All eyes are on Montana this election season. But over the next two weeks voters in the state will do a lot more than decide whether to re-elect longtime incumbent U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, the race that’ll likely determine which party controls the U.S. Senate.
Montanans also face myriad consequential choices in races for the governorship, the state Supreme Court, the Legislature, and other offices and seats at the state and local levels. These decisions follow a pronounced rightward shift in Montana, as Republicans have come to dominate the Legislature and hold just about every statewide office after 16 years of Democratic governorships gave way to a wave election for the GOP in 2020. This dynamic has upped the political pressure on the nonpartisan state Supreme Court, which rules on constitutional challenges to laws passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by the Republican governor. Voters will send two new justices to the seven-member high court.
With Tester being the last statewide Democrat in Montana left standing, his ability to weather a challenge from Republican neophyte Tim Sheehy will say a lot about whether Montana has managed to retain some of its purplish character.
As for your vote, this guide’s intended to help with the who and what, and Missoula County’s election page can help with the when and where. Receive an absentee ballot? If you’re mailing it in, the U.S. Postal Service recommends sending it by Tuesday, Oct. 29. Or drop it off at the 24/7 drop box at the Elections Center at 140 N. Russell St. Need to register to vote? Find information on how to do so — including on Election day — here.
✱ = incumbent or sitting lawmaker
Missoula County
All politics, as they say, is local. Beneath the fray of headline-grabbing national and statewide elections, Missoula County residents also have a choice in who fills the third seat on the Missoula County Commission.
Missoula County Commissioner
🟥 Kris Culdice
Real estate broker who rails against property tax increases, FEMA’s flood plain updates and the recent acquisition of Marshall Mountain.
💡 Big idea
To reduce the property tax burden on homeowners, Culdice proposes capping a home’s appreciation rate at 1% a year. “It’s basically fixed-rate,” he told the Missoulian. “Once that property owner decided to sell that property, the new purchaser would have the property reassessed at market value, so then they would know what they are getting into as a purchaser, and then that property tax would stay fixed throughout the life of them living at that property.”
🟦 Josh Slotnick*
The farmer- and professor-turned-commissioner expounds on state-level property tax reform and housing affordability.
💡 Big idea
To help would-be homebuyers get in the door, Slotnick proposes a voluntary “trade-off” plan enabling the county to cover part of a local resident’s down payment and in return the home would be deed-restricted to limit appreciation at 4% annually. “That’s going to keep the price down over time, because historically 4% is totally healthy,” Slotnick told the Missoulian. “You can have generational wealth with that, you can send your kid to college, you can borrow against it for a new truck if you need it.”
News coverage
🗞️ Culdice campaigns on lower taxes, selling Marshall Mountain (Missoulian)
🗞️ Slotnick campaigns on fixing property taxes, housing (Missoulian)
▶️ City Club Missoula hosts county commissioner debate (NBC Montana)
🗞️ County commissioner candidates spar over Marshall Mountain, floodplain changes (Missoulian)
🗞️ Poetry and property taxes, part 1: Josh Slotnick on audience and the complexities of writing and ‘commissioner-ing’ (Montana Public Radio)
Ballot initiatives
Montanans are voting on three constitutional amendment initiatives this election cycle. Two of the initiatives are intended to work in concert and are backed by the same entities.
Constitutional Initiative 126
CI-126 is one of two election reform initiatives on the ballot this year. It would create a system of top-four, open primaries for most elections in Montana. Under this set-up, the top four vote getters in a given primary election would advance to the general election regardless of their party registration. “If a voter prefers to vote a straight party ticket, they can continue to do so,” supporters of the initiative wrote in a recent op-ed. “But for the over 40 percent of Montanans who consider themselves independent, CI-126 gives them the ability to vote for any candidate in the primary, regardless of party.” Supporters of the initiative include some former comparative moderate Republican state legislators as well as several Democratic officials. The state GOP, though, opposes the initiative, calling it a radical experiment.
Constitutional Initiative 127
CI-127 is in some ways designed to work in concert with CI-126. It would require winners of an election to receive more than 50 percent of the vote, rather than a simple majority, as is the requirement under the current system. The initiative has the same backers as CI-126. If CI-127 passes, it asks the Legislature to solve one of the fundamental problems of such a system: What happens if no one candidate receives a majority of the vote? There are two possible answers: Either Montana adopts a system of run-off elections, à la Georgia, or a system of instant run-offs, sometimes called ranked-choice voting. If both initiatives pass and the Legislature adopts ranked-choice voting, Montana could look like Alaska, where Democrat Mary Peltola ultimately emerged victorious over Republican Sarah Palin in a 2022 special election. Proponents of the initiatives say they would create a more responsive, moderate politics. Opponents say this is an effort by national forces to manipulate Montana elections. The subtext is Montana is electorally dominated by Republicans, and changes to the current system may change that dynamic, for better or worse.
