Montana
A new Montana majority defangs the far right – High Country News
Before a single vote was cast on Election Day, Paul Tuss figured he knew how Montana’s statewide races would turn out. Montana’s major elections — like those in many states in this historically partisan era — have become predictable. As expected, President Donald Trump trounced Kamala Harris, Republicans swept all statewide offices by an average 21 points, and 18-year incumbent Sen. Jon Tester lost to Republican Tim Sheehy, a wealthy businessman who was born in Minnesota.
Local results, however, were more surprising. In Havre, a windy railroad town 38 miles from the Canadian border that comprises much of House District 27, voters re-elected Tuss, a Democrat, by 5 points, while going for Trump by 22 points. Tuss’ total exceeded Harris by 14 points, according to Scott McNeil, director of the Montana Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. In 5,800 state legislative elections nationwide, only one Democrat outperformed Harris by a larger margin.
“I’m the red-headed stepchild of the caucus,” said Tuss, who runs the Bear Paw Development Corporation, a business-assistance nonprofit serving five counties. “I’m the only Democrat from rural Montana who isn’t Native, and that’s symbolic of some difficulties we’re having within our party.”
Since November, national Democrats have struggled to forge an identity after losing the White House and both houses of Congress. But in Montana, where Democrats have been the minority in the Statehouse since 2011, the party has quietly produced some surprisingly tangible results.
Seven Democrats, including Tuss, outperformed Harris, and the party flipped 12 seats in the state Legislature, its second-largest gain in the country after Wisconsin. Since Montana’s biannual Legislature convened in January, the Democratic minority in both chambers has locked arms with a group of moderate Republicans to isolate the far right and protect the public services that Trump and Elon Musk have placed on the federal chopping block: Medicaid, public schools and a nonpartisan judiciary, among others.
As Trump’s opinion polls continue to sink, this burst of bipartisan cooperation suggests that legislators on both sides of the aisle are stepping into the widening gap between the president and some of his voters — and betting on their constituents to keep them there.
WHEN MONTANANS look back on the 2025 legislative session, which concluded on April 30, the defining number will be nine. That’s the number of Senate Republicans who were effectively sidelined after GOP leaders, who mostly identify with the party’s right wing, set up a novel committee structure to consolidate their control of the session. Instead of accepting bystander status, however, the nine moderates opened a dialogue with their Democratic colleagues.
“It started before the session,” Democratic Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade, explained on April 24 in the Senate Gallery of the State Capitol in Helena. “Given our 18 members and their nine, we had, in effect, a working majority. So we decided on Day 1 to change the rules.”
Working quickly, Democrats and these nine Republicans stitched together a new majority, which enabled them to bypass Republican Senate President Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, and reassign their members to committees with the most influence over the state budget. The results were immediate.
Several Republican priorities, like a bill requiring that the Ten Commandments be displayed in public school classrooms, were quickly killed. Meanwhile, moderates waited for the state budget to wend its way out of the House and through Senate committees. Then, they amended the bill on the Senate floor — over and over again — pushing tens of millions of dollars toward various public health programs, such as requiring hospitals to hire full-time nurses, as well as funding a pre-trial diversion program.
A similar pattern played out in the House, where moderate Republicans torpedoed an Arizona-style school voucher program, which has contributed to a $1.4 billion budget shortfall. With Democrats, they also renewed $100 million for an expanded version of Medicaid and allocated another $100 million to boost teacher pay, which ranks 46th in the country.
“I’m not elected by my party. I’m not elected by a single person in charge of something,” said Rep. Ed Buttrey, R-Great Falls, who carried the Medicaid renewal bill. “I’m elected by the people of House District 21, and as long as I’m working hard for them and getting things done, they seem to want to send me back.”
“I’m elected by the people of House District 21, and as long as I’m working hard for them and getting things done, they seem to want to send me back.”
In the context of an unusual legislative session, this explanation suggests that new political currents might be circulating in the wake of the red wave that swallowed Montana and most of the country last November. It also underlines the belief that voters want lawmakers to build new programs, not just break old ones. In addition to preserving Medicaid and boosting teacher pay, Montana’s new majority acted on this belief by allocating $75 million to a school maintenance trust fund and and including preschool students with disabilities in the state school funding formula, which will save schools $3.7 million next year.
