Montana Senate Candidate Shoots Flock Camera in Wild New Ad

Screenshots via X.

Seth Bodnar, the former University of Montana president running for the state’s U.S. Senate seat as an independent, posted a new video ad in which he criticizes Flock security cameras, taking aim and shooting one at the end.

Automated license plate recognition (ALPR) systems manufactured by Flock Safety and other companies have been installed in cities across the country. Police agencies have said the cameras help catch criminals but critics have pointed out issues with the data being improperly accessed, mistaken arrests, and questioning the invasiveness of the technology, which is designed to capture the license plates of all vehicles that pass by each camera.

Amid growing backlash, dozens of local and state governments have turned off their Flock cameras and cancelled contracts with the company, but President Donald Trump recently voiced his support for the technology, responding to a reporter’s question to say that he “liked them.”

Bodnar directly addressed Trump’s comment in his new ad that he shared on social media Monday.

“Trump says he ‘likes’ Flock cameras,” the caption read. “I say ‘Flock off.'””

“Flock off, man!” Bodnar kicks off his commentary in the roughly one-minute video.

“Are you tired of security cameras watching your every move?” he asks as he pulls a gun carrier from the back of his vehicle. “Yeah, me too.”

Bodnar then mentions several regular daily tasks in which these cameras were “watching” everyone, calling it not just “creepy as hell,” but also “part of a massive economy designed to buy and sell our personal data” — tying the cameras to the also-controversial AI data centers.

“They are all getting rich, and we’re getting screwed, and nobody is holding them accountable,” says Bodnar about Big Tech as he walks towards a tree stump with what appears to be a Flock camera in hand. He screws the camera onto the top of the stump and sets up a bag of flour behind it “just for fun.”

Bodnar accuses his Republican opponent, Kurt Alme, of “just sitting back and watching it all happen.”

“I won’t — not by a long shot,” Bodnar vows as he takes aim at the camera and fires, exploding a dust cloud of flour from his shot.

A caption reading “OUR PRIVACY IS NOT FOR SALE” appears on screen as a short clip of an acoustic cover of Rockwell’s 1983 hit “Somebody’s Watching Me” plays.

Montana’s Senate race has gone through some unusual twists and turns this election cycle. Incumbent Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) initially seemed to be running for re-election, but then controversially dropped out minutes before the 5:00 pm MT March 5 filing deadline, just as Alme, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Montana, filed to run.

Daines publicly announced his withdrawal from the race and endorsement of Alme at 5:02 pm MT, two minutes after the filing deadline had passed. With Republicans kept in the dark about Daines’ plans and assuming he was running, no other major contender ran in the GOP primary, and Alme coasted to an easy win.

Air Force veteran Alani Bankhead won the Democratic primary and Kyle Austin, a pharmacist and previous congressional candidate, won the Libertarian primary.

The day before filing closed, Bodnar announced he was resigning his university president gig to run as an independent, with the backing of former Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT). Bodnar graduated first in his class from West Point, was a Rhodes Scholar, and served in the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division and as a Green Beret during multiple deployments to Iraq.

A poll commissioned by the Montana Free Press that was taken from Aug. 27 to Sept. 7 showed Bodnar gaining support since a May poll but still coming in second, with Alme getting 38%, Bodnar 30%, Bankhead 16%, and Austin 5%. The poll was conducted by the Rutgers University Eagleton Center for Politics with a sample of 845 registered Montana voters and a margin of error of +/-4.2 percent.

In that poll, Bodnar won a larger percentage of Democratic voters than Bankhead, the actual Democratic nominee (53% to 41%), and a plurality of Independent voters (38% for Bodnar, 25% for Alme, and 18% for Bankhead). According to the Montana Free Press, Independent voters make up 44% of the state’s electorate.

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