Constitutional Initiative 128
CI-128 would enshrine a right to abortion in the Montana Constitution. Abortion is currently protected in Montana because of a state Supreme Court ruling that tied access to the procedure to the state constitution’s sweeping right to privacy. But that could change if a future court were to overturn that precedent. This initiative has three main provisions: It would “prohibit the government from denying or burdening the right to abortion before fetal viability,” “prohibit the government from denying or burdening access to an abortion when a treating healthcare professional determines it is medically indicated to protect the pregnant patient’s life or health,” and prevent “the government from penalizing patients, healthcare providers, or anyone who assists someone in exercising their right to make and carry out voluntary decisions about their pregnancy.” Similar initiatives are on ballots in several states this year in the fallout of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which ushered in myriad legislative efforts to restrict abortion.
Montana Legislature
All 100 seats in the state House and half the seats in the state Senate are on ballots this year. Missoula, as one of Montana’s largest cities, sends several representatives to Helena every two years, mostly Democrats. This is the first legislative election in more than a decade with new district maps, which can be perplexing in some neighborhoods (the Rattlesnake, for example, is now divided among three House districts). Not sure which district you’re in? Here’s an interactive map, or punch your address into the handy look-up tool at Montana Free Press.
House District 100
🟥 Paul Buckles
🟦 SJ Howell*
Public Service Commission
The Public Service Commission is Montana’s utility regulation board. Its highest-profile decisions often relate to rate increases by NorthWestern Energy, a so-called regulated monopoly. The five-member commission has been dominated by the GOP in recent years. The 2024 election is the first — and probably the last — using a new district map redrawn by Republican legislators last session that, as a Montana District Court judge ruled in February, was likely gerrymandered to disadvantage voters in cities. Missoula mostly falls in the commission’s fourth district. There, a Republican incumbent faces a challenge from an independent. Democrats did not field a candidate in the race.
District 4
🟥 Jennifer Fielder*
Fielder, of Thompson Falls, was elected to the PSC in 2020 after serving eight years in the Montana Senate.
Now vice chair, she voted for Northwestern Energy’s 28% rate hike last year. Fielder’s also the CEO of the American Lands Council, which is aligned with the Bundy family’s anti-government extremism. In 2020, she posted misinformation on Facebook warning of an Antifa caravan infiltrating anti-racist events in Coeur d’Alene and Missoula, forcing the Associated Press, Idaho Statesman, Human Rights Network and others to debunk the claim when online militia groups started talking of a counterattack.
🔗 Website
⬜️ Elena Evans
Evans is a political newcomer and trained geologist working as Missoula County’s environmental health manager.
The mother of two decided to enter the race after the PSC approved Northwestern Energy’s 28% rate increase last fall, and because incumbent Fielder was on the verge of running unopposed. “At a certain point you just have to stand up and decide to do it yourself,” she told The Pulp. In April and May she collected a couple thousand signatures more than the 3,050 required to make the ballot. Running as an Independent is based on her belief that the PSC should be nonpartisan.
Notable endorsement
👍 Former Sanders County Commissioner Carol Brooker
News coverage
🗞️ Elections, electrons and home economics (The Pulp)
🗞️ Independent candidate challenges incumbent Republican for Montana utility board seat (Montana Free Press)
🗞️ Montana Public Service newcomer candidate Evans pulling in big money (Daily Montanan)
🗞️ Guest column: Why I’m running for Public Service Commission as Independent (Flathead Beacon)
Montana Supreme Court
As Republicans have come to dominate just about every state-wide elected office in Montana, the state Supreme Court has become a hotly contested battleground. Because when bills easily passed by the GOP’s legislative supermajority and signed by the Republican governor are challenged, it’s the Supreme Court that issues the final verdict, and several such laws have been struck down. And it’s through state Supreme Court precedent that Montana remains, for example, an island of abortion access in the West. The Supreme Court is a nonpartisan body, but that hasn’t stopped partisans from across the spectrum from choosing a horse to back — often forcefully. There are two open seats on the high court this year. Here’s some good reporting on the races and what’s at stake:
🗞️ ‘It’s our last backstop’: How voting access in Montana rides on Supreme Court races (Bolts)
🗞️ Supreme Court candidates dodge, and leverage, political rhetoric (MTFP)
🗞️ Montana Supreme Court candidates talk judicial independence, partisan attacks, individual rights (Daily Montanan)
🗞️ Outside spending shaping Montana Supreme Court races (KTVH)
🗞️ Planned Parenthood PAC launches attack ads in Supreme Court races (MTFP)
Chief Justice
Jerry Lynch
Lynch, who lives in Missoula, was Montana’s longest-serving federal magistrate when he retired from the bench in 2019.
