The newly elected vice chair of the Montana Democratic Party has resigned days after disparaging former U.S. Sen. Jon Tester.
Livingston area Democrat Max Johansen resigned Wednesday “after acknowledging that certain comments he made following the convention were disruptive and inconsistent with the direction of the executive board,” according to a party press release.
The Montana Democratic Party isn’t saying what Johansen said that led to his resignation. He was the only Democrat running for the party’s vice chairmanship at the officers’ convention held in Livingston last weekend. The party didn’t respond to a request for more information.
Johansen didn’t respond to a Wednesday voicemail from Montana Free Press. In an interview with the Montana Free Press after his election, Johansen faulted Tester “for not being more proactive and forthright” about Tester’s 2024 Republican opponent, Tim Sheehy.
Now a U.S. senator, Sheehy defeated Tester by more than 40,000 votes, completing a Republican sweep of the statewide and federal offices that started in 2020.
In an interview with MTFP Tuesday, Tester said, “Things have changed. There’s too many people in the party right now that don’t think I have any value. And I’m OK with that.”
Tester didn’t attend the Montana Democrats’ convention but did call in to endorse former state legislator Mike Jopek for chair. Tester told the conventioneers that “The Democratic Party is in trouble. We have done it to ourselves. We have focused on blue districts and not other districts throughout the state. We are seen in polling as woke and weak.”
Jopek then lost the vote for chair to Shannon O’Brien, 39 to 112. O’Brien campaigned on “something new in the Democratic Party.”
O’Brien was the party’s unsuccessful 2024 candidate for state superintendent of the Office of Public Instruction.
LATEST STORIES
Accessibility improvements in the works for Montana’s new executive residence, state says
The Gianfortes pledged to donate the Hauser mansion to the state of Montana so the building can serve as the official governor’s residence for future elected officials. That donation is now complete, making the building a public asset. But the state’s acquisition of the historic, multi-floor residence raised a specific question for a recent Montana Free Press reader: Does the building comply with the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act that requires public buildings to be physically accessible?
High diesel prices squeeze Montana farmers
Near-record diesel prices are putting pressure on Montana farmers who depend on fuel to run combines, tractors and other equipment, and also increasing the cost of transporting goods once they leave the farm.
Reconnecting Greater Yellowstone, one fenceline at a time
More than 16,000 miles of barbed-wire fence fragment Greater Yellowstone. That fencing keeps elk from jumping over and pronghorn from scooting under, disrupting what can be millennia-old migrations.
