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…
Sen. Tim Sheehy introduced legislation that would create a dedicated pharmaceutical trade negotiator within the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and expand federal oversight of foreign drug pricing policies. The Use Sovereignty to Reduce Rx Act, or USTRx Act, targets what its sponsors describe as price control regimes in wealthy countries that suppress payments 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…
A bill that would exchange subsurface mineral interests on the Crow Reservation for federal acreage in Musselshell County cleared the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Sens. Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy announced. The Crow Revenue Act would transfer roughly 4,660 acres of private subsurface inholdings on the reservation, known as the Hope Family Tracts, to 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…
Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Andrew Clyde led a coalition of 47 Republican lawmakers urging the Justice Department to apply a landmark federal court ruling striking down National Firearms Act registration requirements nationwide — and the Trump administration has since confirmed the DOJ will not appeal the decision. U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix of Read More…
Sen. Tim Sheehy introduced legislation that would create a dedicated pharmaceutical trade negotiator within the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and expand federal oversight of foreign drug pricing policies. The Use Sovereignty to Reduce Rx Act, or USTRx Act, targets what its sponsors describe as price control regimes in wealthy countries that suppress payments 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…
A bill that would exchange subsurface mineral interests on the Crow Reservation for federal acreage in Musselshell County cleared the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Sens. Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy announced. The Crow Revenue Act would transfer roughly 4,660 acres of private subsurface inholdings on the reservation, known as the Hope Family Tracts, to Read More…
A group of residents in northeastern Missoula County is pursuing the creation of a new county encompassing Potomac, Seeley Lake and Condon, which would be Montana’s first new county since 1925, the Missoulian reported. The effort, organized under the banner “County 57,” is the latest attempt by rural residents in the Seeley Swan Valley to Read More…
President Donald Trump held a telephone rally Thursday afternoon for Megan Degenfelder, his endorsed pick for Wyoming’s next governor, urging voters in a state that gave him his widest margin of victory in 2024 to back her Republican primary bid. The roughly 15-minute call opened with Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.,” a departure from 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…
A bipartisan provision championed by Sen. Steve Daines to sharply increase penalties for unauthorized disclosure of taxpayer information cleared the Senate Finance Committee as part of a broader tax administration package, moving one step closer to becoming law. The Daines-Cortez Masto provision passed as part of the Taxpayer Assistance and Service Act, which the Finance 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…
Sen. Steve Daines joined Sens. Jim Risch of Idaho and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska in introducing the Hydropower Licensing Affordability Act, legislation that would reform the Federal Power Act to reduce delays and costs in the hydropower licensing process. The bill would limit mandatory conditions that federal resource agencies — including the Forest Service and Read More…
A group of nine Montana Democratic attorneys published an open letter this month urging the Montana Democratic Party’s State Central Committee to consider not nominating a replacement candidate if Democratic Senate nominee Alani Bankhead withdraws — a legal argument designed to clear the path for independent candidate Seth Bodnar to face Republican Kurt Alme one-on-one. 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…
Independent candidates have officially qualified for Montana’s U.S. Senate race and the state’s eastern congressional district, deepening a strategic divide among Democrats over whether the nonpartisan campaigns help or hurt their chances of winning seats away from Republicans. The Montana Secretary of State’s Office confirmed this week that former University of Montana president Seth Bodnar Read More…
Sen. Steve Daines used a Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing Wednesday to press two Treasury Department nominees on the need for a comprehensive federal tax framework for digital assets, arguing that outdated tax rules are pushing American entrepreneurs and innovation overseas. Daines questioned Francis Brooke, nominated to be deputy secretary of the Treasury, and Sriprakash Read More…
A Lewis and Clark County District Court judge this week narrowed the scope of a temporary restraining order against the Montana Republican Party’s newly adopted bylaws, partially lifting a block placed on the rules after a group of party members sued to invalidate them. Judge Michael McMahon issued the original restraining order on July 9, Read More…
Montana Commissioner of Political Practices Chris Gallus issued a decision finding campaign finance violations by three political committees — Big Sky Fiscal Guardians, Treasure State Stewards and Montana Business Advocates for Sensible Elections — ordering two to reclassify and referring the third to the county attorney for potential prosecution. The decision, dated July 8, stems Read More…
Sen. Tim Sheehy’s bipartisan VA Home Loan Awareness Act has officially become law as part of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which took effect July 11 after President Trump declined to sign the broader housing package, allowing it to become law automatically under the Constitution’s 10-day rule. The legislation, the first bill Sheehy Read More…
A watchdog group wants the Department of the Interior to investigate whether the National Wildlife Federation misused federal grant money tied to political spending in Montana’s 2024 U.S. Senate race. The Center to Advance Security in America (CASA) filed the complaint Thursday with the department’s inspector general. The complaint says the Bureau of Land Management Read More…
Seth Bodnar has spent his Senate campaign positioning himself as a red-state outsider unbeholden to party machinery, but the financial picture behind his candidacy tells a more complicated story than the independent label suggests. Bodnar has led the field in fundraising, pulling in more than $2 million since March, and has collected endorsements from prominent Read More…
The U.S. House of Representatives advanced Sen. Tim Sheehy’s bipartisan VA Home Loan Awareness Act as part of a larger package of housing legislation, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, sending the bill to President Trump’s desk. The measure is the first piece of legislation Sheehy introduced as a senator. “The VA Home Loan Read More…
