The pressure is on in Montana, where two candidates from different parties and with military backgrounds are attempting to defeat a Donald Trump-backed Republican in a U.S. Senate race. Concerns are rising about potential vote splits come November, with a pivotal deadline fast approaching. Seth Bodnar, an independent, graduated from West Point two months before the Sept. 11 attacks and studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar prior to becoming a U.S. Army Green Beret and being deployed to Iraq as an infantry officer. Alani Bankhead, a Democrat, served 21 years in the Air Force and retired as a lieutenant colonel. She went after spies, terrorists and child predators, while also running human-intelligence operations against Al-Qaeda in Iraq, commanding a unit in Kuwait, and serving as the head bodyguard for a senior official at the Pentagon. While both have decorated service backgrounds, each is vying for a coveted Senate seat that could seriously hinder Republicans' chances to maintain control of the chamber in this November's midterm elections. The GOP candidate, Kurt Alme, resigned as a U.S. attorney to keep the seat red after incumbent Republican Steve Daines announced he was leaving Congress. Trump has supported Alme since he entered the race. The fears of those campaigning for both Bodnar and Bankhead are time, money and turning a three-person race into a head-to-head contest. The deadline for Montana Senate candidates to withdraw from the contest and not be on the November ballot is Aug. 10. While Bankhead has said on numerous occasions that she would not exit the race, the push in recent days has hit a crescendo considering the circumstances. Bodnar has heavily out-raised her in fundraising, as has Alme.