Republican Eric Hinebauch secured a convincing victory in the race for Cascade County commissioner Tuesday in an election that included an incumbent write-in candidate.
With 57% of the vote — the same percentage he received in the June primary — Hinebauch defeated Democrat Don Ryan for the three-member commission. Hinebauch will join fellow Republicans Jim Larson and Joe Briggs to serve a six-year term.
“I feel grateful,” Hinebauch told Montana Free Press on Wednesday. “I had a lot of support from across the board in Cascade County, whether it be Democrat or Republican. I’m proud of that support. I’m proud to be able to build a coalition.”
Hinebauch owns an insurance agency and chairs the Cascade County Republican Central Committee. He served an abbreviated term on the Great Falls City Commission from 2021 to 2023.
On Tuesday, Hinebauch received more than 20,000 votes to defeat Ryan by nearly 20 percentage points.
Hinebauch beat incumbent Rae Grulkowski in the June primary, but Grulkowski entered the general election as a write-in candidate to keep her seat. A final write-in tally wasn’t available Wednesday morning. The Electric reported at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday that just over 1,300 write-in votes were cast in the race.
Grulkowski gained attention in 2020 as a leading opponent to a national heritage area designation for the region, a saga that was captured in a 2021 feature story in The New York Times.
She won the county commission seat in 2022. She has characterized her time in office as being under-resourced and ostracized in the office. In November 2023, Larson and Briggs voted to change the rotation for commission chairperson, which was Grulkowski’s title at the time. She was also the lone vote against resolutions to remove election duties from Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant, an ally who appeared in campaign videos to support Grulkowski’s write-in campaign.
In recent months, county commission meetings occasionally devolved into arguments as Grulkowski aired frustrations about being left out of staff and commissioner communications, as well as how public meetings are conducted.
Grulkowski didn’t return a call for comment Wednesday morning.
Ryan, who has previously served as a Cascade County commissioner and a state legislator, said that this is his last campaign for public office. He said that once he saw how state and national races were trending, he knew that the odds were long for his campaign.
“Democrats are just going to have to take a look and say, when we start talking about a message, what we have to do as Democrats is listen a little bit better as to what people are feeling and address those feelings,” Ryan said.
He congratulated Hinebauch and said he wished him the best in office.
Given the public frustrations roiling county business, Hinebauch said that he wants to see both public officials and community members become less divisive.
“I think the main thing, getting into office, is bringing a level of respect and decorum back to the county commission office is my number one priority,” he said. “We need to quit being so contentious.”
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