Montana Politics: Latest News

The Trump campaign, national Republicans and the Montana Republican Party filed suit Wednesday to overturn Gov. Steve Bullock's August order allowing Montana counties to conduct the Nov. 3 election with mail ballots.

In a year of high-profile statewide election battles in Montana, there’s one flying under the radar that almost wasn’t a contest at all: Montana Supreme Court Justice Laurie McKinnon vs. challenger Mike Black, a Helena lawyer.

The race for Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction is the only 2020 statewide election that features a rematch.

While several pieces of U.S. Postal Service mail-sorting equipment and some mail drop-boxes have been removed from sites in Montana, overall delivery service in the state has seen minimal impacts so far, postal workers told MTN News.

Montana has begun issuing new unemployment benefits made possible through an executive order by President Trump.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike Cooney Thursday unveiled his education plan, which calls for more spending on public schools and state colleges, state funding for preschool, and steps to reduce student debt.

Buttrey: "I find it shameful and disturbing that these types of political games are being played."

Nearly 40 Montana counties have decided to go to all-mail ballots for the Nov. 3 general election – including all but one of the state’s eight most populous counties.

In Montana’s gubernatorial race, both Democrat Mike Cooney and Republican Greg Gianforte have said they oppose a statewide sales tax and would veto any such bill that passes the Legislature. Yet, Cooney and fellow Democrats continue to hammer Gianforte as a supposed sales-tax supporter.

In the campaign money chase for Montana’s 2020 gubernatorial race, Republican Greg Gianforte and Democrat Mike Cooney are drawing pretty much from the same well – except when it comes to their own pockets.

In Montana’s pivotal 2020 election, Democrats seeking statewide office are using “public lands” as a rallying cry, saying they’re the ones who will protect and preserve those lands for recreation.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte has put another $1 million of his own money into his campaign – but his Democratic opponent, Mike Cooney, took in more money from donors the past two months.

The Montana Supreme Court and a federal judge Wednesday rejected appeals to keep Green Party candidates on Montana’s 2020 general election ballot – one day before the ballot must be certified.

Montana’s top office-holders Tuesday applauded the news that the U.S. Postal Service is halting recent cost-cutting actions until after the Nov. 3 election.

Two of the three companies that write health insurance for some 50,000 Montanans buying “Obamacare” individual policies will keep their average rates at zero or near zero for 2021, state Auditor Matt Rosendale announced Monday.

Gov. Steve Bullock Wednesday ordered all Montana public and private school buildings to require face masks, in counties with four or more active Covid-19 cases, as he said “encouraging” face masks at re-opened schools won’t be enough.

In the wake of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s pick of Kamala Harris as his running mate, The Montana Republican Party and the state’s top GOP candidate – U.S. Sen. Steve Daines – labeled them as “too extreme for Montana” and “radical.”

In a 5-0 decision, the Montana Supreme Court Tuesday rejected the state Republican Party’s request to declare Democratic attorney general candidate Raph Graybill ineligible for the office and remove him from the Nov. 3 ballot.

The saga of the Green Party’s ballot status in Montana’s 2020 election took yet another turn Tuesday, as two of its candidates and two Green Party voters filed suit in federal court to remain on the ballot.

The GOP has held Montana's congressional seat since 1994, a run of 26 years

As the U.S. Postal Service faces another funding crisis, Montana’s congressional delegation is united in its condemnation of moves by President Trump’s new postmaster general to delay mail service.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike Cooney took his opposition to a statewide sales tax to a new level Monday, launching a voter referendum to place a sales-tax ban in the Montana constitution.

In the first debate in Montana’s high-profile U.S. Senate race, Republican Sen. Steve Daines on Saturday repeatedly called Democratic challenger Steve Bullock a pawn of D.C. Democrats, and said Bullock is “too liberal” for Montana.

It was a big week in Montana politics; political leaders in Cascade County react.

Earlier Saturday, Senator Steve Daines and Governor Steve Bullock squared off in their first debate in Montana’s closely-watched U.S. Senate race.

With just under three months until Election Day, more than $50 million already is being spent, or lined up to be spent, in Montana’s high-profile U.S. Senate race between GOP Sen. Steve Daines and his Democratic challenger, Gov. Steve Bullock.

A state judge Friday ruled that Green Party candidates should not appear on the November general election ballot in Montana, saying the petition that led to their qualification in March is invalid.

The Montana Libertarian Party will be without a candidate in Montana’s 2020 U.S. Senate race, after party members failed to choose a replacement candidate last month.