City Commissioner Emily Dean will be Helena’s next mayor, based on unofficial election results Tuesday night.
With nearly 11,000 votes cast and counted in unofficial results, Dean led fellow Commissioner Andy Shirtliff by only 203 votes, 5,440 to 5,237. Dean declared victory hours after polls closed, and her opponent offered congratulations.
Dean’s win punctuated a significant comeback from the September primary election when her opponent and co-commissioner Andy Shirtliff secured a commanding 48% of the vote, to her 37%.
“We were absolutely the underdog, I think, coming out of the primary,” Dean said in a Wednesday afternoon interview with Montana Free Press.
Dean credited her resurgence in voter support to adjusting her campaign plans and doubling down on community outreach, especially after ballots were mailed Oct.17.
“I really just wanted to be sure that I connected with as many voters as possible, so they got a chance to meet me and really understand why I am so passionate about serving Helena,” Dean said.
With more than 3,000 doors knocked across Helena neighborhoods, bi-monthly town halls, three public candidate forums and one mayoral debate, Dean said it was important to her to ensure that voters knew what kind of leader she would be.
“I’m someone who would rather have a really deep one-on-one conversation and get to know someone, then have a handful of maybe more surface-level conversations,” Dean said. “I just wanted to ensure that my campaign reflected who I really was and give people a chance to get to know me at a more authentic level.”
Dean’s lead was just 179 votes Tuesday night, but the margin expanded when election officials released unofficial final results just before midnight. The results won’t be certified until county elections officials audit the tally in the coming weeks.
“Thank you to every Helenan who voted and participated in this election,” Dean told Montana Free Press in a text early Wednesday morning. “This victory belongs to every person who believes in the promise of our community and the power of community and the power of working together to get real results.”
“Now, the real work begins. Together we will continue to invest in safe neighborhoods, modern infrastructure and effective city services,” Dean added.
“Congrats to Emily. Wish her all the best. But I’m proud of the campaign we ran,” Shirtliff told MTFP on Wednesday morning. “We kept our gloves up. We kept it about the issues that people wanted to talk about. I thank my supporters and volunteers throughout the whole process for their hard work, support and encouragement. Proud of the positive campaign we ran.”
In the race for two seats on the nonpartisan Helena city commission, incumbent Melinda Reed and candidate Ben Rigby soundly defeated candidates Haley McKnight and Shawn White Wolf.
“I’m delighted to see the support of the community,” Reed told MTFP Tuesday night. “It’s been an absolute privilege to serve on the commission and to continue in this role.”
“I’m super excited. Thanks to all my supporters and everybody in the community for believing in me,” Rigby said Tuesday night. “I stumped on critical infrastructure and water. I’m glad everyone gave me their vote for that. That’s my background and that’s my passion.”
In the late-Tuesday unofficial results, Reed led the field with 6,522 votes, followed by Rigby with 5,650 votes, McKnight with 3,647 and White Wolf with 2,013.
McKnight came under scrutiny this week after a national publication reported that she’d left a voice message for Republican U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy wishing that he contract cancer and “die in the street like a dog.”
McKnight, the youngest commissioner candidate who described her July voice mail to Sheehy as “justifiable rage,” said Tuesday night that she won’t be dissuaded by the election results.
“I ran the best race that I could. I’m really proud of the work that I did,” McKnight told MTFP. “I clearly ruffled some feathers. I’m really grateful to my supporters. Just because I lost this race doesn’t mean I’m gonna stop fighting for my community.”
In the race for mayor, Dean, 34, emphasized her knowledge of policymaking and government expertise, which she says will enable her to make critical decisions.
A third-generation Helenan, Dean graduated from Carroll College in 2014 with a double major in history and international relations. She went on to earn a master’s in education at Southern Methodist University in Dallas in 2016.
She then joined the Montana School Board Association as its director of member engagement in October 2017, after moving back to Helena. She was first elected to the commission in 2019 and re-elected to a second term in 2023. She currently serves as the mayor pro temp, or stand-in, when outgoing Mayor Wilmot Collins is unavailable.
“ The next mayor really has to understand the details of how the levers of government work and how to get results from people,” Dean said at an Oct. 7 candidate forum. “I’ve been doing that for the last five years.”
Dean married her husband, Matt Chiasson II, this past summer.
Helena’s mayor, a nonpartisan position, serves a four-year term with no limit on terms.
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