More than 300 file for MT Legislature. Here’s six initial takeaways.

A lot happened in the final 72 hours before Montana’s deadline for candidates to file for office on Wednesday evening. 

Big news dropped Monday with incumbent U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke retiring from Congress, opening the door for Republicans to enter the western district race.

On Wednesday morning an independent candidate with strong backing entered the U.S. Senate race, and with just minutes to spare Wednesday night, incumbent U.S. Sen. Steve Daines dropped out of his re-election race, endorsed a successor, and is ready to be done with politics this year. 

But underneath the national-level chaos, hundreds of Montanans also filed to run for the state’s citizen Legislature, which will next convene in January 2027.

Here are a few takeaways from the first glance at legislative filings.

A few candidates did not draw any opponents in their races and, pending any write-in campaigns, will be legislators next year. 

Those include incumbent Democratic Sens. Andrea Olsen and Shane Morigeau; incumbent Democratic Reps. Mike Fox, Jade Sootkis, Zooey Zephyr and Bob Carter; new Democratic Rep. Lona Running Wolf; incumbent Republican Reps. Greg Oblander and Fiona Nave; and current Republican Sen. Butch Gillespie, who is moving to the House. 

There is some chamber hopping, mostly from the House into the Senate. 

Montana has term limits for legislators, preventing them from serving more than eight years within a 16-year period in a single chamber. Of course, that creates an obvious loophole that after eight years, a House member can move to the Senate, and then back again eight years later, and vice versa. 

In addition to Gillespie, among those seeking to prolong their legislative careers by moving from Senate to House are Democratic Sen. Janet Ellis, in a three-way primary for House District 81, and disgraced Republican Sen. Jason Ellsworth running in a district across the state (more on this below). 

Going the other direction, from the House to the more powerful, longer-termed Senate, are 14 Representatives, seeking 12 Senate nominations.

For example, Republican Reps. Dave Bedey and Kathy Love are facing off in the Bitterroot. In Bozeman, Democratic Reps. Becky Edwards and Kelly Kortum are in a battle for the nomination with a third Democrat.

Primary battles might be the hardest fought elections for several seats, especially those with incumbent or chamber-switching moderate Republicans. 

The well-documented rift in the Republican party between moderate members, including the infamous “Nasty Nine” senators who worked with a bipartisan coalition in 2025, will be on display this spring as more conservative candidates seek to oust moderates. 

State Republican leadership discussed this at the party’s campaign kickoff event last month, but there are only a few big-target seats in the Senate. 

One of The Nine, Sen. Wendy McKamey of Great Falls, is not running for re-election due to health issues, but has anointed Rep. George Nikolakakos to run for her seat in the same moderate lane against “RINO-killer” challenger Randy Pinocci. 

Rep. Llew Jones, hoping to move to the Senate, and Sen. Shelley Vance, seeking another term in the Senate, are also priority seats for more conservative Republicans.

Democrats will see new leadership

Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers, a Bozeman Democrat, and House Minority leader Katie Sullivan, of Missoula, are both termed out of their respective houses. Flowers is leaving politics altogether, citing his age, while Sullivan did not opt to primary any Missoula-area Democrats for a Senate seat. 

Possible front-runners for Democratic leadership could include last session’s minority whips, if re-elected, including Sens. Morigeau, Laura Smith, and Reps. SJ Howell, and Jonathan Karlen.

Some bigger Democratic names are entering the legislative conversation

In outgoing minority leader Flowers’ district, former legislator and U.S. House candidate Kathleen Williams has filed. 

And in Missoula, two-time U.S. House candidate Monica Tranel is looking to get involved at the state level. 

Ellsworth is back, but far from home

The former Senate President, who is currently under criminal investigation for misconduct over a six-figure contract he procured for a business partner, was censured by the Senate and permanently banned from the upper chamber. 

But he filed to run for the House, although in a district on the opposite side of the state from the Bitterroot Valley where he lives, challenging Freedom Caucus member Rep. Jerry Schillinger.