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State executive offices up for election in Montana this year

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State executive offices up for election in Montana this year


HELENA — Every four years, Montanans elect not only a governor, but four other state executive officeholders – together, the five members of the state land board.

Currently, all of those offices are held by Republicans. MTN has already looked at Attorney General Austin Knudsen’s bid for reelection and at his challenger, attorney Ben Alke, a Democrat from Bozeman. Now, the races are beginning to take shape for three other land board offices.

Jonathon Ambarian

Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen filed for a second four-year term earlier this month, telling MTN she promised voters not to seek higher office while she was still eligible to run for this one. She said she considers her first term to be a success, and she plans to point to record business registrations in the state and reduced red tape.

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If she’s reelected, Jacobsen says she wants to continue to focus on election integrity measures. She says she hopes the Montana Supreme Court will allow provisions like stricter voter ID to go into effect, after they faced legal challenges.

“We’re working hard and fighting to keep those on the books into the next term,” she said. “So there’s always room for improvement. We’re already starting to talk with the legislators about possible legislation for next time around to continue to improve elections in the state of Montana.”

Jesse James Mullen

Jonathon Ambarian

Running against Jacobsen is Jesse James Mullen, a Democrat from Deer Lodge. He owns a chain of small community newspapers in Montana and five other states, though he’s stepped back from the company during the campaign. This is his first statewide campaign, after he ran in a special election for state senate last year.

Mullen criticized Jacobsen’s office for their frequent involvement in lawsuits, saying it shows actions the secretary of state should have been taking without being taken to court. He says, as a business owner, he can bring an emphasis on “customer service” to the office’s interactions with businesses and the public.

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“A good secretary of state should be a caretaker of the position,” he said. “A great Secretary of State isn’t going to be out in the media all the time because they’re doing the job and making sure Montanans can prioritize their own lives, their own careers and their own businesses.”

Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen will be termed-out at the end of 2024 after serving eight years. Two of her former deputy superintendents have expressed interest in succeeding her.

Susie Hedalen

Jonathon Ambarian

Susie Hedalen, the superintendent of Townsend Public Schools, filed for the Republican nomination last week. She worked at the Office of Public Instruction for three years, including serving as deputy superintendent for education services. She previously worked as superintendent in the Arrowhead School District, and prior to that in various other educational roles, starting as a classroom teacher.

Hedalen also serves as vice-chair of the Montana Board of Public Education. She says the various roles she’s held have given her an understanding of what school leaders need and how OPI can support them. She also wants to emphasize listening to parents’ concerns.

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“I want to make sure that we bring education back to basics, and what I mean by that is that we have a well-rounded education that is built on the foundational skills that our students need – reading, writing, math, science, those skills that are going to bring them through along the way.”

Hedalen’s campaign has touted support from Republican leaders like Gov. Greg Gianforte, Knudsen and – on Monday – U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke.

Sharyl Allen

Jonathon Ambarian

Sharyl Allen, currently the superintendent-principal for Harrison Public School, told MTN she intends to file as a Republican candidate in the coming days as well. Allen was deputy superintendent under Arntzen for three years. She had previously been a superintendent in Conrad and Boulder, a principal in Great Falls and a teacher in Augusta.

Allen says, during her time in the superintendent’s office, she got experience working firsthand on educational initiatives like student assessments and teacher residency programs. She says OPI needs to do a better job of being responsive to local school leaders.

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Allen says she’s shown herself to be an innovator and risktaker throughout her educational career.

“I think the question is, what do you believe in most? And for me, it’s always fighting for kids and the opportunities that they need,” she said. “I love kids, I believe they have incredible potential that often is untapped, I fight for them and I will continue to fight for them, and will ask Montanans to join us.”

Shannon O'Brien

Jonathon Ambarian

The Democratic candidate running for superintendent is state Sen. Shannon O’Brien, D-Missoula. She’s worked as a high school teacher, helping students access college, and as dean of Missoula College – as well as serving as education policy advisor to former Gov. Steve Bullock.

O’Brien says she wants to rebuild the Office of Public Instruction, saying many school districts aren’t receiving the support services they should be. She argues Arntzen’s office has been too focused on issues that aren’t important to families, and she believes she can get that message across to people regardless of their political party.

