For voters in Yellowstone County, we preview five interesting local races

With ballots sent out last week and voting underway, we’re previewing a handful of Yellowstone County races. 

Whoever wins the commissioners race is sure to receive some immediate public attention, as residents continue to push for action to limit a major data center project north of Billings. 

In the sheriff’s race, voters will choose a new sheriff for the first time in more than 15 years, although Republican candidate Kent O’Donnell is serving as interim sheriff. 

And the legislative races all feature either a candidate who survived a primary challenge from within their own party or a newer challenge by more recently declared write-in candidates. 

Board of County Commissioners 

There’s a three-way contest for an open seat on the Yellowstone County board of commissioners. In the past year, the board has touched some hot-button issues, including book bans, funding cuts to the Yellowstone Art Museum and data centers.  

Chris White, a Republican currently serving in the role, was appointed to fill a vacancy when longtime Commissioner John Ostlund died in a plane crash in 2025. White spent 35 years, mostly in management, at the Albertsons grocery chain. His volunteer work includes time with the Chase Hawks Memorial Association and the Downtown Billings Association. He grew up on a ranch and presents himself as an ag-loving, pro-law-enforcement, fiscal conservative. White serves on the Yellowstone Valley Electric Cooperative, the Montana Electric Co-op Association and the Northwest Public Power Association. He wants to see more power generation in Yellowstone County to bring down household costs. 

Democrat Danny Choriki served one term on the Billings City Council from 2019-2023. A Montana native, he serves as a caregiver for his parents and volunteers with several groups, including Billings Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Magic City Community Gardens and Billings Climate Coalition. Choriki served on the Billings Area Family Violence Task Force and continues to champion violence intervention, arguing it is a public health problem. Choriki includes a dose of philosophy on his campaign website, with one section beginning, “Plato’s Cave in the Age of Algorithms: What Shadows are Today.” He acknowledges the writing was drafted using the artificial intelligence tool CoPilot. 

Independent write-in candidate Hans Abbey consults on political campaigns, including for Republican Don Jones and Democrat Penny Ronning. He runs Purple Snow, which makes customizable merchandise like coffee mugs. A major part of Abbey’s platform is pitching a county-run, privately funded science museum. And he’s involved in efforts to support mobile home park homeowners whose lot rents have increased. Abbey has been critical of MetraPark’s management, arguing that the county should have a plan to make it self-sustaining. “Public investment should come with a clear path to financial independence,” he said. 

The Yellowstone County Commission has been an all-Republican board since 2018. 

Candidates took different tacks on what commissioners should do in response to the Quantica Infrastructure data center project north of Billings, which has generated vocal and sustained opposition. 

Abbey said he wrote his own zoning resolution for the board to consider, which would pause data center development while the county studies the issue. He wants the board to press Quantica for details about the project’s “full scale and impacts,” and he wants the Legislature to enact a temporary statewide moratorium on new data centers.  

“The commission should act before Quantica’s proposed AI data center near Broadview becomes a done deal,” Abbey wrote in response to emailed questions. “I oppose the project because of its potential demands on water, electricity, roads and emergency services, and the risk that residents could bear costs created by it.” 

Choriki believes the Legislature needs to repeal the Right to Compute Act, which some see as hindering the county’s ability to regulate data centers. He wrote that the Quantica project “may offer significant benefits, such as “the opportunity to position Yellowstone County as a technology and infrastructure hub.” But more important than the pros and cons of the project is the process, Choriki wrote. 

“I believe the central issue is […] whether local communities retain the ability to” manage the impacts of projects like the Quantica data center, Choriki wrote. 

White is a party to an active lawsuit involving the data center project. White and the other county commissioners voted to bring a validity lawsuit against ballot initiative petitioners to determine whether any parts of the initiative would violate the law. 

“Given the county’s ongoing litigation, I need to refrain from commenting, he wrote. 

White received a campaign donation from the builders’ group slated to construct the data center, among many other campaign contributors. He said he supports “the efforts of organized labor and the building trades,” but that his “general support for the trades should not be interpreted as a position on the Broadview data center or any other specific project.”

Sheriff 

No need to ask the candidates for Yellowstone County sheriff, “What sets you apart from your opponent?” 

Republican Kent O’Donnell, who was named interim sheriff in July after Mike Linder retired, has been with the office since 1997, gradually moving up the ranks. He’s served as commander of the SWAT team and coordinator for search and rescue. His time in college at Montana State University studying sociology and political science was “integral for my development and the only time I ventured away from my hometown,” he wrote on his campaign page. 

Democrat Adam Chenoweth comes from a more varied background. His career has included service in the Army, roughly two years as a detention officer in the Yellowstone County jail and one year as a deputy with the Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office. He’s familiar with the criminal system from the opposite end, having worked for the past three years as a defense investigator with the Office of the Public Defender. Before that, he was a case manager at the men’s prerelease facility, Alpha House. 

While jail expansion has been a top priority for many in local law enforcement, candidate Chenoweth opposes it. He said during visits to the jail that he’s seen trash cans in the hall to catch leaks from the ceiling. 

“So the jail absolutely needs some refurbishment. It needs some improvements,” Chenoweth said.

