The makeup of the Montana Legislature has changed because of redistricting, and that's helped kill the super majority for Republicans in the next session.
Republicans lost nine seats in the House and two in the Senate, ending the super-majority.
One Republican who managed to break that trend was state Sen.-elect Mike Yakawich of Billings, who was picking up his campaign signs with his wife this week after winning his election.
“We removed all these signs in two days from 7 in the morning to 5 at night,” Yakawich said.
Yakawich is currently a representative and won his seat in a new Senate district that some believed to lean Democrat.
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“We had hopes for one of those races to go our way,” said state Sen. Pat Flowers, R-Belgrade. “We had a great candidate who worked really hard and I thought he did everything he could do to win that race."
While Democrats lost this race, they did gain ground statewide.
“It'll make a big difference,” Flowers said. “The more votes you have, every one of those votes comes with a little more leverage."
The reason behind the shift is newly drawn legislative district maps.
“Most of the change in the House and Senate were because of redistricting, which happens every 20 years based on the U.S. census,” said state Sen. Barry Usher, R-Billings, who is one of the majority whips.
Montana's district maps are redrawn every 10 years to account for changes in the census.
This is the first election with the new maps based on the 2020 population counts that have been used.
“We kind of knew that we were going to lose a certain amount of people this time around, we’d lose the supermajority,” Usher said.
Republicans still hold a firm majority in the Legislature but no super majority that they held in the 2023 session. With a two-thirds super majority, legislative Republicans held the power to override a governor's veto.
“It can be important,” Flowers said.
Gov. Greg Gianforte, also a Republican, vetoed 25 bills during the 2023 session. The Legislature voted to override four of those vetoes.
“It's not an opportunity that becomes available to, in this case, the majority of the Republicans, day in and day out,” Flowers said. “Occasionally it's needed, but it wasn't something that was a constant presence.”
The next legislative session will begin with 32 Republicans and 18 Democrats in the state Senate in a split of 59 Republicans to 41 Democrats in the House.
