Montana
What to expect in Montana on Election Day
WASHINGTON (AP) — When Montana voters cast ballots in the Nov. 5 general election, they’ll decide what may just be the nation’s marquee U.S. Senate race, and with it, perhaps which party will control the closely divided chamber in the next Congress. They’ll also vote on a high-profile ballot question on abortion, as well as less competitive races for president and governor.
Democrats control the U.S. Senate with a 51-49 majority. With Republicans all but certain to pick up retiring once-Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin’s seat in West Virginia, a GOP win in Montana would make it difficult for Democrats to keep their majority regardless of who wins the presidency.
Democratic incumbent Jon Tester faces a tough reelection bid for a fourth term against Republican Tim Sheehy. As one of only two Senate Democrats running for reelection in a state former President Donald Trump won easily in 2020, Tester is a perennial target for Republicans. In his past three races, he won with between 49% and 50% of the vote.
Tester has spent $71 million on the race as of the start of October, compared to about $11 million for Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL who has loaned his campaign $2.5 million. Outside groups have poured additional millions into the race.
Montana is also one of 10 states that will put a ballot question on abortion before voters in November. Officially known as “Constitutional Initiative No. 128,” the measure would enshrine a right to abortion before fetal viability in the state constitution.
At the top of the ballot, the presidential race is far less competitive. The last Democrat to carry Montana in a presidential election was Bill Clinton in 1992, although Barack Obama came close in 2008. Trump won Montana with 57% of the vote in 2016 and 2020, and the Democratic ticket has not set foot in the state this year. Tester skipped the Democratic National Convention in August and has declined to endorse Harris, although Sheehy has tried to link the senator to his party’s presidential nominee.
In the race for governor, Republican incumbent Greg Gianforte faces Democrat Ryan Busse.
Here’s a look at what to expect in the 2024 election in Montana:
Election Day
Nov. 5.
Poll closing time
10 p.m. ET.
Presidential electoral votes
4 awarded to the statewide winner.
Key races and candidates
President: Harris (D) vs. Trump (R) vs. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (We the People) vs. Chase Oliver (Libertarian) vs. Jill Stein (Green).
U.S. Senate: Tester (D) vs. Sheehy (R) and two others.
Governor: Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) vs. Ryan Busse (D) and one other.
Ballot measures: Constitutional Amendment 126 (top four primary), Constitutional Amendment 127 (require majority vote to win election), Constitutional Amendment 128 (right to abortion).
Other races of interest
U.S. House, Attorney General, Auditor, Secretary of State, Superintendent of Public Education, state Supreme Court, state Supreme Court clerk, state Senate, state House and Public Service Commission.
Decision Notes
Montana technically isn’t one of the states that conducts its elections predominantly by mail, but quite a few Montanans choose to vote that way regardless. In the 2018 midterm elections, about three-quarters of the total votes cast were done so by mail. That shot up to 98% in the 2020 general election at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
State law allows elections officials to start processing and verifying mail ballots up to three days before Election Day. Machine counting of mail ballots may begin the day before Election Day.
In the 2020 U.S. Senate race, about 76% of the vote had been tabulated by 2 a.m. ET and 89% by 6 a.m. ET.
In statewide elections, Republicans tend to carry the populous counties of Yellowstone (home of Billings) and Flathead by comfortable margins and 30 or so small, rural counties by huge margins. Democrats, whether they win or lose statewide, usually carry at least six counties ranging from big (Missoula, population 117,922 ) to small (Deer Lodge, population 9,421 ). President Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton carried these six counties despite losing statewide by 16 and 20 percentages points respectively. Biden picked up a seventh small county, Blaine.
Two Democrats who won statewide in recent elections, Tester in 2018 and former Gov. Steve Bullock in 2016, both carried 13 counties: the seven Biden counties from 2020, plus Hill, Roosevelt, Lake, Lewis & Clark (home of Helena, the state capital), Cascade (home of Great Falls) and Park.