“I don’t want to call it buyer’s remorse, but I do think there is such a thing as going too far,” Tuss remarked over lunch in a basement conference room of the Capitol. “It’s fine to embrace conservative political conventions, but when [legislators] don’t support public education, don’t support fixing our infrastructure, then people are going to look for an alternative.”
Second-term Gov. Greg Gianforte, a culturally conservative Republican, appears to agree with this analysis. In April 2024, he endorsed 58 candidates in Montana Republican primaries, a list that included a significant number of moderates, while snubbing some high-profile hard-liners. That gamble is now paying off. Some of his political objectives, such as allowing judicial candidates to declare their partisan affiliation, have failed, yet most of his budget wishes became law. These included a major income tax break, an inflationary funding increase for public schools, and Medicaid renewal. He also pushed through several GOP bills curtailing individual rights, such as banning trans athletes from women’s sports.
After repeated requests for comment on the bipartisan coalition that carried several of these policies across the finish line, his press secretary, Kaitlin Price, sent a written response on April 30, the final day of the session. “As the governor has stated repeatedly, this session, and every session prior, he believes every legislator — whether Republican, Democrat, or Independent — was elected by their constituents to advocate for them.”
“I don’t want to call it buyer’s remorse, but I do think there is such a thing as going too far.”
MONTANA IS NOT the only state displaying signs of a Trump backlash. Musk’s millions failed to overturn a liberal Supreme Court majority in Wisconsin. Since November, Democrats have also seen their vote share increase compared to the 2024 Presidential Election by an average of 11.6% in 19 special elections across 10 states, including races in Pennsylvania and Iowa Senate districts that Trump won by 15 and 21 points.
While it’s too early to know whether this trend will continue, it’s undeniable that Trump voters are pulling away from him in some of the states he won just five months ago. It’s also clear that state legislators feel more insulated from national political pressures than their federal colleagues do, especially on issues where Trump has staked a position to the right of broad-based popular opinion.
In Montana, meanwhile, the Republican Party is betting against moderation. Last month, the party’s executive committee censured “the nine” for “disregarding the will of Montana voters,” a salvo that might encourage far-right challengers in primary races next June. House Majority Leader Steve Fitzpatrick, R-Great Falls, however, doubts that such saber-rattling will slow the moderates’ momentum.
“In the Republican primary electorate, there’s a block of voters that value loyalty, but there’s a larger block who are going to look at their (legislator’s) record and accomplishments,” he said in early May. “The far right represents about 25% of the Republican electorate, so there’s a lot of room in the party for a variety of different voices.”
Montana AFL-CIO Executive Secretary Jason Small, a former two-term Republican senator and member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, agrees. “People are getting tired of hyper-partisanship because it leads to gridlock and does nothing,” he said. “I would guess the backing (the nine) have from their actual constituencies is pretty phenomenal. They’re non-idealogues. If you’re an idealogue, you’re never going to vote for your constituents.”
If this hunch holds true, then Trump voters in Montana will continue to value compromise even as they applaud some of the president’s executive orders. If false, then the next legislative session will prove far less surprising than this one. For his part, Tuss believes it’s a sensible prediction, and he’s counting on his Republican neighbors to send him back to Helena for another term.
“When people are trying balance their household budget, they really do want people who are going to provide solutions,” he said. “I mean, rhetoric is easy, and God knows us politicians are good at rhetoric, including me. But beyond the campaign slogans, beyond what we do through November, people elect politicians to govern.”
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A group of legal and civil rights organizations late Friday sued U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over conditions at Camp East Montana in El Paso, the country’s largest immigration detention facility.
“Camp East Montana is nothing short of a civil rights catastrophe,” Kyle Virgien, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project, said in a statement. “We’re suing to ensure that no other human being has to endure the inhumane treatment that the Trump administration has inflicted on our clients.”
