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▼ Bad look for DainesElections / Campaigns

With just minutes before filing deadline closes, Daines shocks Montana by withdrawing

Daines left the Senate race shortly before the filing deadline and backed Alme as his successor.

With just minutes before filing deadline closes, Daines shocks Montana by withdrawing
Image · Yahoo News

SOURCE CHECK

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Host credibilityYahoo News74/100 HIGH
This article1 analysis · Oct 9, 2026

Credibility rates Yahoo News, which republished this story. The other scores rate the article itself.

Republished with credit

Republished from Daily Montanan, with credit to the original publisher.

Daily Montanan73/100 HIGH

22 stories · 69–76 · updated Oct 10, 2026

This is Daily Montanan's own score, and this article is credited to Daily Montanan. The host score in the Source Check is Yahoo News's.

Yahoo Newsvia Daily Montanan
Mar 4, 2026
tl;dr

Steve Daines withdrew from Montana’s Senate race shortly before the filing deadline and endorsed Kurt Alme, who had just filed to run. The late switch drew criticism from rival candidates and prompted an analyst to shift the seat from safely Republican to lean Republican.

Community verdict

22 VOTES
How does this story look for
Steve Daines R · MT · SEN

Counts every outlet’s report of this story. See all 44

● OPEN
Votes cast on this page

Votes cast on this page: ▲ 0 · ◆ 0 · ▼ 0

People in this story

SWIPE →
Steve Daines
R · MT · SEN

Montana senator who withdrew from his re-election campaign and endorsed Kurt Alme

PRIMARY SUBJECT
Kurt Alme
R · MT

Montana Senate candidate who filed shortly before the deadline and received Daines’s endorsement

Alme's version of this story ↗
Donald Trump
R · President of the United States

President who thanked Daines and endorsed Alme

Tim Sheehy
R · MT · SEN

Montana senator whom Daines named as a leader in the fight for Montana and whom Trump said endorsed Alme

Former Montana governor and Daines’s opponent in the 2020 Senate race

Democratic Senate candidate who criticized Daines and the Montana Republican Party

Independent Senate candidate who criticized Daines’s withdrawal and endorsement

ALSO MENTIONED  Gianforte, Montana governor whom Trump said was endorsing Alme

Part of a bigger story

23 OUTLETS
Steve Daines Withdraws From Montana Senate Re-Election Race

Daines withdrew from his reelection bid shortly before Montana’s filing deadline. Kurt Alme entered the race around the deadline, and Daines endorsed him as his preferred successor. Left-leaning outlets focus on whether Daines’s timing and endorsement narrowed the primary or kept potential recruits out. Center outlets mainly recount the exit, Alme’s entry and endorsements, while also reporting claims about the effect on competition. Right-leaning outlets generally pair Daines’s departure with his support for Alme, though their coverage also includes criticism of the timing.

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