Of those, the results in vote-rich Lewis & Clark and Cascade may be the most revealing on election night. Both Tester and Bullock carried Lewis & Clark with roughly 60% of the vote. Biden received about 47% of the vote and Clinton about 42%. Cascade is tougher. Tester and Bullock received 51% and 54% there, respectively, compared to the mid-to-high 30%-range for Biden and Clinton. When Bullock lost the U.S. Senate race to Republican Steve Daines in 2020, he hung on to Lewis & Clark but lost Cascade by a double-digit margin. He also lost Hill, Lake and Park counties.
Warning signs for Tester on election night would be losing Lewis & Clark or winning there with closer to 50% of the vote rather than 60%, or if he loses Cascade or dips below roughly 60% in the Democratic stronghold of Missoula.
The Associated Press doesn’t make projections and will declare a winner only when it has determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidates to close the gap. If a race hasn’t been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, like candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear it hasn’t declared a winner and explain why.
Recounts are automatic in Montana if the vote is tied. Candidates may request a recount if the vote margin is less than 0.25% of the total vote or less than 0.5% if the candidate pays for it. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is eligible for a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.
Past presidential results
2020: Trump (R) 57%, Biden (D) 41%, AP race call: Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020, 12:20 a.m. ET.
Voter registration and turnout
Registered voters: 782,176 (as of Oct. 16, 2024).
Voter turnout in 2020 presidential election: 80% of registered voters.
Pre-Election Day voting
Votes cast before Election Day 2020: about 98% of the total vote.
Votes cast before Election Day 2022: about 81% of the total vote.
Votes cast before Election Day 2024: See AP Advance Vote tracker.
How long does vote counting take?
First votes reported, Nov. 3, 2020: 10:06 p.m. ET.
By midnight ET: about 50% of total votes cast were reported.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
WASHINGTON ― Montana Republican Senate nominee Kurt Alme, who previously served as his state’s U.S. attorney, cut a plea deal in 2020 that allowed a tribal police officer who sexually abused a 6-year-old girl to serve less than a year in prison and avoid being registered as a sex offender.
Alme, who has President Donald Trump’s backing in his bid for Senate, served as Montana’s U.S. attorney in two stints. Trump appointed him both times; Alme served in the role from September 2017 through December 2020, and then again from March 2025 through March 2026.
Alme oversaw the case of Mychal Thomas Damon, who was indicted in June 2019 by a grand jury on one count of abusive sexual contact with an individual under 12, which carries a maximum punishment of a lifetime in prison, a $250,000 fine and no less than five years to a lifetime of supervised release. The average sentence for this crime is less severe, but still significant: 62 months in prison, no fine and 143 months of supervised release, based on an analysis of 2025 data provided by the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
Damon, 28, had admitted he touched the 6-year-old’s genitals. But in February 2020, Alme’s office filed a plea deal in his case that reduced his charge to felony child abuse.
The changes in the plea deal raised the alleged age of the victim from below 12 to below 14, stripped out the language of sexual intent and moved the offense out of the federal sex crime framework, meaning Damon would no longer be required to register as a sex offender. It jointly recommended Damon be sentenced to the time he’d already served of 324 days, and required only a sex offender evaluation. Alme’s name appears on the bottom of the document, along with a signature by his assistant U.S. attorney, Cassady Adams.
In June, Alme filed a sentencing memorandum that described Damon’s conduct, which included details of him touching the child’s vagina with skin-to-skin contact, and the adverse effect it had on her mental health. Local reporting at the time said the victim had told a therapist “Mychal touched me” and hurt her by putting his fingers in her “hoo hoo.”
Ten days later, Alme announced Damon was being sentenced to time served of 324 days and two years of supervised release. As of June 2026, Damon is not listed in the national sex offender registry or in Montana’s Sexual or Violent Offender Registry.
