Last updated with results at 4:30p.m. Wednesday. MTFP is monitoring for results and will update this story when more come in.
Communities across Montana picked new mayors, commissioners and council members in Tuesday night’s elections, as voters across the state also decided on bond measures and ballot issues.
Montana Free Press reporters tracked elections in Great Falls, Missoula and Helena, the cities where we have local reporters, as well as a selection of races around the rest of the state.
Here’s what we know based on the still-unofficial vote counts available from county election offices. Our reporting is based on unofficial election results from the ballots counted by Wednesday afternoon, which accounts for most of the votes cast but may not include all provisional ballots rejected ballots that voters still have opportunity to remedy.
Results are considered unofficial until county elections offices complete a canvass process later this month and certify the vote tallies. Unlike major federal and state-level races in Montana, the Associated Press does not call races for municipal elections.
GREAT FALLS
Matt Hudson is reporting from Great Falls.
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: Great Falls voters appear to have narrowly passed new fireworks restrictions and re-elected the city’s mayor.
Our guide to the 2025 Great Falls ballot is here.
MISSOULA
Katie Fairbanks is reporting from Missoula.
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: Missoula Mayor Andrea Davis, a former director of an affordable housing nonprofit, maintained a large lead over challenger Shawn Knopp, a project manager for a glass business, in final unofficial results. Missoula elections staff had counted 37,918 ballots and had a 42% turnout rate.
Missoula mayor
Missoula City Council
Missoula voters also elected seven council members in six wards. Three of four council candidates endorsed by the Western Montana Democratic Socialist chapter — Lucas Moody, Daniel Carlino and David Quattrocchi — lost their races. A fourth, incumbent council member Kristen Jordan, defended her seat
A countywide mill levy request that would raise $1.8 million annually for Missoula County roads, bridges and trails by 2,120 votes. About 52% of voters opposed the levy and 47% of voters were in favor.
Our guide to the 2025 Missoula ballot is here.
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Missoula Mayor Andrea Davis won her first full four-year term, while Missoula City Council incumbents had mixed results in the race for seven open seats in the municipal election, according to final, unofficial results.
HELENA
JoVonne Wagner is reporting from Helena.
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE:
County elections officials reported 11,177 ballots cast in their last update at 11:37 p.m. Tuesday. The unofficial results showed school board association staffer Emily Dean beating building industry association director Andy Shirtliff in the race to be Helena’s next mayor.
Helena mayor
Our guide to the 2025 Helena ballot is here.
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In the race for two seats on the Helena city commission, incumbent Melinda Reed and candidate Ben Rigby soundly defeated candidates Haley McKnight and Shawn White Wolf.
BILLINGS
MTFP staff are monitoring the results from Helena. Polls closed at 8 p.m.
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE:
Four candidates ran to fill Billings’ open mayoral seat: hotelier Mike Nelson, incumbent council member Jennifer Owen, current deputy mayor Mike Boyett and political newcomer Amanda Houseler.
Yellowstone County elections officials said they will not have another round of updated results until Nov. 10, and their last update Tuesday night showed the leaders in the mayor contest separated by 185 votes, with 31,430 votes counted as of midnight. Officials said about 700 rejected ballots could still be counted if they were remedied before 5 p.m. on Wednesday. Provisional ballots could also still be counted, though election officials could not provide an estimate, they said there were “very few.”
Billings mayor
Billings City Council
Candidates are also up for election in the city’s five council wards:
Mark Nicholson, a retired psychiatrist, appears to have beat David Redmon, a retired Army officer.
Former county commissioner Denis Pitman is leading by a slim margin over marketing professional Kassi Strong and Earnest Hammer, a longtime Billings resident.
Amy Aguirre, a social services nonprofit director, had a strong lead over TJ Rogers, a nonprofit leader appointed to fill an empty seat earlier this year.
Andrew Lindley, a chief technology officer for an employer services company, appeared to have beat incumbent Daniel Tidswell, a General Motors sales manager.
Tony O’Donnell, a former state utility commissioner, was ahead of business owner Patrick Olp.
See also: candidate questionnaire responses submitted to the Billings Chamber of Commerce.
BOZEMAN
MTFP staff are monitoring the results from Helena. Initial results released shortly after the close of polls Tuesday included partial vote counts for five of five precincts.
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE:
Bozeman voters rejected the Water Adequacy/Residential Development, or WARD, ballot initiative, which would have banned the mechanism most Bozeman housing projects use to meet their water supply requirements unless their developers commit to selling or renting the resulting housing at specified prices.
As of unofficial results available midday Wednesday, the WARD initiative was underwater by more than 6,100 votes.
Voters also picked a new mayor who will take office in 2028 after a two-year stint as deputy mayor. Incumbent City Commissioner Douglas Fischer had run against environmental attorney John Meyer and political newcomer Brendan O’Connor. Fischer held a commanding lead in unofficial results.
Additionally, six candidates competed for two seats on the Bozeman commission: incumbent Commissioner Emma Bode, former IT manager Eli Anselmi, attorney Roger Blank, marketing consultant Trevor Nameniuk, Better Bozeman Coalition founder Alison Sweeney and Inter Neighborhood Council chair Emily Talago.
Bode and Sweeney garnered the most votes.
Editor’s note: Bozeman mayoral candidate and WARD initiative backer John Meyer is married to MTFP reporter Amanda Eggert. Eggert had no involvement with the Bozeman-focused portions of this piece.
KALISPELL
MTFP staff are monitoring the results from Helena. Unofficial election results available Wednesday included results from 32,124 ballots.
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE:
Three candidates were vying to be Kalispell’s next mayor: Incumbent city council members Sid Daoud and Ryan Hunter, as well as business owner Kisa Davison. Hunter, an urban planning professional originally from Oregon, led in unofficial results.
In the election’s final days, ads paid for by a political action committee in Billings circulated through Kalispell declaring Davison the only Republican in the nonpartisan race, a counter to Daoud’s earlier endorsement by former Republican U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale. Davison was also endorsed by Republican U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke.
Kalispell City Council
Incumbent Sandy Carlson, a Red Cross account manager, fended off a challenge from Wes Walker, a security analyst.
Lisa Blank, the workforce development director at Flathead Valley Community College, ran unopposed.
Kyle Waterman, a business owner and former city councilor, beat Kyle Voigtlander, a business owner, and Brenton (Wes) Gardner.
Incumbent Jed Fisher, a professional fisherman, is facing a challenge from Bruce Guthrie, a retired teacher.
Flathead County also pitched voters on a $105 million jail bond that would fund a new county detention center that also houses the county sheriff’s office. The jail bond passed in preliminary results.
See also: the Flathead Beacon’s candidate questionnaire.
ELSEWHERE
Belgrade schools pitched voters on a pair of bond measures that, in combination with $20 million in bonding authorized in 2019, would let the district build a new elementary school. Voters voted separately on a $6.6 million bond for the remaining cost of a minimal school building and a $5 bond that would equip the new school with a gymnasium. Both bonds failed according to unofficial results.
Columbia Falls schools pitched voters on an $85 million bond to renovate its high school building. That bond failed according to unofficial results Tuesday.
In Whitefish, a pro-development housing activist who served on Gov. Greg Gianforte’s housing affordability task force, Nathan Dugan, had hoped to unseat one of three incumbent commissioners on the city council. The incumbents are Andy Feury, Ben Davis and Giuseppe Caltabiano. Dugan was trailing all three candidates in preliminary results Tuesday.
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