Western Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke celebrated the release of $53,889,068 in Payments in Lieu of Taxes funding for Montana counties, an increase of more than $7.3 million over 2025 disbursements. As a member of the House Appropriations Committee and the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, Zinke said he played a major role in securing the funds. “Public Read More…
A new poll shows Democrats and independents divided between two candidates running against Republican Kurt Alme in Montana’s U.S. Senate race, with the split vote giving Alme a substantial overall lead. The survey, conducted by Public Opinion Strategies from June 8-11 among 500 likely voters, found Alme leading the general election ballot with 44% support, Read More…
Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) said Wednesday that his bipartisan “America the Beautiful Act,” co-authored with Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), has passed out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and is headed to the Senate floor. The committee approved the bill, S. 1547, by voice vote, along with a bipartisan substitute amendment offered by Read More…
The U.S. House of Representatives passed Congressman Ryan Zinke’s Allied Defense Sales Act, legislation designed to strengthen American manufacturing by making it easier for allied nations to jointly purchase U.S.-made defense equipment while deepening strategic partnerships abroad. The bill represented a continuation of Zinke’s work as Chairman of the Foreign Military Sales Task Force, where Read More…
U.S. Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) is taking aim at unauthorized disclosures of taxpayer information, introducing bipartisan legislation that would dramatically increase criminal and civil penalties for those who mishandle or leak Americans’ sensitive tax data. Daines introduced the bill alongside Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), amending the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to crack down Read More…
A Montana ballot initiative promising to strip dark money from elections is itself being bankrolled almost entirely by a so-called dark money organization — a glaring contradiction that even its own organizers can barely keep a straight face about. The Montana Plan, known as Initiative 194, is being pushed by the Transparent Election Initiative, a Read More…
Western Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke joined House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) and Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) in introducing the Great American Outdoors Act 250, legislation designed to reauthorize and modernize one of President Trump’s signature conservation achievements ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary. Zinke, a former Secretary of the Interior and Read More…
A Montana district court judge has dealt a significant blow to embattled state Sen. Jason Ellsworth, rejecting all five motions filed by his attorneys seeking to dismiss a criminal corruption charge — while simultaneously reinstating him to office after a suspension tied to the ongoing case. Ellsworth, a Hamilton Republican and former Senate president, was Read More…
WASHINGTON — Retiring Western Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke secured more than $22 million in community project funding and a broad range of Montana agriculture and policy priorities across three fiscal year 2027 appropriations bills that advanced through the House last week. The FY27 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration Appropriations Act passed the full Read More…
Retired combat veteran and conservative broadcaster Aaron Flint won the Republican primary for Montana’s Western Congressional District Tuesday, defeating Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen and former state senator Al Olszewski to capture the Republican nomination for the seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Ryan Zinke. Flint’s victory was decisive, powered by a broad endorsement coalition Read More…
HELENA, Mont. — Former U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme and Air Force veteran Alani Bankhead emerged Tuesday as the Republican and Democratic nominees for Montana’s open U.S. Senate seat, setting up a three-way November race that could include independent Seth Bodnar pending signature certification. Alme, twice appointed as U.S. Attorney by President Trump, was the first Read More…
MISSOULA, Mont. — U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez traveled to Missoula Thursday to headline a campaign rally for Democratic congressional candidate Sam Forstag, bringing national progressive star power to Montana’s competitive Western District primary in its final days before the June 2 vote. The event was held at The Wilma in downtown Missoula, a venue with Read More…
HELENA, Mont. — Independent U.S. Senate candidate Seth Bodnar appears on track to qualify for Montana’s November general election ballot after county election officials certified more than 18,000 signatures and forwarded them to the Secretary of State’s Office for final verification, according to an unofficial tally released Friday. Bodnar’s campaign needed 13,327 valid signatures to Read More…
Attorney General Ken Paxton won the Republican primary runoff for U.S. Senate Tuesday, ending over three decades of Sen. John Cornyn’s electoral dominance in what amounts to a watershed moment for GOP politics in Texas. The Associated Press called the race for Paxton shortly after 8 p.m., about an hour after most polls closed in Read More…
A new survey of likely GOP primary voters in Montana’s 1st Congressional District shows Aaron Flint holding a narrow lead in a race where one-third of voters remain undecided, with significant room for ballot movement ahead of the June 2 primary election. The poll, conducted May 5-7 by Public Opinion Strategies, surveyed 400 likely Republican Read More…
The bipartisan legislation aims to stabilize American defense production lines by coordinating group buys among smaller allied nations that struggle to navigate the current arms sales process. Rep. Ryan Zinke (R., Mont.) and Rep. Ami Bera (D., Calif.) introduced legislation Thursday that would make it easier for groups of allied countries to jointly purchase American-made Read More…
A former state senator has publicly identified herself for the first time as the source of a confidential 2018 sexual harassment complaint against state Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy, directly challenging his recent claims that allegations against him are part of a politically motivated smear campaign. Jennifer Gross disclosed Friday in a post on her Substack Read More…
U.S. Senators Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) have introduced a bipartisan resolution commemorating May 5th, 2026, as a National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. “On this year’s National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, we remember with a heavy heart all those who have Read More…