Montana GOP continues drawing line between party, ‘The Nine’
Micah Drew
(Daily Montanan) Calling it a “remarkable story” of bipartisanship, flying in the face of national trends of sharply divided political viewpoints, “CBS Mornings” aired an interview at the end of last year with four Montana Republican state senators who voted with Democratic colleagues to pass major pieces of legislation during the 2025 session.
But the state GOP is unhappy with the spotlight shining on members of what the party dubbed the “Nasty Nine,” the group of moderate legislators who bucked the more conservative party majority in the Senate on key votes.
In a letter sent to new CBS Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss on Jan. 23, Montana GOP Chairman Art Wittich expressed his “disappointment in the extreme bias and lack of journalistic integrity” in the coverage and asked Weiss to rectify it with a correction or additional reporting.
“The segment failed to provide a balanced, accurate perspective on the issue at hand,” Wittich wrote. “Although we provided substantial comment for this segment all the way back in September, the report neglected to use that comment to balance out its coverage. Viewers deserve to be accurately informed by fact-based reporting, not fooled by slanted puff pieces.”
A spokesperson for the Montana GOP said Wittich never received a response from the network, but Wednesday, a Montana district court judge gave him another reason to spotlight the state party’s stance against “The Nine.” In a court order, Judge Christopher Abbott ruled against three of “The Nine” senators who had sued the state GOP for removing their internal voting rights at the state convention last summer.
“The Montana Republican Party enjoys freedom of association, including the right not to associate with people who don’t share our principles and priorities,” Wittich said in a statement on Wednesday.
The public displays of the continued division in the state GOP show where Wittich and the party are drawing the line of who is considered a Republican as the primary election season is poised to kickoff this month.
Descent into division
On Day One of the 2025 session, nine senators — Jason Ellsworth, Hamilton; Bruce Gillespie, Etheridge; Gregg Hunter, Glasgow; Josh Kassmier, Fort Benton; Gayle Lammers, Hardin; Denley Loge, St. Regis; Wendy McKamey, Great Falls; Russ Tempel, Chester; and Shelley Vance, Belgrade — broke with the majority of their party on committee assignments and the chamber’s rules, bucking the elected conservative leadership and setting the political course for the rest of the session.
They also took a series of votes in conjunction with Democrats to move forward large pieces of legislation, including the state’s budget and Medicaid expansion. Many bills “The Nine” championed were priorities of Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte’s administration.
In March, the party issued a statement “strongly rebuking” the nine senators for frequently aligning with Democrats in a “de facto” Democratic majority, and “creating obstacles for the Republican majority.” “The Nine” argued Democrats had joined them, not the other way around.
The following month, the party officially censured the nine state senators, stating they would not consider them to be Republicans, no longer support them in future campaigns, and later in the year removed their voting rights at the party’s convention.
The CBS Mornings segment, titled “Meet the Montana GOP lawmakers who were kicked out of their party for voting with Democrats,” focused on the major votes the senators made against their party’s majority, including reauthorizing Medicaid expansion and creating a new $1 billion trust account to invest in items such as affordable housing, infrastructure and early childhood initiatives.
“I mean I’d have worked with anybody who had a solution,” Kassmier said in the segment. “We voted for lowering income tax relief, we invested in infrastructure, we invested in the future of Montana.”
But Wittich took issue with the news outlet’s characterization of the senators’ removal from the party being due just to differences of opinion.
“The chyron falsely stated that the nine senators were censured over ‘bipartisanship,’” Wittich wrote. “The publicly available censure resolution clearly states the reasons for the censure, including the senators’ repeated defense of misconduct and attempt to unduly remove leadership from their positions. So-called bipartisanship or simple policy disagreements are not included among the reasons.”
The censure did cite, as Wittich wrote in his letter to Weiss, a series of votes taken with Democrats on how to handle the investigation and punishment of Ellsworth, one of “The Nine,” who was found to have committed waste and abuse of his position as former Senate President by drafting a six-figure deal for a business associate.
“The Nine” also attempted to investigate Senate President Matt Regier over similar allegations, found to be unsubstantiated, which was listed in the censure as well.
But the censure also stated the senators were punished for undermining Republican majority leadership, obstructing key Republican policies, and orchestrating a “coordinated scheme” with the Democrats in the chamber.
Other statements from the state GOP last year said that “by organizing with Democrats, The Nine removed themselves from the Republican Party.”
The nine senators have publicly maintained that their views, and their votes, represent the true identity of the GOP, which Kassmier, Gillespie, Loge and Tempel expressed to CBS.
Loge told the CBS interviewer that he considered the group the “necessary nine.”
The segment — which was less than five minutes long — was filmed on Gillespie’s ranch near Ethridge and featured two Democratic Senators, Cora Neumann and Laura Smith.
“I refuse to view the word bipartisan as a bad word,” Smith said. “He might not vote for my bill, I might not vote for his, but where we can both vote on it on behalf of our constituents, you better bet we’re going to come together.”
The segment did not mention anything about the ethics investigation into Ellsworth, or the ongoing criminal investigation into his actions, but included confirmation that the Montana GOP does not consider “The Nine” to be members of the Republican Party.
The Daily Montanan reached out to CBS with questions about the GOP letter, but did not receive a response by publication time.
Wittich said in a social media post that included his letter to CBS that Montana Republicans expected the news outlet “to start acting like real journalists under Bari Weiss.”
Weiss took over the network in 2025, and has drawn criticism from some liberals who have characterized her actions, including temporarily pulling a story from the network’s flagship 60 Minutes program last minute, as beholden to network owners, who are allies of the Trump administration, an allegation Weiss has rejected.
Suing for status
After voting rights were stripped from “The Nine” at the GOP convention last June, Ellsworth, Loge and Vance sued the party, alleging they had been wrongly denied the ability to vote for party leadership and requesting the officers’ election be held again.
Wittich issued a statement saying that the “betrayal of Montana voters” during the session warranted the consequences.
On Wednesday, Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Christopher Abbot ruled against the three senators, denying their request to halt party activities and reverse the results of the officers’ election.
The senators “have not established that this Court has the power to decide the internal affairs of the Montana Republican Party,” Abbot wrote.
“The court got this one right,” Wittich said. “Republican delegates exercised that right through proper procedures at the convention.”
A press release from the state GOP said that the ruling will allow the party to continue pursuing “conservative policies demanded by Montana voters,” and urges all Republicans in the state to focus on “enacting the platform promised to voters instead of working to empower the Democratic minority.”
Primary appearances
With the GOP’s censure specifically stating the party will withhold future political funding and will not support “The Nine,” eyes are turning toward the upcoming legislative elections this year, where two of “The Nine,” McKamey and Vance, are up for re-election.
Sources knowledgeable about state GOP operations said there is a lot of focus on intervening in this year’s primary races to push the Legislature more conservative, including by ousting moderate members. Since last August, radio ads and robocalls have been airing against the moderate members.
While official candidate filing doesn’t open until Feb. 17, paperwork filed with the Commission on Political Practices outlines the primary landscape.
McKamey, representing a district in Great Falls, and Vance, in Senate District 34 have both drawn primary challengers.
Another moderate Republican facing a primary challenge is Rep. Llew Jones, the architect of the state’s budget who is running for a Senate seat, and has also drawn the ire of the more conservative state party.