hotel in the Beirut suburb of Hazmieh. No casualties were immediately reported there.
The strikes came without warning and the Israeli military did not immediately disclose the targets.
The Israeli military said Wednesday it conducted a series of strikes across Iran’s capital targeting its security forces.
It said it hit buildings associated with the Basij, the all-volunteer force of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard that conducted the bloody crackdown on protesters in January that killed thousands and saw tens of thousands detained in the country.
The Israeli military also said it hit buildings associated with Iran’s internal security command, which also has suppressed demonstrations in the past.
Israel and the U.S. have said they want to see the Iranian public overthrow its theocracy.
Strikes against counterprotest forces likely are part of that effort.
An Iranian-backed militant group in Iraq said it fired drones toward Jordan.
The group, Saraya Awliya al-Dam, said that drones were aimed at “a vital target” in the kingdom.
Earlier Wednesday, Jordan’s state-run television reported that sirens sounded across the country.
Iraqi militants on Tuesday threatened to target Jordan over allegations that U.S. aircraft that bombed their facilities took off from a Jordanian air base.
A building associated with the clerical panel that will pick Iran’s next supreme leader came under attack in an airstrike in the holy seminary city of Qom, semiofficial media reported.
The attack Tuesday hit the building in the Resalat neighborhood of Qom.
The semiofficial Fars and Tasnim news agencies, both believed to be close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, linked the building to Iran’s Assembly of Experts and said there was no meeting ongoing there at the time of the attack.
Fars further went on to say the assembly is meeting remotely, without elaborating.
It added that meetings over naming a new leader are ongoing — suggesting there could be an announcement by Iran in the coming days over who will replace the 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an Israeli strike at the start of the war Saturday.
There was no report on if anyone was hurt in the strike.
Israel’s public broadcaster KAN said Israel carried out the attack, though there’s been no confirmation from its military.
The Assembly of Experts is an 88-member panel which “must, as soon as possible” pick a new supreme leader under Iranian law.
The panel consists entirely of Shiite clerics who are popularly elected every eight years and whose candidacies are approved by the Guardian Council, Iran’s constitutional watchdog.
The death toll from the strike on a residential complex in Baalbeck, Lebanon, rises to five, the state-run National News Agency reported.
Fifteen others were wounded and three are missing, it said.
Sirens have sounded Wednesday morning across Jordan, the kingdom’s state television reported.
An Israeli airstrike hit a hotel outside of Beirut, Lebanon’s state-run news agency reported Wednesday.
The strike came in Hazmieh, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) southeast of downtown Beirut.
The report from Lebanon’s National News Agency said ambulances had been dispatched to the scene.
It did not elaborate in its short report.
Asian shares tumbled Wednesday, with South Korea’s benchmark plunging as much as 11%, while oil prices climbed even higher.
Worries over the widening conflict with Iran have hammered most world markets.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 shed 3.4% to 54,346.73.
Japan, like South Korea, depends heavily on imports of oil and natural gas from the Middle East that are now stranded in the Persian Gulf.
The price of U.S. benchmark crude oil climbed 1.2% to $75.46 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 1.5% to $82.61 per barrel.
Higher oil prices and how much they might worsen inflation are spooking investors worried that more spikes for oil prices may grind down the global economy and sap corporate profits.
An Iranian flag is placed among the ruins of a police station struck Monday during the U.S.–Israeli military campaign in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Firefighters inspect the rubble as smoke rises from a building hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Jewish men covered in prayer shawls pray in an underground parking garage as a precaution against possible Iranian missile attacks, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A coffin is carried during the funeral of mostly children killed in what Iranian officials said was an Israeli-U.S. strike Feb. 28 at a girls' elementary school in Minab, Iran, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (Abbas Zakeri/Mehr News Agency via AP)
A man takes shelter in an underground metro station as a precaution against possible Iranian missile attacks, in Ramat Gan, Israel Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
