BILLINGS Democratic voters and political observers are pressing for one of two candidates to exit Montana's U.S. Senate race before Aug. 10, warning that a split could hand the seat to Republican Kurt Alme.Democrat Alani Bankhe ad and independent candidate Seth Bodnar recently met to discuss their campaign, but both said they have no intention of dropping out despite growing outside pressure, according to an MTN News report.Click here to learn more: Another possible shakeup in the Montana U.S. Senate race?Montana State University Billings Political science professor Paul Pope believes the current three-way race heavily favors Alme, and other political experts around the state agree."Alme is almost assured to victory," Pope said Tuesday afternoon. "He could probably stop campaigning now, and his chances of winning are excellent."Pope argues that Bankhead and Bodnar share enough ideological common ground that their supporters are effectively splitting the same pool of voters."Statistically, the more likely winner will be the one, the single representative. In this case it's Alme," Pope said. "If those two truly want to reverse that, someone is going to have to fall on their sword here."Pope believes that if either Bankhead or Bodnar were to drop out, the other would have a significantly better chance to win the Senate seat.Neither candidate has expressed interest in leaving the race and speculation continues to swirl. According to the Washington Reporter, a conservative news outlet focused on national politics, Democrats are polling former Gov. Steve Bullock, who theoretically could replace Bankhead if she were to withdraw.Pope notes that election rules permit such candidate swaps, though the circumstances here are unusual."The rules allow for these swaps, but now they're doing them in a more strategic way as opposed to in case of emergency, break glass," Pope said.Pope added that despite Bullock being well known, he believes Bodnar would also need to exit the race or else the same vote-splitting issue will continue. He also added that it will be challenging to mount a comeback this late in the campaign."It's going to be a tough run for him if he was going to replace them," Pope said. "He's essentially starting at zero."Bullock lost to current Sen. Steve Daines six years ago after serving eight years as Montana governor.The race has been marked by chaos since its start, when Alme announced his campaign minutes after Daines, a fellow Republican, surprised many by announcing he would not seek reelection.Pope said the turbulence is a call for voters to be more attentive."I think this race, this circumstance really means people need to be more engaged than normal," Pope said.MTN News reached out both the Bodnar and Bankhead campaigns for comment for this story but did not receive a response Tuesday. Representatives for Bullock could not be reached for comment. ...read more read less