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“We have mental health issues, we have safe schools we need to focus on, and we have a teacher shortage crisis going on right now,” said O’Brien. “So, first of all, I think we need to focus on what’s most important to our families and our children and our teachers. And secondly, we need to make sure that our public schools are protected and our quality public schools in our rural towns are supported, and those teachers have the support that they need to do their job.”

State Auditor Troy Downing could run for a second term, but he’s campaigning in the Republican primary for Montana’s eastern district seat in the U.S. House – leaving the office, which regulates the insurance and securities industries in the state, open for now.

James Brown

Jonathon Ambarian

The only candidate to file for auditor so far is Montana Public Service Commission President James Brown, a Republican from Dillon. Brown ran a prominent campaign for Montana Supreme Court in 2022, and says that helped him introduce himself to voters statewide.

Brown believes the state auditor and the PSC share similar regulatory roles, and duties to serve the public.

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“Part of the reason I ran for the PSC in 2020 is because I believed I had a skill set in order to bring balance to that commission,” he said. “I feel like I’ve successfully done what I’ve started out to do at the PSC, and I believe that my skill set now is a better fit at the moment for serving as state auditor.”

Brown, an attorney, says he holds an insurance producer’s license, and that he got it to better educate himself about insurance issues that came up in his practice. However, he hasn’t worked actively in the insurance industry, so he says he’d have knowledge without the worry of a conflict of interest.

Any candidates still wanting to file for these and other state offices still has almost a month to do so. The deadline is March 11.





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An influx of outsiders and money turns Montana Republican, culminating in a Senate triumph

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An influx of outsiders and money turns Montana Republican, culminating in a Senate triumph


BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Democrats’ crushing loss in Montana’s nationally important U.S. Senate race settled a fierce political debate over whether a surge of newcomers in the past decade favored Republicans — and if one of the new arrivals could even take high office.

Voters answered both questions with an emphatic “yes” with Tim Sheehy’s defeat of three-term Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, helping deliver a GOP Senate majority and laying bare a drastic cultural shift in a state that long prided itself on electing home-grown candidates based on personal qualifications, not party affiliation.

It’s the first time in almost a century that one party totally dominates in Montana. Corporations and mining barons known as the Copper Kings once had a corrupt chokehold on the state’s politics, and an aversion to outsiders that arose from those times has faded, replaced by a partisan fervor that Republicans capitalized on during the election.

Tester, a moderate lawmaker and third-generation grain farmer from humble Big Sandy, Montana, lost to wealthy aerospace entrepreneur Sheehy, a staunch supporter of President-elect Donald Trump who arrived in Montana 10 years ago and bought a house in the ritzy resort community of Big Sky.

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“The political culture in Montana has changed fundamentally over the past 10 to 15 years,” said University of Montana history professor Jeff Wiltse. “The us vs. them, Montanans vs. outsiders mentality that has a long history in Montana has significantly weakened.”

What to know about Trump’s second term:

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The state’s old instinct for choosing its own, regardless of party, gave way to larger trends that began more than a decade ago and accelerated during the pandemic.

Job opportunities in mining, logging and railroad work — once core Democratic constituencies — dried up. Newcomers, many drawn by the state’s natural social distancing, came in droves — with almost 52,000 new arrivals since 2020. That’s almost as many as the entire prior decade, according to U.S. Census data. As the population changed, national issues such as immigration and gender identity came to dominate political attention, distracting from local issues.

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The 2024 Senate race brought a record-setting flood of outside money on both sides — more than $315 million, much of it from shadowy groups with wealthy donors. That effectively erased Montana’s efforts over more than a century to limit corporate cash in politics.

Sheehy’s win came after the party ran the table in recent Montana elections where voters installed other wealthy Republicans including Gov. Greg Gianforte, U.S. Sen. Steve Daines and U.S. Rep.-elect Troy Downing.

Daines is the only one of the group originally from Montana — once a virtual requirement for gaining high office in the state.

Apple-flavored whiskey and Champagne

The contrast between Montana’s old and new politics was on vivid display on election night. Tester’s party was a sedate event at the Best Western Inn in Great Falls — rooms for $142 a night — where the lawmaker mingled with a few dozen supporters and sipped on apple-flavored whiskey in a plastic cup.