But he thinks there wasn’t enough done in previous years to expand treatment options, expand access to mental health help for those in crisis and reduce recidivism. Dedicating money to add jail beds, he said, “is kind of shooting ourselves in the foot as far as taking care of the community.”  

As a county employee, O’Donnell is barred by state law from using his public position to advocate for or against a ballot measure. But his stance is clear.

“I can just say the way things are right now is not sustainable,” he said. “Something has to change.”  

House District 52 

House District 52 stretches across Rimrock Road on the north side of the city, out to the Ironwood subdivision and on top of the Rims, including the airport.

Stacy Zinn, the Republican currently serving in the role, was appointed to finish the term of then-Rep. Bill Mercer, R-Billings, who left office for a federal judgeship. Zinn defeated Ed Walker in the Republican primary in June, 61% to 39%, or 1,504 votes to 949. 

Zinn is a retired U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency agent who worked internationally, including in Afghanistan for three years as the only female on a tactical team that destroyed heroin labs and built legal cases against narco-terrorists. In 2024 she ran for the Republican nomination for U.S. House in Montana’s Eastern district. She won the second-most votes in Yellowstone County in a nine-candidate primary. U.S. Rep. Troy Downing, R-Eastern District, won. Zinn sits on the boards of addiction treatment provider Rimrock Foundation and HER Campaign, which provides treatment for trafficking survivors. Her interim Montana Legislature assignment is the Health and Human Services Interim Budget Committee. 

Zinn’s opponent, Democrat Elizabeth Heald, served in the U.S. Navy for four years. She then worked at the service window for a Social Security Administration office, for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in California and at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Phoenix. “And family has always brought me home,” Heald said in an interview with Montana Free Press. “This is home. This is it for me. I don’t plan on going anywhere else.” Heald currently works as an independent caregiver for seniors inside their homes. She’s volunteered with Northern Plains Resource Council and the Food Bank. This will be her first political campaign. She supports rewriting the state school funding formula, tax relief for fixed-income homeowners and continuing Medicaid Expansion, according to her campaign website.

House District 46

House District 46 sits just west of downtown, stretching from Parkhill Drive down to Central Avenue. 

Denise Joy, the Democrat currently serving in the role, was appointed in 2024 to fill a vacancy.

Joy fended off a primary challenge this spring from mental health counselor Erin Tate by 60% to 40%, or a margin of 227 votes. Joy touts endorsements on her website from Montana AFL-CIO, Montana Conservation Voters, Big Sky 55+, Montana Rural Voters Action Fund and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Montana. Joy served two terms on the Billings City Council, where she helped usher in new zoning to create buffers between casinos and residential neighborhoods. 

Joy faces Republican Kim Welzenbach, CEO of the Home Builders Association of Billings. Welzenbach was voted businessperson of the year in 2011 by the Billings Chamber of Commerce. She helped the Yellowstone Art Museum secure funding for its permanent collection building, called the Visible Vault, and she’s served on the board of ZooMontana. 

Senate District 22

Senate District 22 covers a large portion of the Billings Heights and north into Shepherd. 

This race drew two write-in candidates, who said they were motivated to unseat incumbent Sen. Daniel Zolnikov, R-Billings, for carrying legislation that helps data centers. Before that, he was unopposed. 

Democrat Cari Olson, a former real estate agent and current organizer with Just One Montanan, which is campaigning against data centers in Montana, has become one of the loudest and most active voices against the Quantica data center near Broadview. She has repeatedly criticized Zolnikov for sponsoring the Right to Compute Act, which granted robust legal protections to data centers in 2025. 

“I want Danny Zonlikov to understand that just because he needs to make some money for his family doesn’t mean he needs to sell the rest of us out,” Olson said.  

Elijah Tidswell, also a real estate agent, said he initially filed as “kind of a protest thing,” but has since been fundraising and knocking on doors. 

“And I actually am going to attempt to win this,” Tidswell said. “I’ve spent a lot of money.”

Tidswell, 22, said he’s been active in Republican politics since he was 14. The Right To Compute Act would be his top priority if elected. 

“That would be probably my first bill, to overturn that,” he said.  

He reported $3,411.56 in contributions in his most recent report. That’s compared to Olson’s $450 and Zolnikov’s $1,320. 

Zolnikov called it “absurd” that some Republicans are supporting Tidswell, a write-in candidate, instead of himself, the Republican nominee. He said it boiled down to his own opposition to certain Republican candidates earlier this year.

“Because they have been involved in progressive dollars and supporting primary people against known Republicans,” Zolnikov said. “And I called them out for it. I said Republicans don’t use Democrat dollars.”

Zolnikov told MTFP it wasn’t his intention to curb counties’ traditional regulatory authority with the Right to Compute Act, and that he was open to revisiting the legislation, as the Yellowstone County Board of County Commissioners has asked. 

“If there needs to be a clarification, I mean I think that’s a healthy discussion,” Zolnikov said. “I’d be more than happy to have that conversation.”

In response to Olson, Zolnikov questioned her criticism. 

“What’s being sold out?” he asked. 

“I don’t understand, I guess, these people who are claiming a hardship over something 30 miles away that would not impact them,” Zolnikov said. 

In-depth, independent reporting on the stories impacting your community from reporters who know your town.

REPORT AN ERROR

BEST PRACTICES

ABOUT MTFP