WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy praised President Donald Trump’s announcement of plans to establish a next-generation military training range in Montana, describing the project as an investment in modernizing the nation’s defense capabilities. The proposed facility would support integrated military exercises and testing involving emerging technologies, including electronic warfare, hypersonic weapons, space systems and advanced targeting Read More…

Montana U.S. Senate candidate Seth Bodnar appears to have a substantially higher net worth than Republican rival Kurt Alme, according to financial disclosure reports filed with the U.S. Senate. An analysis of the candidates’ disclosures estimates Bodnar and his wife have a net worth ranging from approximately $4.9 million to $13 million, compared with roughly Read More…

HELENA—Montana’s formally nonpartisan Supreme Court race is developing a clear ideological divide, with liberal advocacy groups, liberal-leaning current and former Montana Supreme Court justices and district judges lining up behind District Judge Amy Eddy, while conservative organizations, Republican officials and GOP committees are supporting District Judge Dan Wilson. Eddy and Wilson, both judges in Montana’s Read More…

HELENA—The race for Montana’s open U.S. Senate seat is giving voters four distinct choices, with Republican Kurt Alme, independent Seth Bodnar, Democrat Alani Bankhead and Libertarian Kyle Austin competing to replace retiring Sen. Steve Daines. Alme, 59, has made his Montana roots and long record in state and federal public service central to his campaign. Read More…

KALISPELL—President Donald Trump is returning to Montana next week for a campaign rally in Kalispell as Republicans look to boost congressional candidate Aaron Flint in the race for Montana’s Western Congressional District. Trump is scheduled to appear Wednesday at the Majestic Valley Arena, where he will campaign alongside Flint, the Republican nominee seeking to succeed Read More…

KALISPELL—Republican congressional candidate Aaron Flint has released a new general-election advertisement focused on public safety, fentanyl and border security, featuring Gallatin County Sheriff Dan Springer. In the ad, Springer endorses Flint and says the Republican candidate would support stronger enforcement against fentanyl trafficking and tighter border security. “Lieutenant Colonel Flint will crack down on fentanyl Read More…

WHITEFISH—Republican congressional nominee Aaron Flint and Flathead County Sheriff Brian Heino joined local residents in Whitefish on Friday for a rally supporting Border Patrol and local law enforcement, while Flint used the event to criticize Democratic opponent Sam Forstag’s lobbying record on immigration and criminal-justice issues. The gathering drew roughly 40 people near the Whitefish Read More…

MISSOULA—Republican congressional nominee Aaron Flint unveiled a tax-relief proposal in Missoula this week while seeking to make Democratic opponent Sam Forstag’s past lobbying work a central issue in Montana’s 1st Congressional District race. Flint’s proposal calls for making permanent federal tax breaks on tips and overtime, eliminating federal taxes on military pensions, ending the estate Read More…

HELENA, Mont. — Montana’s U.S. Senate race is entering its final stretch with millions of dollars in outside spending, a dispute over a television advertisement targeting Republican Kurt Alme and growing scrutiny of independent candidate Seth Bodnar’s record leading the University of Montana. The four-way contest to replace retiring Republican Sen. Steve Daines includes Alme, Read More…

WASHINGTON — Legislation updating the Crow Tribe’s water-rights settlement has cleared Congress and is headed to President Donald Trump’s desk. The Crow Tribe Water Rights Settlement Amendments Act, sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Steve Daines and backed in the House by Rep. Troy Downing, passed the Senate after clearing the House last week. The Read More…

Leadership in Action, a political action committee whose honorary chairman is Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, has launched a new advertisement targeting Democratic congressional candidate Sam Forstag over his previous lobbying work in Helena. The ad, titled “The Other Resume,” argues that Forstag’s campaign emphasis on his background as a smokejumper and wildland firefighter leaves Read More…

A federal judge appointed by former President Barack Obama has ordered the release of 24 people held by federal immigration authorities in Cascade County, concluding that the government failed to follow required procedures governing warrantless immigration arrests and detention. Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Morris issued the order Friday as part of an ongoing class-action Read More…

Sen. Tim Sheehy’s Air Traffic Situational Awareness Enhancement Act advanced out of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. The bill, co-led by Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., is intended to give air traffic controllers additional tools and training to keep American airspace safe. It now heads to the full Senate for consideration. “America has Read More…