The Texas Tribune has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
Filed by the ACLU of Texas, the ACLU, the Texas Civil Rights Project and law firm Farella Braun + Martel, the federal lawsuit comes less than a year after the opening of the sprawling tent camp.
In that time, the facility has seen at least three detainee deaths, a measles outbreak and nearly 50 detention standards violations as reported by ICE’s own inspectors, prompting calls for the camp’s closure from immigrant advocates and Democratic lawmakers.
The civil rights groups behind the lawsuit also alleged in a December letter that detained immigrants were subject to medical neglect, physical and sexual abuse by officers, insufficient food and denial of meaningful access to attorneys. In March, ICE switched out the facility’s prime operator for a more experienced contractor, saying the agency would “work closely with them” to improve services, including higher standards of medical care. Still, in a subsequent letter to ICE dated May 22, the groups said the situation “continued to deteriorate” and outlined additional complaints such as hazardous dust exposure.
Friday’s lawsuit argues that conditions at the facility are “unconstitutional punishment” and violate detainees’ due process rights under the Fifth Amendment.
“These conditions are longstanding, pervasive, and well documented, and Defendants’ continued inaction in the face of known risks shows their deliberate indifference — not mere negligence — to detainees’ constitutional rights,” the lawsuit said.
The petition, filed on behalf of four detainees, is also seeking approval to proceed as a class action to cover all those who are currently or will be detained in Camp East Montana.
One of the plaintiffs is Gerald Akari Angye, a detained immigrant who called the conditions at the camp “inhumane and cruel.”
Prior to this lawsuit, the 35-year-old man had filed a petition in January seeking release from ICE detention. According to the filing, Angye was a high school teacher in Cameroon but fled after being kidnapped and tortured amid a separatist conflict. He sought asylum after crossing through a New Mexico port of entry in December 2024. An immigration judge later denied his application, and Angye appealed.
In a statement provided by the civil rights groups, Angye said he had been beaten at Camp East Montana and never thought he would face “such severely violent treatments” in the United States. He was also placed in solitary confinement for 15 days, according to the lawsuit.
“No one deserves such cruel treatment,” he said. “We are all humans and deserve to be treated like it.”
U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar said in a statement to the Tribune that she is grateful for the legal fight. A leading critic of Camp East Montana, the El Paso Democrat called the facility “a purgatory for human beings held there.” She also vowed to continue her oversight visits and demand for the tent camp’s permanent closure.
Camp East Montana, first opened in August 2025, is located on Fort Bliss U.S. Army base.
Expected to ultimately reach a 5,000-bed capacity, the camp had a daily average of more than 2,500 detainees as of April 2, according to the most recent public data from ICE. The facility has also held the largest number of detained immigrants thus far in fiscal year 2026, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University found.
“Camp East Montana is at the epicenter of the administration’s cruel deportation agenda,” Savannah Kumar, staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas, said in a statement.
Disclosure: ACLU Texas has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
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BUTTE, Mont. — The Sentinel Spartans are the kings of Montana AA baseball.
In the inaugural season of AA baseball in the Treasure State, Sentinel took the title by winning three games in two days at the State AA Tournament, culminating with a 6-3 championship game victory over the Gallatin Raptors.
“It’s tough to find words right now,” said Sentinel head coach Brian Moser. “It was pretty emotional celebrating with the guys. Just really happy for them. What an opportunity. They took advantage of it. Very proud of them. Very appreciative of everything they’ve done for me and Sentinel High School and Sentinel baseball. It’s a great night to be a Spartan.”
Junior Stellan Ridley was stellar for Sentinel, with two triples, two runs scored, and two runs batted in. Kaden Thennis added two hits, two runs, and an RBI while also drawing a hit by pitch. Owen Dale had a hit and a run batted in.
“We have a great mentality,” said Ridley. “I’m so proud of these young guys. As a junior and the seniors, leading us to this and showing how discipline works. We faced some chirpy people, and we just stayed with our level of the game and we performed, as you can see. We won the State Tournament!”
Each win for Sentinel in the tournament came in vastly different fashion.
