HELENA — Across Montana, residents are receiving mailers, seeing billboards and getting other reminders of an increasingly heated battle among Republicans running for the state Legislature.
It comes after a 2025 legislative session in which Republicans held the majority, but the sharpest disagreements were sometimes within the party. Those splits are still being felt this year, as 43 legislative races across Montana – 31 for the House and 12 for the Senate – feature contested GOP primaries.
(Watch the video for more on what's happened in the primary campaigns so far.)
“It's heated up to a point where it's going to boil over, and that's not productive,” said former Rep. Ross Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald is the treasurer of Conservatives4MT, a committee backing Republican legislators and candidates generally considered more moderate, but who he describes as “commonsense conservatives.”
“We're looking for candidates that truly will represent their districts and precincts – folks that have good commonsense conservative values, those that are willing to talk, to find the solutions, and then develop those relationships to produce something for their constituents and the state of Montana, in a civil manner,” he said.
But other groups have a different view.
“This last legislative session, we saw quite a few policies that grew the size and scope of government and some good policies that would have shrunk the size and scope of government that were killed, by a specific group of legislators,” said Jesse Ramos.
Ramos is the state director of Americans for Prosperity-Montana, the local chapter of a nationwide network of conservative advocacy organizations. This year, he says AFP-Montana is getting involved in 13 Republican primaries – mostly organizing against incumbent lawmakers who voted for renewing Medicaid expansion, for the new “homestead” property tax system and for what Ramos calls an “irresponsible” state budget.
“This probably is, without a doubt, going to be our biggest effort in state legislative races in the history of the chapter,” Ramos said.
AFP is backing candidates like Rep. Zack Wirth, R-Wolf Creek, running against Rep. Llew Jones, R-Conrad, for a Senate seat in north-central Montana; Rep. Kathy Love, R-Hamilton, running against Rep. David Bedey, R-Hamilton, for Senate in Ravalli County; and Rep. Caleb Hinkle, R-Belgrade, challenging incumbent Sen. Shelley Vance, R-Belgrade, in Gallatin County.
In the most recent state campaign finance period, AFP reported spending $224,891 on mailers, digital ads and door-knocking between Feb. 6 and March 25. That doesn’t include earlier spending, like digital ads telling constituents to call their legislators because of their votes on Medicaid and the budget. Ramos said those ads, which referred to a broader range of lawmakers, were not focused on elections, but rather on keeping officials accountable for their votes.
“It doesn't matter what letter somebody has next to their name; what matters is are they going to support the ideals of limited government principles,” he said.
AFP isn’t the only group backing staunch conservatives. Accountability in State Government, led by former Sen. Dan Bartel, R-Lewistown, spent $43,040 in the first three months of the year, including on text messages and digital ads in 15 legislative races across the state. The Montana Freedom Caucus PAC has endorsed 31 House and Senate candidates. The School Freedom Fund, a national organization backing school choice measures, has also begun sending out mailers.
Montana Senate Leadership PAC, whose treasurer is Senate President Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, also received funding from the School Freedom Fund. It has spent on digital ads and billboards for conservative senators and challengers, and it has passed on tens of thousands of dollars to other committees.
Meanwhile, the other side is also getting ready to make their case to voters. In the last reporting period, Conservatives4MT took in $169,114. That includes contributions from several other committees: $22,000 from Big Sky Fiscal Guardians and $34,000 from Treasure State Stewards, which also spent independently to back Jones; plus $38,000 from Montana Business Advocates for Sensible Elections and $75,000 from the Trial Lawyers Legislative PAC.
Conservatives4MT spent $20,663 on radio, digital ads and mailers just before the close of the reporting period, leaving it with $186,861 in the bank.
Fitzgerald says Conservatives4MT wants to set the record straight on what he considers misleading claims about their candidates.
“These personal attacks, wherever they come from, are unwarranted – many times based on misinformation,” he said. “We really need to put water on those fires, and the only way to do that is get the facts out.”
One other notable step this election cycle has been the Montana Republican Party Executive Committee’s decision to get more directly involved in legislative primaries. Party chair Art Wittich, elected last year with the support of some of the party’s most conservative members, promised to vet candidates for their commitment to conservative principles and the party platform.
Last week, the executive committee announced a list of 42 “honor roll” candidates in contested primaries – many of them the same candidates backed by AFP or running against those supported by Conservatives4MT. The “honor roll” list includes 14 candidates challenging GOP incumbents.
The honor roll also comes after party leaders have been increasingly critical of some incumbent lawmakers: first, the group of nine senators who broke with leadership during the 2025 session and sided with Democrats on a series of key votes; then, a number of more moderate Republicans who received campaign support from the consultant firm Fireweed Campaigns, which had previously been involved with the campaigns for 2024’s election-reform ballot measures and this year’s measure for nonpartisan judicial elections – all opposed by the party.
Fitzgerald said the criticism from the state party has been “unwarranted and unfair.”
“You can get taken to the woodshed if you don't agree with the hierarchy, the leadership in many cases,” he said. “But I would surmise if you looked at most records that probably 90% of the time the Republicans do vote together – and then there's those issues that we have to come to a better answer.”
He said, while these candidates feel they have to push back, he doesn’t see this level of primary spending as a positive for the state.
“One of the things I have heard back in the country is that people get inundated with all the facts – possibly and mis-facts – and it gets to the point where they get numb,” he said.
Ramos said it isn’t the place for incumbent lawmakers to argue against this campaigning.
“More groups getting involved and actually shining a light and showing people how the representatives vote in Helena, whether it's the Democrat side or the Republican side – I think that's good,” he said. “I think the transparency, once again, for the government is an overall good thing.”
There's one campaign tactic Ramos denied using: He told MTN AFP was not involved with one of the earliest salvos in the primary battle, a series of unattributed robocalls targeting Jones and other members of the more moderate faction.
Democrats have fewer contested legislative primaries than Republicans this year: a total of 17, 12 in the House and five in the Senate.
