What is I-194?

Montana voters will decide Nov. 3 whether corporations, nonprofits and other organizations can keep spending money in state elections. Initiative 194, which supporters call “The Montana Plan,” would bar “artificial persons” from contributing anything of value to candidates, political parties or ballot issue campaigns. 

As defined by the 2026 Montana Supreme Court petition OP 26-0301, "artificial persons” includes corporations, nonprofits, trusts, partnerships, trade associations and unincorporated associations. 

Organizations that break the proposed law would forfeit their privileges to do business in the state, according to the official ballot language. The measure does not apply to individuals, political committees or news and editorial content.

I-194 targets Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision holding that the government cannot limit independent political spending by corporations and unions. Rather than challenging that ruling head-on, the measure relies on the state’s power to define what corporations, which exist under state law, are allowed to do. Its sponsor is the Transparent Election Initiative, founded by former Montana Commissioner of Political Practices Jeff Mangan.

Whether that approach will hold up in court is unsettled. In a written statement to the Exponent and other media outlets, The Montana Plan campaign said the measure “is not aimed at silencing citizens. It is aimed at defining the limits of state-created corporate privileges and preventing those privileges from being used as political weapons.”

According to the statement, under I-194 businesses could still “grow, hire, invest, and advocate on public issues through lawful and transparent means.”  What would end, according to the campaign, is “the use of the corporate form as a vehicle for election spending.”

Opponents, including Montanans for Free Speech, the Montana Chamber of Commerce and the Montana Republican Party’s Executive Board, argue the measure would silence Montana businesses while leaving wealthy, out-of-state individuals free to spend on Montana elections. 

“Out-of-state billionaires retain unlimited free speech rights under this initiative,” Montanans for Free Speech said in a written statement to the Exponent. “In the 2024 election cycle alone, 300 billionaires spent more than $3 billion influencing elections across the country. None of that is touched by I-194.” That figure matches a March 2026 New York Times analysis, which found 300 billionaires and their immediate families contributed substantially to the 2024 elections. 

Before Nov. 3, voters can read I-194’s full text, along with arguments for and against it written by each side, in the 2026 Voter Information Pamphlet the Montana Secretary of State's Office mailed in October. 

At VoteMT.gov, voters can also confirm their registration, view a sample ballot and track an absentee ballot.