The Spartans earned a nine-inning victory in their quarterfinal against Butte on Thursday, then came back from a 6-0 deficit after 4.5 innings in their Friday semifinal matinee against the Glacier Wolfpack. But on Friday night, in a game that started at 10 p.m. and ended at 12:08 a.m., Sentinel took an early lead and never trailed enroute to a victory over a Raptors team that had lost just one game all season.
“I had never played a game that late. Going from the early game, it was good that we had that little gap, we got to recuperate and take a solid power nap and come back out here with a lot of energy. Because if we came out flat, there was no way. But we came out with a lot of energy, and we stuck it to them. I mean, that team was good,” said Ridley of their hot start in the title game.
“Baseball is a funny game. There’s a lot of ways to win, there’s a lot of ways to lose. Just happy for the guys for sticking to it and never giving up.” said Moser. “Honestly, it takes a couple of lucky bounces here and there in a State Tournament, and we got those and took advantage. Beat a really, really good Gallatin team tonight. Just extremely proud.”
Gallatin managed to tie the game at 3 apiece in the fifth inning before the Spartans scored one in the sixth and two in the seventh, allowing freshman pitcher Lucas Johansson to earn the win and the save on the mound.
“It’s a big deal. 3 runs are way more than 1. It takes a lot of what the offense can do away. So those were huge, huge runs,” said Moser.
Johansson picked up two of the three wins in the tournament for Sentinel, while fellow freshman Paxson Onstot had the victory in the triumph over Glacier.
“I’m not going to say that’s how we drew it up, but that hopefully gives them confidence to come back next year ready to go,” said Moser. “We’ll have a target on our backs, but that’s okay. A lot of youth, it’s fun.”
Keaton Elliott tossed the first 4.1 innings of the title game for Sentinel, allowing just two hits, three earned runs, and five walks while striking out two.
The title marked the end of a remarkable turnaround for a Spartans team that started the season with a record of 5-7 before winning 10 of their last 11.
“(We got) absolutely shamed by our entire school (at assembly). It sat with me this whole time and I hated that. I just had so much drive,” said Ridley. “What are they going to say now?”
Wyatt Ford pitched a complete game for Gallatin, allowing three earned runs, five hits and a hit by pitch while striking out 10 on 103 pitches.
Ford and Louis Musial had the Raptors only two hits on the night, a triple and double, respectively, while Harvey Kimmel had two runs batted in.
Sentinel ends their season with a record of 15-8, while Gallatin concluded their campaign at 18-2.
“I think Gallatin came in here a little cocky. One loss the whole season, thinking they were going to probably roll us,” said Ridley. “No. We showed them up. Their eyes got big, and they realized we’re not a team to mess with.”
HELENA, Mont. — Montana counties have accepted enough signatures for Seth Bodnar, running for U.S. Senate and Michael Eisenhauer, running in Montana’s 2nd Congressional District, to be on the November ballot, although counts are still unofficial.
County election officials are continuing to verify signatures submitted by Tuesday’s deadline as part of the candidate petition process.
The Montana Secretary of State’s Office has not yet verified, certified or accepted the petitions, according to the Secretary of State’s office.
Counties must submit candidate petitions to the Secretary of State’s office by June 1.
The Secretary of State’s office will then conduct its “statutory review to ensure the petitions meet the necessary legal requirements under law.”
The deadline for the November general election ballot to be certified is Thursday, Aug. 20. By then, all qualifying candidates and any potential ballot issues that qualify for the general election will be officially certified.
The following was out by the Montana Secretary of State’s Office:
The attached report is unofficial. It includes totals that the county election officials have processed and entered in the system. These totals do not represent what the Secretary of State’s Office has received, reviewed, tabulated, or certified. The certified totals may differ from what is reflected.
Seth Bodnar, U.S. Senate
- 13,327 required
- 18,772 accepted
- 7,812 rejected
Kimberly Persico, MT-01
- 6,742 required
- 563 accepted
- 156 rejected
Michael Eisenhauer, MT-02
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- 7,274 required
- 7,754 accepted
- 4,720 rejected
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