HELENA — With the results from this week’s Montana elections becoming clearer, both Republicans and Democrats in the state say they can point to victories.
Across the country, Democrats made big gains on Tuesday – retaking control of the U.S. House and Senate and many state governments. They had successes in Montana too, though Republicans held on to their majorities in the state’s congressional delegation and in the Montana Legislature.
(Watch the video to hear reaction from Montana Republican and Democratic leaders.)
The biggest change was Democrat Sam Forstag’s election to represent Montana’s western congressional district in the U.S. House. It’s the first time Montana voters chose a Democrat for a seat in Congress since former U.S. Sen. Jon Tester’s re-election in 2018.
Emily Marburger, the Montana Democratic Party’s executive director, was at Forstag’s victory party in Missoula Tuesday night. She told MTN the win showed Democrats can succeed in the state if they are able to relate to voters.
“They understand that he understands them, that he is ready to go ahead and push forward issues that they're used to not getting pushed forward, because so many people have been not working with them for so many years,” she said.
Marburger believes voters are going to continue to be impressed with Forstag once he gets into office.
“That's what's going to get more Democrats elected – when he starts working and delivering for Montana,” she said.
Meanwhile, Republican Kurt Alme won the U.S. Senate race, keeping the seat currently held by U.S. Sen. Steve Daines in Republican hands. Republican U.S. Rep. Troy Downing was elected to a second term in the eastern congressional district.
The Montana Republican Party sent out a statement Thursday, praising their candidates. They credited Alme’s success to a “disciplined campaign” focused on affordability and to being well prepared to enter the race on short notice after Daines’ last-minute maneuver to drop his reelection bid and tap Alme as his successor. The party said voters rewarded Downing for standing up for farmers, ranchers and small businesses, and they thanked western district House candidate Aaron Flint for “running a hard-fought campaign in Western Montana, where the national wave hit the hardest.”
“Across the country, Republicans faced a tough mid-term election,” state party chair Art Wittich said in a statement. “Montana was different. When Republicans run on results and show up in every corner of this state, Montanans stand with us.”
While Alme defeated independent candidate Seth Bodnar by a 10-point margin, the latest results show Bodnar and Democratic nominee Alani Bankhead together have a few thousand more votes than Alme.
Marburger has been critical of what she called “bullying tactics” pushing Bankhead to drop out of the race in favor of Bodnar. She said the result validated her concerns about an independent candidacy.
“We saw all over everywhere, every single state, Democrats can get elected – and people were excited to support them,” she said. “We didn't see anyone but Democrats win this year. And so, I think people are going to think about this again.”
Bodnar was one of a series of independent candidates who ran for Senate seats in heavily Republican states this year; in Nebraska, South Dakota and Idaho, Democratic candidates withdrew. However, none of the independents were successful.
In the Montana Legislature, Democrats flipped two GOP-held seats in the House and two in the Senate:
- In House District 4, which includes parts of Whitefish and Columbia Falls, Democrat Paula Koch defeated Republican Shaun Pandina. Pandina had defeated incumbent Rep. Lyn Bennett, R-Columbia Falls, in the June primary.
- In House District 20, in Great Falls, Democrat Steve Keller narrowly defeated incumbent Republican Rep. Melissa Nikolakakos, by just 46 votes.
- In Senate District 10, in Great Falls, Democrat Margaret Mitchell defeated Republican Jessica Dyrdahl. Republican Sen. Jeremy Trebas had been the holdover senator for District 10, though the district map was redrawn since his last election.
- In Senate District 29, which includes Park County and parts of Gallatin County, Rep. Scott Rosenzweig, D-Bozeman, defeated Republican candidate Jason Gunderson. Sen. John Esp, R-Big Timber, was the holdover senator and termed out of office, and the district was also significantly redrawn.
Still, the Montana Republican Party said in its statement that the GOP had hung on to five more seats in Great Falls and Billings that they considered to be tossups. In House District 23, in Great Falls, incumbent Republican Rep. Eric Tilleman defeated Democrat Rebecca Bogden-Richards, leading by 101 votes. House District 48, in Billings, was the closest race in the state, with incumbent Republican Rep. Curtis Schomer leading Democrat Tucker Colvin by just 32 votes.
In the closest state Senate race, in Senate District 42 in the east Helena Valley, incumbent Democrat Sen. Mary Ann Dunwell defeated Republican Steve LaPraim, leading by 127 votes.
All that means that, when the Montana Legislature’s 2027 session begins in January, there will be 30 Republican senators and 20 Democratic senators, and 56 Republicans and 44 Democrats in the House. The party caucuses will be meeting next week at the State Capitol to elect their leaders for the session.
