Montana Supreme Court Justice Beth Baker said Wednesday that she won’t seek a third term in 2026, saying that 16 years on the bench is enough.
Baker told Montana Free Press that she knew her current term would be her last when she ran for reelection in 2018.
“I never contemplated serving more than two terms. The eight-year terms are long ones and if I were to put in for a third term, [that] would be 24 years,” Baker said.
“It’s a tremendous honor to do the work and serve the Montana justice system and I think it requires a person’s full attention and complete energy, basically seven days a week.”
Baker was first elected in 2010, when she defeated former Park County District Judge Nels Swandal. That election year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that spending on elections by unions, corporations and political action committees constituted free speech and couldn’t be limited. The timing of the ruling meant that Baker and Swandal’s race would be Montana’s last state Supreme Court race with limits on outside spending.
Baker’s earlier decision not to seek a third term drew attention Wednesday when 2024 state Supreme Court candidate Dan Wilson issued a press release announcing his candidacy for 2026. Wilson mentioned that Baker wouldn’t be seeking another term.
Baker said the candidate contacted her before issuing the press release to confirm she wouldn’t seek reelection.
“As a native Montanan and a conservative, I firmly believe Supreme Court Justices must apply the law and the constitution as written to all their rulings,” Wilson said in a press release. “ … I pledge to follow that guiding conservative principle. I will not be beholden to any special interest group’s agenda, and recognize that the court’s role is to interpret the law as written — not create it.”
Wilson lost to now-Justice Katherine Bidegaray last November, with Bidegaray getting 54% of the vote to Wilson’s 46%.
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