Sheehy’s more boisterous affair was in Bozeman — the epicenter of Montana’s new wealth — at an upscale hotel where a standard room costs $395. Long before his victory was announced, carts bearing Champagne were rolled in as the candidate remained sequestered in a secure balcony area most of the night with select supporters.

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Sheehy, a former U.S. Navy SEAL from Minnesota, moved to Montana after leaving the military and, along with his brother, founded Bridger Aerospace, an aerial firefighting company that depends on government contracts. Sheehy also bought a ranch in the Little Belt Mountains, and during the campaign cast himself as the modern equivalent of an early western settler seeking opportunity.

Tester received 22,000 more votes on Nov. 5 than in his last election — a gain that exceeded his margin of victory in previous wins. Yet for every additional Tester voter, Sheehy gained several more. The result was a resounding eight-point win for the Republican, removing Democrats from the last statewide office they still held in Montana.

For Republicans, it completed their domination of states stretching from the Northern Plains to the Rocky Mountains.

“We have North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Utah — we’re all kind of red now,” said Montana Republican Party Chairman Don Kaltschmidt.

Democrats as recently as 2007 held a majority of Senate seats in the Northern Plains and almost every statewide office in Montana.

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Daines — who led GOP efforts to retake the Senate as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee — pointed out during Sheehy’s election party that Republicans would control both Montana Senate seats for the first time in more than a century.

‘Conservative refugees’

Tester and other Democrats bemoan the wealth that’s transformed the state. It’s most conspicuous in areas like Big Sky and Kalispell, where multimillion-dollar homes occupy the surrounding mountainsides while throngs of service workers struggle to find housing.

It’s not quite the same as the Copper Kings — who at their peak controlled elected officials from both major parties — but Democrats see parallels.

“What do they say — history doesn’t repeat itself but it rhymes,” said Monica Tranel, the defeated Democratic candidate in a western Montana House district. “It is very evocative of what happened in the early 1900s. It’s very much a time of change and turmoil and who has a voice.”

Montana in 2022 gained a second House seat due to population growth over the prior decade, giving Democrats a chance to regain clout. After a narrow loss that year to former Trump Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke, Tranel ran again this year and lost.

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Even as she turned to history to explain Montana’s contemporary political dynamic, Tranel considered the future. She acknowledged that Democrats have fallen out of step with a conservative electorate more attuned to party labels.

“The label itself is what they are reacting to,” she said. “Do we need a different party at this point?”

Republican officials embraced wealthy newcomers.

Steve Kelly, 66, who calls himself a “conservative refugee,” moved to northwestern Montana from Nevada at the height of the pandemic. He spent most of his 30-year career in law enforcement in Reno, but said he tired of the city as it grew and became more liberal — “San Francisco East,” he called it.

In 2020, Kelly and his wife bought a house outside Kalispell on a few acres so they could have horses. He got involved with the local Republican party and this fall won a seat in the state Legislature on an anti-illegal immigration platform.

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“It seems to be different here. Most of the people we have met have also been conservative refugees, getting away from other cities,” he said.

Driving the growth are transplants from western states dominated by Democrats, especially California, where more than 85,000 Montana residents originated, or about 7.5% of the population, Census data shows. Almost half of Montana residents were born out of state.

Worker wages in Montana have been stagnant for decades, said Megan Lawson with the independent research group Headwaters Economics in Bozeman. Income from stocks, real estate and other investments has risen sharply, reflecting the changing — and wealthier — demographic.

“Certainly a large share of it is coming from folks who are moving into this state,” Lawson said. “When you put all this together it helps to explain the story of the political shift.”

___

Associated Press reporter Michael Schneider in Orlando, Florida, contributed to this report.

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Montana transgender lawmaker on Capitol Hill's bathroom ban: 'Do not cede ground'

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Montana transgender lawmaker on Capitol Hill's bathroom ban: 'Do not cede ground'


The question of who uses which bathroom on Capitol Hill has become a heated topic ahead of the 119th U.S. Congress convening next year.

