Republicans

The ‘working majority’ coalition of moderate Republicans and Democrats made more than 20 motions to change committee assignments and refer bills to committee, flexing muscles on GOP leadership.

The former Republican state Senate president denied Friday any wrongdoing in connection with a $170,000 no-bid contract he signed in his final days in office, an expenditure that is now under scrutiny by new Senate leadership.

The Senate president has been unable keep his majority party in line the first week of the Legislature as nine Republicans have sided with Democrats on the chamber’s first vote.

Roger Koopman writes, "Until the next election cycle, we will be confronting even more Big Government Republicans than in ‘23, thanks to the active role of Governor Gianforte."

Nineteen state Republicans are asking the State Bar of Montana to issue an apology for partisan attacks against Republicans in Montana made by a lawyer and the organization’s alleged endorsement of the remarks.

Daines told the news website Semafor he’d made a “firm” decision that he wouldn’t be a candidate to replace retiring Senate GOP leader Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Trump traveled to Montana four times in 2018 to rally against Tester in his last run for reelection, and Tester prevailed.

Tester’s team is trying to reach swing and crossover voters by showing Montanans there are Republicans who want the moderate Democrat to stay in office.

Eli Steinberg writes, "The problem of workers and union voters rushing into the arms of the Republican Party is a problem decades in the making, caused by the mistakes of the Democratic Party and the progressive movement in this country."

While a majority of rank-and-file Republicans oppose a law guaranteeing a nationwide right to abortion, many support laws allowing access to abortion in certain situations.