Democrat Sam Forstag’s effort to emphasize his working-class background is drawing fresh scrutiny from Republican Aaron Flint’s campaign, which is highlighting Forstag’s years of lobbying and LGBTQ advocacy work in Helena. Forstag recently released an advertisement claiming that he earned $16 an hour as a smokejumper. Flint’s campaign responded by releasing lobbying records it says Read More…

MISSOULA, Mont. — Rep. Ryan Zinke announced the introduction of the A River Runs Through It Act, a locally developed public lands package bringing together more than two decades of work by communities throughout the Blackfoot and Clearwater valleys. Zinke unveiled the legislation at Smoke Elzer Barn in Missoula alongside local elected officials, members of Read More…

Gov. Greg Gianforte joined Mountain States Policy Center at a press conference at the Montana State Capitol on Tuesday to announce the “Flat. Fair. Montana.” campaign, a statewide initiative promoting a flat individual income tax rate of 4.7 percent. The campaign is a project of MSPC focused on making Montana’s income tax system simpler, more Read More…

Republican congressional candidate Aaron Flint is using his first two general-election advertisements to emphasize his working-class upbringing, military service and support for skilled-trades education as he campaigns for Montana’s 1st Congressional District. Flint’s newest ad features his mother, Karen, recounting how she raised him as a single parent while working two jobs. She says Flint Read More…

Republican Kurt Alme holds a commanding lead in Montana’s U.S. Senate race, according to a new analysis from Decision Desk HQ, as neither Democrat Alani Bankhead nor independent Seth Bodnar has been willing to step aside for the other, leaving the state with a fractured opposition against the GOP front-runner. In 2026, prominent independent candidates Read More…

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Prosecutors in Cascade County are investigating potential signature-gathering fraud by at least one firm that worked for the independent campaigns of U.S. Senate candidate Seth Bodnar and U.S. House candidate Michael Eisenhauer, according to the Cascade County Attorney’s Office. The Cascade County Attorney’s Office and the Cascade County Sheriff’s Office are Read More…

Montana’s Carpenters Union Local 82 endorsed Republican congressional candidate Aaron Flint during a construction site tour at the new Bretz RV warehouse in Butte, with members of the Ironworkers Union also joining to show their support — a notable show of organized labor backing for a Republican in a race rated Likely Republican by Sabato’s Read More…

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen issued a legal opinion reversing a 14-year-old interpretation of the state’s constitutional term limits — a move that could remove prominent Republican lawmakers from the November ballot just days before the state must certify candidates. The opinion withdraws a 2012 interpretation issued by then-Attorney General Steve Bullock, now a former Read More…

The Montana Democratic Party published a statement praising Democrat Alani Bankhead for suspending her Senate campaign before she had actually done so — a stunning blunder that laid bare how certain party leaders had become that their own nominee would step aside. The statement, first surfaced by Semafor’s Burgess Everett on X, reads: “The Montana Democratic Read More…

Pressure to narrow the field in Montana’s U.S. Senate race intensified this week, but with a Monday evening deadline approaching, none of the candidates has shown any willingness to step aside. Seth Bodnar, running as an independent, said at a news conference in a Billings park Friday morning that he was staying in through November, Read More…

Montana Sen. Tim Sheehy introduced two pieces of legislation in recent weeks — one bipartisan bill to strengthen Buy American requirements for school meals and one to extend nationwide concealed carry privileges to elite special operations veterans. On July 30, Sheehy and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) introduced the American Food for American Schools Act, with Read More…

Montana’s U.S. Senate race entered a turbulent new phase as the national Democratic Party’s campaign arm publicly declared it would not support the party’s own nominee, a major veterans organization endorsed independent candidate Seth Bodnar, and President Trump weighed in to attack Bankhead on social media — all while both candidates insisted they were staying Read More…

Montana Sen. Tim Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL, delivered a deeply personal and impassioned floor speech Wednesday urging the Senate to reject a War Powers Resolution that would have directed President Trump to halt U.S. military operations against Iran, choking up as he pointed to a bracelet honoring a fallen friend killed by an Iranian Read More…