Under new chairman, Montana Republican Party fundraising off to a slow start

In the eight months since Art Wittich was made chair of the Montana Republican Party, which has dominated state politics in every cycle since 2020, fundraising figures are down, even trailing Democratic hauls. But, Wittich said, it’s all part of building the new GOP, which he hopes to make focused on grassroots donors.

One cycle removed from sweeping the last Democrat from Montana’s statewide office, and Wittich has brought the focus of the Republican Party squarely onto the intraparty fight with Republicans who bucked the party line at the 2025 Legislature — a message that has repeatedly cropped up in fundraising messaging in recent months.

The result, so far, according to state and federal campaign finance records, has been fewer dollars coming into the party coffers, and some resistance from two of the state’s larger county central committees to share their revenues. Moderate Republicans who have been cast aside by the party say the public airing of intraparty grievances is a bad bet.

But to Wittich, the former Gallatin County legislator who was elected party chair last June, people running for office with “R” next to their name should only get the benefit of the party label if they plan to vote for a conservative agenda when elected.

“MT GOP was mostly concerned with federal races, the congressional race and U.S. Senate races,” Wittich told attendees of a Terry fundraiser held in February. “We made a decision after the last fiasco in the 2025 legislative session to become more involved with electing good Republican legislators, and so we’re very active.”

Wittich, in a statement to the Montana State News Bureau, encouraged trust in the strategy and says the party is shifting its priorities in the right direction.

“The Montana Republican Party is focused on securing a bright red future for our state, not pleasing the Helena establishment,” he said.

Building a war chest

During 2025, the MT GOP raised $728,538 directly for this year’s three federal races, according to the latest campaign finance filings, and $82,609 for state-level races. About two-thirds of those funds were collected before Wittich took over.

Heading into the 2022 midterm elections, the Montana Republican Party was raising money for state election activities at a far faster clip. Between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, 2021, for example, the party raised more than it did in all of 2025.

On the federal side, however, the party had raised only $425,274 to go toward the two U.S. House seats that were up for grabs. Here, the state party has three federal races to tend to this year and has outpaced the previous midterm cycle, even though the total raised is still less than what the GOP had drummed up at this point in 2022.

Looking at the 2024 election, when outside money flooded the state because of the race between now-Senator Republican Tim Sheehy and then-incumbent Democrat Jon Tester, the GOP had raked in nearly $1.3 million by the end of 2023 across state and federal fundraising reports.

Wittich defended the party’s haul at this moment in the cycle under new leadership and with a reimagined Republican apparatus.

"Our numbers are fine for a new administration and new cycle. Regardless, numbers alone don't paint the full picture,” Wittich said. “The Montana Republican Party is as effective as ever. We're reinvigorating our county central committees, bringing attention to midterm races and preparing for a productive 2027 legislative session.”

Wittich added that the party has made changes to operate more efficiently so dollars raised can go further. They’ve relocated to a less expensive office space and hired a leaner staff.

Party spending on state-level campaign activities under Wittich has so far predominantly gone to a political consulting firm based out of Nevada to host training and provide campaign support for selected candidates, according to state filings.

Conservative candidates with party backing are also getting robust support from outside groups, chief among them Americans For Prosperity, which has already papered mailboxes and the social media with advertisements.

As of Dec. 31, the Montana Republican Party had about $347,040 in the bank, according to state and federal records, about $476,000 less than the state’s Democratic party.

Montana Democrats raised more than twice the amount of money as the MT GOP in 2025 across state and federal campaign filings.

“Very clearly Montanans are fed up with what’s happening with Republicans, and they’re done,” said Shannon O’Brien, chair of the Montana Democrats. “They want a change, and they are showing up at these events and putting their money where their mouth is.”

Wittich did not respond to questions about why he thought the Republicans were losing ground to the Democrats on fundraising, but was quick to caution against conflating money with political power.

“Democrats and their establishment donors are great at spending millions of dollars on elections to no avail — which statewide offices do they hold, and in which legislative chamber are they a majority?" he said.

Heavy-handed tactics

The Montana Republican Party says close collaboration with county central committees is a pillar of its new strategy to get more conservatives elected and swing influence away from big donors and back to everyday voters.

In recent months, there have been fewer large contributions from political committees to the state party as compared to past cycles, but some of the more influential county central committees have rebuffed the party’s advances.

Back in January, Wittich asked the Yellowstone County Central Committee to commit $25,000 and obtain local sponsors to help put on the GOP’s annual platform convention, according to emails reviewed by the Montana State News Bureau, and dangled the carrot of hundreds of visitors and an economic windfall if Billings were to be the host site.

Yellowstone County didn’t agree, and Wittich announced earlier this month that the June convention will be hosted in Missoula.

“We were not getting that kind of response in Yellowstone County, so we’re going to have it in Missoula,” Wittich said at the February fundraiser in Terry when asked about the convention.

Billings GOP Sen. Tom McGillvray, the majority leader in the upper chamber, was one of the recipients of Wittich’s email in January. Wittich criticized McGillvray for trying to “obstruct” the party’s fundraising efforts, although McGillvray said in a phone interview on Monday he had simply asked for what purpose the state party was asking money of the central committee.

“It’s not an absurd question to ask,” McGillvray said, noting the Yellowstone County Central Committee has to raise money for dozens of local candidates before it begins thinking about the state party’s needs.

Asked about Art’s new direction for the party’s resources, McGillvray said he believes central committees and the state GOP should stay out of primaries, that using one Republican’s donations to attack another Republican creates a field of landmines that can be avoided.

“I don’t have a problem with Art or what he’s trying to do to raise money for the party,” he said. “As long as it’s spent in general elections, I have no problem with it.”

Two members of the Cascade County Central Committee said the state party asked for $5,000, but they denied the request.

“Us funding the state party seems like the little guy cutting a check to the big guy,” Rep. George Nikolakakos, a Republican from Great Falls and the committee’s finance chair. “But it also gave me a sense that they were scrambling for money.”

It’s not unheard of for county central committees to help out the state party. Nine donated in the first half of the year, including Yellowstone County which had given a total of $1,775 through June. Fergus County’s Republican chapter gave $250 in October, and donated a “Trump gun” worth $1,500 to a party fundraiser in July. Yellowstone County gave $250 in July.

Nikolakakos, a moderate who is facing a primary challenge for an open Senate seat from self-proclaimed “RINO hunter” Randy Pinocci, thinks the public attacks against fellow party members have made people less willing to pony up funds.

For example, a November GOP mailer described the bipartisan property tax measure as a sham and labeled party defectors fake Republicans.

It asked recipients to help them raise $16,200 in the next 30 days.

“The state party is not playing nice and is dividing the party and is clearly picking favorites, and, as a result, some people will just not fund the state party,” Nikolakakos said.

‘People are jazzed up’

Party leadership has presented as unfazed by the current fundraising picture, though Wittich did admit earlier this month that there have been some challenges.

“I think the only challenges to fundraising are the people who are boycotting us and their Helena establishment pals,” he said earlier this month at the GOP Winter Kickoff event in Great Falls, which serves to raise money and train candidates. “We certainly see some decrease in fundraising from that side, but I will tell you, if you weren’t here last night, people are jazzed up.”

“I think that people are going to leave this all excited to get involved,” he continued. “I have no concern about funding the party because as people get excited and they see the importance of these 2026 races…people are responding.”

When asked if the party had a fundraising goal and if that bar had been cleared, Wittich responded coyly.

“If I did, I wouldn’t tell it to you,” he said.

Seaborn Larson contributed to this report.