Final Montana legislative race called for Democrat following recount

After a recount in House District 57 was finalized earlier this week, Democrat Scott Rosenzweig maintained his lead over incumbent Rep. Marty Malone, R-Pray, ultimately winning with three fewer votes than originally tallied.

The initial vote tally had Rosenzweig ahead by 20 votes. After the recount, Malone gained two votes in Park County while Rosenzweig lost one, making the final difference a mere 17 votes. The Gallatin vote counts remained the same. The final vote count was 3,802 to 3,785 in favor of Rosenzweig.

House District 57 occupies parts of Gallatin and Park Counties, stretching from east Bozeman, up past Clyde Park and all the way out to Cooke City, but excluding downtown Livingston. The district was redrawn as a part of the once-in-a-decade redistricting process to account for population changes and this was the first time the new district was on the ballot.

This was the only recount in the state this cycle and they are generally rare for legislative races in Montana. State code stipulates that the state will pay for the recount if the margin of victory is equal to or less than 0.25%. Candidates can request a recount if the margin is between 0.25% and 0.5%, but they have to fund the effort.

If the original margin following Election Day was 19 instead of 20 votes, the state would have had to pay, but that singular vote pushed the margin to 0.26%, requiring the candidate to foot the bill.

Malone said he has not yet received a final cost for the effort, but believes it will come out to roughly $5,200. He had supporters and other legislators contribute money to help pay for the effort which included hiring an attorney.

Both men won in their home counties, but Rosenzweig's lead in Gallatin proved too wide for Malone to overcome. Rosenzweig is a resident of East downtown Bozeman and received roughly 2.5 votes in Gallatin County for Malone's one. Malone, a resident of Pray, received 2,891 votes compared to Rosenzweig's 1,766 in Park County.

"I intend to represent everyone who did or did not vote for me or did not vote [at all]," Rosenzweig said following the recount.

The Associated Press originally called the race the morning after election day for Malone, but later retracted its call. Roughly 99.9% of the race calls AP issued were accurate in 2024.

"Accuracy is paramount to everything we do at AP and we regret the error," a spokesperson for the outlet said in an email.

This race was always projected to be one of the closest of the cycle, something that Rosenzweig, a former satellite communications executive, told residents while door knocking. Many residents that Rosenzweig spoke to were not aware of the deep purple hue of their home district or that the boundaries had changed.

The Democrat, who had a paid staffer from the Montana Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee assigned to his race, said he knocked over 2,000 doors.

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Residents of Bridger Canyon, the road that connects downtown Bozeman to the Bridger Bowl ski resort, said they had not had any political canvassers come by that cycle, even in a year when door knocking appeared to reach a fever pitch in Montana.

"It's the short strokes," Rosenzweig said between doors on a bright summer evening. "It still actually seems to matter."

When Rosenzweig told him he was a Democrat canvassing, one resident said "Cool! Like Baucus," referring to Montana's longest serving Senator, Democrat Max Baucus. Another resident thanked him for showing up.

What residents in House District 57 were acutely aware of was skyrocketing property taxes. Rosenzweig said property taxes was the topic he heard about most on the doors.

Rosenzweig had a permanent smile plastered across his face, even as he tells voters about his plan to lower their property taxes.

"We need to balance things so that property tax homeowners only experience relatively minor increases," Rosenzweig said. He wants to see the Legislature do this by not shifting the tax burden too heavily on any one class of property whether its residential, commercial, agricultural or otherwise.

"Everyone should handle a reasonable increase," Rosenzweig added. "What happened last year was not reasonable."

He has been assigned to the House appropriations committee.

Malone served two terms in the statehouse and was vice chairman of the agriculture committee in the 2023 session. Before that he worked as an MSU extension agent.

He blamed his loss on redistricting and late night new voter registration in Gallatin County.

"I didn't make the district, I'm just running in it," Rosenzweig said earlier this year.

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In a year where Democrats lost resoundingly statewide, often by double digit margins, the party hung their hat on some key legislative wins. Rosenzweig's victory in House District 57 is another big win for the party.

"As Mr. Tester said, he's gonna go home and farm and I guess I'll go home and ranch," Malone said.