It’s not clear why Alme reduced the charges against Damon as significantly as he did. During part of his tenure as U.S. attorney, his office declined 64% of sexual assault cases. He conceded in a 2019 interview that this “is something that has to be worked on,” and noted that a lot of these cases are declined due to “weak or insufficient evidence.”
Asked what happened in Damon’s case, an Alme campaign spokesman on Thursday lashed out at unnamed Democrats for trying to make him look bad.
“Kurt’s liberal opponents are twisting the facts to manufacture a fake narrative that exploits crimes against women and children,” said Alme’s spokesperson. “Department of Justice policy required defendants to plead to the most serious charge readily provable from the evidence. Kurt strongly supported the Multi-Disciplinary Teams on our Native American reservations, led by his office, to support investigations of crimes against children and to support victims.”
His spokesperson also pushed back on the idea that Alme unreasonably declined a large number of sexual assault cases during his tenure as U.S. attorney.
“Kurt’s office prosecuted every viable sexual abuse felony referred to it and pursued the most serious charge readily provable from the evidence,” the spokesperson said. “Many ‘declined’ cases were to allow more appropriate tribal prosecutions ― they were not dropped. Kurt will bring his years of experience prosecuting criminals and working with the Sexual Assault Response Teams on our Native American reservations to the U.S. Senate to strengthen investigations, support victims, and better protect women and children.”
The campaign pointed HuffPost to a 2010 report by the Government Accountability Office that found the most common reason for U.S. attorney’s offices to decline sexual abuse cases referred in from Indian country was “weak or insufficient admissible evidence.” It also highlighted statements of support for Alme in an October 2025 press release by Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), when he celebrated Alme being confirmed as U.S. attorney.
Alme is currently running for Daines’ Senate seat, and Daines went out of his way to clear the path for him. In a stunning and orchestrated maneuver, the two-term senator in March abruptly withdrew from reelection as Alme filed to run for his seat, minutes before the state’s filing period closed. Daines’ last-minute change-up was an effort to block potential Democrats or any major Republican challenger from jumping into an open Senate race.
Alme is taking on Democrat Alani Bankhead and independent candidate Seth Bodnar in the November election. Bankhead and Bodner have been duking it out for weeks, with each appealing to different factions of the Democratic party and calling on the other to drop out.
Bankhead, a retired Air Force officer, unexpectedly won the Democratic primary earlier this month, boosted by grassroots supporters and more than $2.5 million in outside money from a progressive veterans’ PAC. But Bodnar, a former University of Montana president who did not appear on the primary ballot, has bipartisan endorsements from prominent establishment figures, including former Democratic Sen. Jon Tester and former Republican Gov. Marc Racicot. He’s also significantly outraised Bankhead and Alme.
This Senate seat is rated “solid Republican” by the nonpartisan Cook’s Political Report, meaning Alme is well-positioned to win the general election. But this race would be more competitive if Bodner and Alme were going head to head, without Bankhead in the running.
Where Khloe Kardashian Stands With Ex French Montana More Than 10 Years After Breakup
French Montana is done keeping up with reality TV.
In fact, he only agreed to appear on Keeping Up With The Kardashians and Kourtney & Khloé Take the Hamptons over a decade ago as a favor to then-girlfriend Khloe Kardashian.
“She said to get on the show,” he exclusively told E! News at the BET Awards on June 28. “And I got on the show. Shout out to Khloe.”
The “Ever Since U Left Me” rapper, who split with Kardashian in December 2014 after eight months of dating, said the experience was “fun” because her family kept it real.
“They filmed their real life,” he continued. “And we were part of something together that one time. So it felt great. It didn’t feel like work because they film what they do everyday.”
As for his future in reality TV, the 41-year-old said those days are over, shutting down any prospective offers with a simple, “Negative.”
Although the “Unforgettable” artist—whose real name is Karim Kharbouch—may not be returning to television anytime soon, he has no problem hanging out with his ex-girlfriend these days.
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