Montana voters head to polls in heated primary election clash

Montana voters cast primary ballots Tuesday in a race for control of the state’s political direction, with nominees on the line for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, the Supreme Court, the Public Service Commission and the Legislature. In Lewis and Clark County, the election office was administering federal, state, county and special-purpose-district contests, and residents could vote at the polls or by mail if they were registered absentee voters.

Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen said ballot certification for Montana’s 2026 primary was finished before Election Day, locking in the candidate lists that appeared on June 2. Absentee ballots for active registered absentee voters were mailed across the state in the weeks before the vote, a routine that has made early participation part of Montana’s election landscape well before polling places open.

The fight around the primary was not limited to candidate biographies or local endorsements. The Montana Republican Party said a Democrat-aligned group spent $1.1 million in four weeks supporting certain Republican candidates, while the party also said it had publicly condemned more than a dozen candidates it insufficiently conservative and created an honor roll of 42 Republicans it views as loyal. That intraparty split has played out against a wider pattern of heated Republican primaries, with 43 legislative races statewide featuring contested GOP primaries, including 31 in the House and 12 in the Senate.

Americans for Prosperity-Montana also entered the primary battlefield, saying it was involved in 13 Republican primaries and spending $224,891 on mailers, digital ads and door-knocking between Feb. 6 and March 25. Across Montana, residents have also been seeing billboards and receiving mailers tied to the battle over who gets to define the party’s direction, including fights linked to Helena consulting firm Fireweed Campaigns and related outside groups.

For Lewis and Clark County voters, the immediate question is not just who wins, but how closely outside money can shape the nominees who will later make decisions on taxes, courts, energy, schools and local government. Montana has historically posted some of the nation’s highest turnout rates, and state figures show primary participation remains substantial, with turnout at 39.40% in 2022 and 41.21% in 2024. Lewis and Clark County’s election-results page keeps archived returns for 2024, 2022, 2020 and earlier, giving voters a clear record to compare today’s results with past local voting patterns.