This debate was sparked by the historic election of Sarah McBride, a transgender woman, to represent Delaware in Congress. In response, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) introduced a resolution aiming to require transgender individuals to use bathrooms corresponding to their sex assigned at birth.

Democratic state Rep. Zooey Zephyr, the first transgender woman in Montana’s state legislature, understands what it feels like to be singled out.

She joined Scripps News on Friday to weigh in on the controversy unfolding in D.C.

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“It’s important to acknowledge that while these attacks on transgender people are always brought one bill at a time, they do not focus on specific issues,” Zephyr said. “The hate of trans people is boundless. We saw that when Nancy Mace went on far-right media earlier this week and claimed that it was ‘offensive’ that Congresswoman McBride views herself as an equal to Nancy Mace.”

“When we see policies targeting trans women just trying to live their lives in the restroom, trying to play sports with their friends — that is not where the hate stops from the right,” Zephyr said. “That hate is on display at every moment, which is why it’s important for us to resist these efforts to target our community.”

In 2023, Republican lawmakers in Montana voted to ban Zephyr from the House floor and from participating in debates after she spoke out against a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors. The incident led to legal challenges over Zephyr’s censure and to political activism from supporters of transgender rights.

“The attacks we see on trans people will escalate. This will not be the last attack on Congresswoman McBride,” Zephyr said. “In my perspective, it is important that we make sure as trans people in this country that we do not cede ground to someone who wants to erase us — regardless of whether they want to erase us in the Capitol, or if they want to erase us as we go through our daily lives in public. We have to stand strong.”

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Rep. Nancy Mace to introduce bill on restroom use tied to sex at birth

In an interview with Scripps News this week, Mace said her resolution was specifically targeted at Rep.-elect McBride, who stated she will “follow the rules as outlined” even if she disagrees with them.

“I’m not here to fight about bathrooms,” McBride said. “I’m here to fight for Delawareans to bring down the costs facing families.”

Despite McBride’s statement, Mace said her effort to ban transgender individuals from certain bathrooms extends beyond Washington. She is advocating for legislation requiring transgender people to use restrooms that align with their sex assigned at birth on any property receiving public funds.

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“I have PTSD from the sexual abuse I have suffered at the hands of a man. We have to as women draw a line in the sand, a big fat red line, about our rights,” Mace said. “And the basic question today is, do women have rights or do we not? And I will tell you just the idea of a man in a locker room watching me change clothes after a workout is a huge trigger and it’s not OK to make and force women to be vulnerable in private spaces.”

RELATED STORY | As House GOP targets McBride, she says ‘I’m not here to fight about bathrooms’





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Powerhouse Football Team Drops Incredible Hype Video For Legendary Rivalry Game

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Powerhouse Football Team Drops Incredible Hype Video For Legendary Rivalry Game


Montana State brought its fastball for the team’s Brawl of the Wild hype video.

The Bobcats will take the field Saturday against the Montana Grizzlies in the latest installment of one of the greatest rivalries in all of sports.

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Fans of the Bobcats and Grizzlies hate each other. They’re the only two major schools in the state, and both are FCS powerhouses.

The bitterness runs deep between the fans, and once a year, they come together on the gridiron to earn bragging rights for a year.

Montana State drops epic hype video for Brawl of the Wild against Montana. 

If you’re going to play in a monster college football game, then you need a great hype video to get the fans juiced up.

Well, the Bobcats brought their A-game with a hype video featuring Journey’s classic hit song “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart).”

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Smash the play button below, and then hit me with your reactions at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.

That video goes insanely hard. That’s one of the best hype videos I’ve seen all season long, and I’m not at all surprised that it’s for the Brawl of the Wild.

The 11-0 Bobcats battling it out with the 8-3 Grizzlies is exactly what fans want to see in the final game of the regular season, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.

MSU is looking to go undefeated. Montana is looking to play spoiler and improve their position for the FCS playoffs.

This is what it’s all about, and do not sleep on the Brawl of the Wild simply because it’s FCS action. As someone who used to live in Bozeman, I can tell you that the environment will be nuts Saturday and the city and Bobcat Stadium will be rocking.

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You can catch the game at 2:00 EST on ESPN+. It should be one of the best of the weekend. Let me know your thoughts on the Brawl of the Wild at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.





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