HELENA — A week after the end of the 2024 election, and with less than two months to go before the start of the Montana Legislature’s 2025 session, lawmakers met in Helena Tuesday to choose who’ll be in charge during the 90-day session.
The first order of business for any legislative session is the party caucuses, where lawmakers elect their leadership. They’re decisions that set a tone for the months ahead.
Republicans held onto majorities in the House and Senate, so they selected the overall session leaders: House speaker and Senate president.
In the Senate, Republicans had a three-way race for president. It included Sen. Greg Hertz, R-Polson, along with the two men who presided over the 2023 legislative session: Senate President Sen. Jason Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, and House Speaker and now Sen.-elect Matt Regier, R-Kalispell.
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Ellsworth and Regier advanced to a second round of voting, where senators chose Regier to take over as president.
In his nomination speech, Regier called on Senate Republicans to “band together” behind conservative ideas on issues like the state budget, tax policy and education, and he vowed to stand up for the Senate’s independent role.
“It's always more power in numbers and more power in unity,” Regier told MTN. “I think we're going to be a very conservative-tilting Senate this go-round, and that's going to play well for the people of Montana.”
Sen. Tom McGillvray, R-Billings, will serve as Senate majority leader, while Sen. Ken Bogner, R-Miles City, will be president pro tem for the second consecutive session.
House Republicans chose Rep. Brandon Ler, R-Savage, to succeed Regier as speaker. He won the position over Rep. Bill Mercer, R-Billings.
Ler told lawmakers he “will not be afraid to flex the muscle and power we hold” when dealing with the other branches of government – including the judiciary, which he said had shown “radical overreach.”
“We are a co-equal branch of government,” Ler told MTN. “We're not above or below any of the other branches – and like I said in my speech this morning on the floor, we're willing to work with the other branches of government, but not for the other branches of government.”
Rep.-elect Steve Fitzpatrick, R-Great Falls, was the Senate majority leader last session and will be House majority leader this time around. Rep. Katie Zolnikov, R-Billings, was elected speaker pro tem.
On the Democratic side, Sen. Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade, was chosen as Senate minority leader for the 2023 session and will serve again this session. House Democrats chose Rep. Katie Sullivan, D-Missoula, as their minority leaders. Both said they’re open to working with Republicans – if they can find areas of agreement on the issues they’re prioritizing.
“We want to be bipartisan and good partners in this building to pass good policy for the state of Montana,” Sullivan told reporters. “We are ready to put votes towards lower taxes, public schools, public lands, education, health care – and so if those bills are brought, we'll be supporting them.”
“There will be times when we may work with the more conservative end of their caucus, and there will be times when we may work with the more moderate end of their caucus,” Flowers told MTN. “The bottom line for us is making sure that we deliver for Montanans on these key issues, and so that is going to be the place where we’re going to be entirely focused.”
Republicans will hold a 32-18 majority in the Senate. Democrats won two more seats than they held in 2023. In the House, Republicans are currently leading in 59 seats to Democrats’ 41 – though the race for the House District seat held by Rep. Marty Malone, R-Pray, remained within a 100-vote margin. In 2023, the House had a 68-32 Republican majority.
This year’s legislative elections were conducted on a newly drawn district map that both parties said was more favorable to Democrats than the previous one. Overall, Democrats are likely to have 11 more members than they did in 2023, when Republicans held a two-thirds supermajority with 102 members.
Lawmakers will also be at the Capitol Wednesday and Thursday for additional orientation. The session is set to begin on Jan. 6, 2025.