The Butte native is distinct among usually tight-lipped Supreme Court candidates for all-but explicitly pledging to protect the constitution’s right to privacy — and with it, the right to reproductive healthcare.
Endorsements
👍 Montana AFL-CIO
👍 MT Federation of Public Employees
👍 Montana Conservation Voters
Cory Swanson
The Broadwater County attorney and Army National Guard veteran is a “judicial conservative” with a background in civil and criminal law.
Swanson, who’s never held judicial office, emphasizes a tough-on-crime approach and textualist philosophy of legal interpretation, a common refrain in conservative circles.
🔗 Website
💬 MTFP Q&A
💬 Montana Public Radio Q&A
Endorsements
👍 Montana Chamber of Commerce
👍 Montana Stockgrowers Association
👍 Montana Shooting Sports Association
News coverage
🗞️ Lynch, Swanson tango to be new chief justice of Montana Supreme Court (Missoulian)
Seat 3
Katherine Bidegaray
Bidegaray is a state District Court judge from eastern Montana and a graduate of the UM School of Law.
She’s pledged to defend the judiciary from partisan attacks and has expressed “a profound respect for the unique liberties safeguarded by our Montana Constitution.”
Endorsements
👍 Montana AFL-CIO
👍 MT Federation of Public Employees
👍 Montana Conservation Voters
Dan Wilson
Wilson is a state District Court judge from Flathead County and former county justice of the peace.
Before becoming a judge, Wilson was a prosecutor and private practice attorney. He’s said he’s running to bring a “common sense perspective and Montana values” to the bench.
🔗 Website
💬 MTFP Q&A
💬 Montana Public Radio Q&A
Endorsements
👍 Montana Chamber of Commerce
👍 Montana Stockgrowers Association
👍 Montana Shooting Sports Association
News coverage
🗞️ District Court judges Dan Wilson of Kalispell and Katherine Bidegaray of Sidney face off in Montana Supreme Court race (Flathead Beacon)
🗞️ The race to replace Supreme Court Justice Dirk Sandefur (MTFP)
🗞️ Bidegaray, Wilson make their case in Supreme Court race (Missoulian)
Clerk of the Montana Supreme Court
The clerk of the state Supreme Court is the custodian of records for the high court and effectively its conduit to the public. Unlike the justiceships on the court itself, the clerkship is a partisan position and one of consequence given the high political stakes of the court’s rulings.
🟦 Erin Farris-Olsen
News coverage
🗞️ The race to be the partisan clerk of Montana’s nonpartisan Supreme Court (MTFP)
🗞️ ‘Lady Justice’ stolen, police case closed, in Montana Supreme Court clerk campaign (Daily Montanan)
State officials
Secretary of State
As Montana’s top election official, the secretary of state interprets election laws and oversees elections, and otherwise serves as the state’s official record-keeper.
🟥 Christi Jacobsen*
Jacobsen previously served as Deputy Secretary of State under Republican Corey Stapleton before taking office in 2021.
She’s a staunch defender of GOP-backed “election integrity” bills. But laws that eliminated same-day voter registration and imposed stricter voter ID requirements at the polls, among other measures intended to limit ballot access, have been declared unconstitutional by the Montana Supreme Court. Her office spent $1.3 million defending those laws.
🟦 Jesse Mullen
A journalist-turned-entreprenuer, Mullen founded the Mullen Newspaper Company in Deer Lodge in 2018.
It’s grown from two Montana newspapers to 20 papers in six states. Mullen says Jacobsen’s efforts to restrict ballot access are designed to disenfranchise voters, not protect election integrity. He believes the SOS office should be apolitical, more transparent, and empower voters by making it easier to access the ballot initiative process.
🔗 Website
💬 MTFP Q&A
💬 Montana Public Radio Q&A
Notable endorsements
👍 Former GOP Gov. Marc Racicot
👍 Former GOP Sec. of State Bob Brown
🟨 John Lamb
Lamb, a farmer and Libertarian who is pro-life, pro-gun, pro-immigrant, pro-criminal justice reform and anti-war, has said he wants the door to the secretary of state’s office to be open to Montanans of all political stripes.
