Montana Supreme Court Justice Laurie McKinnon, who announced five months ago she would not run for re-election for a second term, said Sunday she’s changed her mind and will be running in 2020.
McKinnon told MTN News that while she initially wasn’t looking forward to another potentially partisan campaign, she decided that wasn’t a good-enough reason not to run.
“I just feel like it’s a cop-out not to go forward on an election, just because that part of the job is unpleasant,” she said.
McKinnon, 59, first won election to the court in 2012. Supreme Court justices in Montana are non-partisan, but conservatives and business groups lined up behind McKinnon in that election against attorney Ed Sheehy, who was supported by many Democrats and liberal-leaning groups.