HELENA — Montana’s two major political parties are in different places after the most recent state elections, but each party’s chair says they need to adjust to Montana’s new political realities.
(Watch the video to hear from the new chairs of the Montana Republican Party and Montana Democratic Party.)
The Montana Republican Party has been winning broad victories over the last few election cycles, most recently taking control of all of the state’s seats in Congress in 2024. Chair Art Wittich says he expects that trend to continue.
“I think there are more and more conservative voters in the state; I think the state is becoming redder,” he told MTN.
Montana Democratic Party chair Shannon O’Brien says 2024 was a difficult election cycle, but she believes they’re going into a new era.
“We need to win more, and our Montana values are what will get us there,” she told MTN.
Montana GOP delegates elected Wittich as chair in June, during the party’s convention in Helena. An attorney and former state lawmaker from Gallatin County, he was backed by some of the most conservative members of the party. In his appeal to delegates, he argued Republicans’ election wins hadn’t translated into success for conservative policy.
“Once people start voting at higher and higher margins for a Republican majority, they expect more conservative policies – and that's not just in Montana, that's any state,” he told MTN. “Some states are achieving that. If you look at some states, they are passing good conservative ideas into law, and Montana should do the same.”
Wittich believes conservative voters are dissatisfied with what the Republican-controlled Montana Legislature has done over the last three sessions – particularly on property taxes and election integrity.
Under Wittich, state party leadership has set up a “Conservative Governance Committee” that sent a questionnaire to Republican candidates, asking them how their views line up with what’s in the party’s platform. He said they haven’t decided yet how to use the information, but they want to make sure people are informed about candidates’ positions.
Some lawmakers, like Rep. Llew Jones, R-Conrad, and Rep. Brad Barker, R-Luther, have pushed back publicly against the questionnaire, calling it a “purity test” and an attempt by Wittich and his allies to “purge” the party. Wittich defended it, saying they were trying to keep candidates accountable to the party’s grassroots.
“Those people work really hard on the platform every two years, they work really hard getting folks elected, raising money, knocking on doors, doing voter contact,” he said. “They dedicate their time and treasure. So for them as an association to ask people who are running, what you've done as it relates to the party and its platform, I think it's very fair.”
O’Brien, a former state senator and educational administrator from Missoula, won her position during the Montana Democrats’ convention in Livingston earlier this month. She argued the party’s values were strong and they needed to focus on bringing their message to voters in every part of the state.
“Democrats are the big tent party: We have folks from all walks of life, and we invite people from all walks of life, but we all share the same values,” she told MTN. “It's what everyone wants: It's food on the table and a roof over our heads and good schools and a clean, healthful environment.”
During the convention, there were questions about the best way for the party to move forward. Supporters of Mike Jopek, the other candidate for chair, argued Montana Democrats were seen as out of touch with working people and that they should make a bigger break with what they’ve been doing.
O’Brien told MTN she wanted to see Democrats channel their energy into getting their candidates elected.
“My job is to bring people together, and we might have differences of opinion – and we get to have differences of opinion,” she said. “But at the end of the day, we set our passion for specific issues of the day aside, and we work together.”
Just three days after the convention, the Montana Democratic Party’s vice-chair resigned. Max Johansen, chair of the Park County Democrats, had been the only candidate for the vice-chair position.
In a statement from MDP, O’Brien said Johansen had made comments after the convention that were “disruptive and inconsistent with the direction of the Executive Board.” While she didn’t specify what comments were at issue, Johansen had criticized former U.S. Sen. Jon Tester’s 2024 campaign in a discussion with reporters. Tester, the last statewide Democratic officeholder, was defeated by Republican Tim Sheehy.
The party’s board is set to meet virtually Oct. 16 to choose a new vice-chair. Party rules require the vice-chair be the opposite gender of the chair. Candidates for the position will be nominated by current board members.
In 2026, three of Montana’s members of Congress will be up for reelection: U.S. Sen. Steve Daines and U.S. Reps. Ryan Zinke and Troy Downing.
Montana has seen some of the most expensive races in the U.S. in recent years, including Tester’s reelection campaigns in 2024 and 2018 and the 2020 Senate race between Daines and then-Gov. Steve Bullock. Each of those races drew tens or hundreds of millions in spending from the candidates and from outside groups.
This time, however, with Republicans having won all statewide races since 2020, O’Brien acknowledges there’s likely to be a lot less national money coming into the state. She says that’s both a challenge and an opportunity as Montana Democrats seek to make their case to voters.
“It's going to be knocking doors, it's going to be shoe leather, it's going to be people talking to their neighbors to understand better what issues they have, so that we can be responsive to that,” she said.
Wittich says, so far, he doesn’t expect Montana’s congressional races to be highly competitive in 2026.
“President Trump was not an unknown commodity in 2024; people knew who they were voting for, and they voted for the president with a great majority in the state of Montana,” he said. “So I think they want an America First agenda.”
Wittich says he doesn’t believes Democrats have strong candidates to challenge Daines, Zinke and Downing, but that the party is ready to get more involved with the congressional races if that changes.