News coverage
🗞️ Sec. Jacobsen asks SCOTUS to consider appeal of voting laws found unconstitutional (Daily Montanan)
🗞️ Breakdown of the Secretary of State race (Montana Public Radio)
🗞️ Jesse James Mullen’s blunt, hopeful campaign for Secretary of State (Big Sky Chat House)
🗞️ Ft. Peck tribal members sue Valley, Roosevelt counties for refusing satellite voting locations (Daily Montanan)
State Auditor
The Montana state auditor is also the state’s commissioner of securities and insurance, and generally speaking regulates the financial industry in the state. In that capacity, the auditor also has an important consumer-protection role.
🟥 James Brown
Brown is the outgoing president of the PSC. Before his election in 2020 he was in private legal practice for 30 years.
The Dillon resident’s campaign focuses on promoting competition to lower costs, advancing consumer education, and protecting rural healthcare.
🟦 John Repke
Repke, of Whitefish, had a 40-year career in business finance, including a stint as CFO of a timber company in Columbia Falls.
He ran for the PSC in 2022 and lost. His campaign emphasizes consumer protection and fair market regulations for Montanans.
News coverage
🗞️ Surging insurance rates put spotlight on race for state auditor (MTFP)
🗞️ Breakdown of the State Auditor race (Montana Public Radio)
Superintendent of Public Instruction
The Superintendent of Public Instruction is Montana’s top K-12 education official. The incumbent, Republican Elsie Arntzen, is term-limited, opening up the seat for a contested general election.
🟥 Susie Hedalen
Hedalen is the Townsend School District’s superintendent and serves as vice chair of the Montana Board of Public Education.
The former deputy to the current state superintendent, Republican Elsie Arntzen, Hedalen’s campaigning on improving student performance in core subjects like math and reading and emphasizing “family values,” including parental rights, in public education.
🟦 Shannon O’Brien
A state senator from Missoula, O’Brien is a former dean of Missoula College and a former education policy advisor to Gov. Steve Bullock.
She advocates for improving teacher retention, expanding early childhood education, and enhancing how Montana measures student performance. O’Brien’s campaign centers on building a stronger public school system to support economic growth and better outcomes for students.
News coverage
🗞️ Race to lead Montana’s beleaguered education office hinges on experience, candidates say (Missoulian)
🗞️ The race to replace Arntzen (MTFP)
🗞️ Montana’s superintendent of public instruction race focused of funding (Montana Kaimin)
Attorney General
The attorney general is Montana’s top prosecutor and law enforcement official. Under the leadership of incumbent Republican Attorney General Austin Knudsen, it’s also increasingly a venue for state Republicans to register their disapproval of national Democratic policies in the form of lawsuits against the Biden Administration.
🟥 Austin Knudsen*
In Knudsen’s first term he’s defended GOP-backed laws challenged in court and railed against federal overreach.
He’s also been busy navigating a series of controversies, the latest being the 41 counts of professional misconduct brought against him by the Montana Office of Disciplinary Counsel, which could result in the ultra-conservative attorney general losing his law license.
🟦 Ben Alke
The Bozeman-based attorney is running to restore “integrity and competence” to the Montana Department of Justice.
A political neophyte who describes himself as a centrist, Alke clerked for then-Montana Supreme Court Justice Brian Morris and is now a partner and commercial litigator at the firm Crist, Krogh, Alke & Nord.
News coverage
🗞️ Will Knudsen’s rising profile eclipse Alke’s pitch to middle-ground voters? (Missoulian)
🗞️ Lawyer versus lawyer to lead Department of Justice (MTFP)
🗞️ Montana Highway Patrol in turmoil under Attorney General Austin Knudsen, officers say (Daily Montanan)
🗞️ Montana’s attorney general defends actions at hearing on 41 counts of professional misconduct (AP)
🗞️ The behind-the-scenes of Attorney General Knudsen’s lawyer discipline case (Daily Montanan)
🗞️ Montana Attorney General Knudsen faces law license suspension (MTFP)
🗞️ In about-face, Montana blocks access to basic police data (The Pulp)
Governor
The governor is Montana’s top executive. The governor signs laws, oversees state agencies and, as the head of his or her party, shapes the political landscape.
🟥 Greg Gianforte*
Gianforte was elected during a red wave in 2020 that sent Republicans to every state office and solidified the party’s control of the Legislature.
Before that, he served a term in Congress. An evangelical and tech hundred-millionaire, Gianforte has presided over a legislative agenda that includes cutting regulations, reducing taxes and imposing policies that reflect his Christian conservatism — coinciding with Montana’s broader “hard right turn toward Christian nationalism.”
