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May 1, 2025
Minutes after the 69th session of the Montana Legislature ended Wednesday, members of the Senate’s Republican majority stepped onto the dais on the Senate floor for a group photo.
One member could be heard saying something to the effect of “just us 23” again and again, a reminder of the intraparty split that cost Republican leaders control of the chamber — despite having 32 of the Senate’s 50 members — from the first day of the session to the 85th.
From the division formed a voting block of nine Republicans and the 18 members of theDemocratic minority. That alliance passed legislation that had bipartisan backing in the House and support from Montana Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte. The winning strategy cited by collaborators sounded like the combination for a bike lock: 26, 51 and 1. Those tallies are the simplest of majorities in the Senate and House, plus Gianforte.
To understand the division among Senate Republicans, it helps to understand party divisions dating back to the 2024 primary elections and even earlier.
Five of “The Nine” had gone through tough intraparty battles before the 69th session gaveled in.
There was Sen. Gregg Hunter, R-Glasgow, who defeated former state lawmaker Rhonda Knudsen for his Senate seat. Knudsen, like Senate President Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, was running in 2024 to cross from the House to the Senate.
Hunter was endorsed by Conservatives4MT, a political committee aligned with moderate legislative Republicans who have proven successful at sandbagging conservatives on big issues like the state budget and Medicaid expansion for several legislative sessions.
It should be noted that Knudsen is the mother to Attorney General Austin Knudsen, and as speaker pro tempore in 2023 she was third on the power flow chart to Regier, who was House speaker at the time. Both Hunter and Knudsen were at the Legislature this year, the latter as a Senate majority aide.
Sen. Josh Kassmier, R-Fort Benton, defeated Great Falls Republican Lola Sheldon-Galloway in his 2024 primary. Sheldon-Galloway is also vice president of the Montana Republican Party. In the latter half of the legislative session, Sheldon-Galloway signed onto a statement from the MTGOP executive board renouncing “The Nine” for breaking with Senate Republican leadership and asking the press to not identify those lawmakers as Republicans.
Sen. Jason Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, lost his bid for renomination to be Senate president to Regier in November. An ethics investigation into Ellsworth’s awarding of a large government contract to a friend became the Senate narrative for half of this session. The investigation started with a complaint by Regier and Rhonda Knudsen to the Legislative Auditor’s Fraud Hotline.
Ellsworth, Kassmier, Hunter and Sens. Russ Tempel, R-Chester, and Denley Loge, R-St. Regis, had all started the 69th session on a newly created “Executive Branch Review Committee,” an assignment neither they, nor the committee’s Democrats, considered worthwhile.
Loge was also primaried in 2024 and was endorsed by Gianforte.
The first rebellious Senate vote of the session was to assign the executive branch committee members to what they deemed more meaningful committees dealing with meaty issues, like finance and taxation.
Filing day for the 2026 election is less than 11 months away and the absentee ballots for the 2026 primaries arrive in the mail next May.
— Tom Lutey
Let them eat cake
The day before the session ended, the lawmakers in the Senate received cupcakes frosted in metallic purple with the number “69th” on the upper edge. Across each one written in silver were the words “baked in,”a phrase uttered on the Senate floor by Freedom Caucus members who didn’t have the votes to stop the $16.6 billion state budget bill or the property tax package that several protested for benefitting homeowners too much and industrial taxpayers, like refineries in Billings, not enough.
Before Tuesday’s floor session, Sen. Wendy McKamey, R-Great Falls, worked with aides to distribute the treats. Later in the day, the lawmaker could be seen toasting cupcakes with Sen. Shelley Vance, R-Belgrade. McKamey and Vance are the only two female members of “The Nine,” the name assigned to the group of Republicans who voted with Democrats to pass policies like the budget and property tax reform.
A day later when the Senate adjourned, there was a cupcake perched on the top of a water cooler in the chamber.
— Tom Lutey
A ‘doula’ gets his due
Earlier in the 69th session of the Montana Legislature, Senate Majority Leader Tom McGillvray, R-Billings, irritated supporters of adding doula services to the items covered by Medicaid. McGillvray wasn’t supportive of the bill brought by Sen. Cora Neumann, D-Bozeman. Neumann recognized doulas as professionals trained to provide informational, as well as physical and emotional support for women before and after childbirth.
Everything from breastfeeding tips to relaxation techniques and help navigating the medical system falls under the service umbrella of doulas. McGillvray at one point during debate on the Senate floor earlier in the session likened the doula’s role to being a close friend. And he said he considered himself a doula for the help he provided to his wife and daughter when they had children.
In the final days of the session as the chamber debated her bill, Neumann presented “an honorary doula award to Senate Majority Leader Tom McGilvray, for stellar baby delivery for his family.”
A few minutes later, Nemann’s Senate Bill 319 passed the Legislature.
— Tom Lutey