🟦 Ryan Busse
Busse is a former gun industry executive who found national prominence with the release of a memoir criticizing the industry.
He’s called the Gianforte agenda an example of “fascism” and accused him and other Republicans of failing to address Montana’s cost-of-living crisis, particularly in regards to rising property taxes. The father of two plaintiffs in Montana’s high-profile youth climate lawsuit, Busse has made upholding the state constitution’s promise of a “clean and healthful environment” a key component of his campaign.
News coverage
🗞️ Busse strikes hard against incumbent, Gianforte touts strong economic record (Daily Montanan)
🗞️ Father of Montana climate activists seeks to run the state (E&E News)
🗞️ In reelection bid, Gianforte’s economic record is on the ballot (MTFP)
🗞️ ‘We never turn off’: Ryan Busse’s all-in campaign to take back the governor’s office (Helena Independent Record)
🗞️ The Montana gubernatorial hopeful speaking out for gun owners and abortion rights (New Lines)
U.S. Congress
Montana has been split into two U.S. House districts since 2022. District 1 — often called the western district — includes Missoula, Bozeman, Butte, and the Bitterroot and Flathead valleys.
U.S. House District 1
🟥 Ryan Zinke*
A series of scandals largely defined Zinke’s nearly two years as U.S. Secretary of the Interior under President Donald Trump.
Still, in 2022 the former Navy SEAL was elected to represent Montana’s newly created First Congressional District. He also held what was then Montana’s at-large U.S. House seat from 2015 to 2017, and before that served in the state Legislature. He broadly supports cutting regulations, strengthening border protections and reducing spending.
🟦 Monica Tranel
Tranel is making her second consecutive bid to defeat Zinke after narrowly losing to him two years ago.
A former Olympian and attorney known for opposing NorthWestern Energy rate hikes before the Public Service Commission, Tranel says Zinke hasn’t done enough to keep Montana affordable. She’s also criticized him for the various scandals and investigations he faced during his tenure as Secretary of the Interior.
News coverage
🗞️ Environmental lawyer sees close contest in her race against Zinke (E&E News)
🗞️ Zinke, Tranel face off in first western district House debate (MTFP)
🗞️ Cook Political Report shifts western Congressional district race as Tranel announces fundraising (Daily Montanan)
🗞️ Tranel accused Zinke of ‘illegally’ operating a vacation rental. Whitefish officials say otherwise. (Flathead Beacon)
🗞️ Latest polls (538)
U.S. Senate
🟥 Tim Sheehy
Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL and political neophyte, owns an aerial firefighting business based in Gallatin County.
He’s pledged to be a crucial “No” vote against what he’s called a tax-and-spend agenda in Washington, D.C. Tester, he argues, has become a creature of Washington in his almost two decades in the Senate. But Sheehy’s image has been marred by derogatory comments he made about Crow Indian people, and by accusations that he lied about being shot in combat while serving in Afghanistan. The scrutiny’s only intensifying on the candidate who could win the seat that wins Republicans the U.S. Senate.
🟦 Jon Tester*
A farmer from Big Sandy, Tester is the only Democrat to have won a statewide election in Montana in recent years.
He’s weathered political change by positioning himself as a centrist who will protect and uphold a set of somewhat nebulous Montana values, although he’s also pledged to protect abortion. But the Montana that he came up in — purplish, deeply attached to notions of multi-generational roots — doesn’t bear much resemblance to the state’s political landscape today. Victory for Tester will require capturing a sizable chunk of Donald Trump’s base as well as generating high turnout among the state’s Indigenous voters, who have historically tended toward Democrats.
News coverage
🗞️ Trump stumps for Sheehy at Bozeman rally (Montana Public Radio)
🗞️ PAC spending on Montana’s U.S. Senate race approaches $140 million (MTFP)
🗞️ Montana voters face shock-and-awe of Senate ads (Axios)
🗞️ Tester, Sheehy make closing arguments at Missoula debate (MTFP)
🗞️ Tribal leaders seek Sheehy apology for ‘racist’ remarks (MTFP)
🗞️ CSKT tribal council, civic and faith groups call on Sheehy to apologize for Native American remarks (Daily Montanan)
🗞️ U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy says he was shot in war. Was he? (The New York Times)
🗞️ Montana GOP candidate who could flip control of Senate nagged by claims he lied about bullet wound (AP)
🗞️ Tester raises $32 million in third quarter of 2024 as polls show him trailing Sheehy (Daily Montanan)
🗞️ GOP attacks on Tester getting more personal as Election Day draws near (Daily Montanan)
🗞️ The changing spirit of Montana (The American Prospect)
🗞️ Latest polls (538)
