Republicans elect Rep. Katie Zolnikov Montana’s first female Speaker of the House

Montana is set to make history after House Republicans elected the first female speaker in state history at the Capitol Wednesday morning.  

Billings Republican Rep. Katie Zolnikov beat current Speaker of the House Rep. Brandon Ler, R-Savage, in a secret ballot voted by nearly all of the caucus’ 56 Republican representatives. Speaker is the highest-ranking role in the House, and is responsible for committee assignments, setting the agenda for floor debates and assigning bills to committees. 

Top leadership positions such as Speaker of the House and Senate president still must go to a vote of the full chamber when the 2027 session convenes in early January. That process is often a formality, and caucus votes aren’t typically overturned. 

Rep. Steve Fitzpatrick, R-Great Falls, said he was “very surprised” Zolnikov won, as many Republicans thought the vote would fall in Ler’s favor. 

Zolnikov, a 29-year-old small-business owner, is also set to be the youngest female speaker of a state House in the history of the United States, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Before Zolnikov, the youngest female speaker was Hannah Pingree of Maine, who was elected to the role at the age of 32 in 2008.

Zolnikov is entering her fourth session in the House, and she first assumed office in 2020 at 23 years old. In her pitch to her fellow Republicans, she emphasized transparency in the legislative process. 

“Doing your work means doing it in the light of day, with full debate on the record, and not in a bathroom or a dark hall with a friend,” she said in her prepared remarks. 

Zolnikov attributed her success to hard work.

“Today has shown that you can still rise to the top by your own merits and work ethic,” she said. “You don’t have to be a part of the good ol’ boys club or come from money to rise through the ranks.”

Zolnikov said her primary focus as speaker will be on “lowering taxes, limiting government and strengthening Montana families.”

Zolnikov’s election was part of this week’s legislative caucuses, when incoming and sitting legislators hold internal partisan elections to fill leadership positions for the upcoming 2027 legislative session. 

Also in the House, Steve Fitzpatrick, an influential and long-tenured legislator, was upset in his reelection bid for majority leader of the chamber by a farther-right representative, Republican Tom Millett of Marion. Millett is a U.S. Navy veteran who is entering his second session. 

Rep. Mike Vinton, R-Billings, a general contractor, won his bid for speaker pro tempore over Rep. Jodee Etchart, R-Billings. 

—Victoria Eavis

Senate Republicans 

Without fanfare, Senate Republicans renominated Matt Regier as Senate president. In what amounted to an acceptance speech, Regier, of Kalispell, said he doesn’t want to revisit the 2025 Legislature or see Democrats celebrating successes at the end of the session, as they did in 2025.

Because Regier was the only nominee for the job, there was no vote.

“We are the majority Republican Party. I’m not going to dwell on the last session, but I don’t want to repeat it,” Regier said. “Even in the middle of a national blue wave, the people of Montana still didn’t vote for bigger government, or watered-down freedoms.”

Democrats, who hold 20 seats in the 50-member state Senate, picked up two seats held by Republicans in 2025 without losing any seats, creating the potential for another “functional majority” composed of 10 or fewer centrist Republicans and the minority-party bloc.

Regier added, “I understand that my conservative flavor isn’t unanimous, right? However, not all of your ideology is unanimous either. So, here we are.”

Newly elected Sen. Llew Jones, of Conrad, chaired the caucus. Chairing the caucus falls to the most senior member, in this case Jones, who has been the de facto leader of functional legislative majorities for the past 20 years. He was also the focus of a multimillion-dollar primary election effort to purge Republican moderates. Regier played a key role in that effort, using his own political action committee to finance political committees that advertised against his adversaries.

An effort to disqualify Jones and fellow Republican Fitzpatrick from serving in the Legislature remained before the Montana Supreme Court on Wednesday. The effort was based on an August opinion by Attorney General Austin Knudsen about how term limits should be interpreted. Regier requested the opinion in July to address whether Jones was eligible to seek another term in the Senate after serving in that body eight years earlier.

Speaking at the microphone Wednesday, Regier warned of judges legislating from the bench and the executive branch exerting undue influence over the Legislature.

“A lot of good judges in Montana, but there are a few that think they are the Senate, the House, and the governor all in one black robe. We should not capitulate,” he said.

The Republican caucus nominated Sen. Daniel Zolnikov as president pro tempore and Sen. Sue Vinton as majority leader, meaning that two married couples — the Zolnikovs and the Vintons — all hold leadership positions. All are from the Billings area.

After leadership nominations, Jones said, the next big challenge for the Senate will be hashing out committee assignments.

The Senate caucus wrapped up business Wednesday by selecting six members to make committee assignments. To avoid an audience of their peers, members of the newly appointed Committee on Committees agreed to text the location of their meeting to one another, rather than announce it to the room.

Many of this week’s actions, including leadership selections and committee assignments, can be undone by a simple majority vote on the Senate floor in the opening days of the Legislature. That happened in 2025, when a bipartisan group of influential centrists dissatisfied with their assignments used a functional majority of Democrats and a small group of Republicans to secure better placements.

—Tom Lutey

The Democratic Caucus 

Wednesday’s Democratic leadership elections were uneventful, with no contested races in either chamber. 

Laura Smith, D-Helena, won an uncontested race for Senate Minority Leader. 

“The top three issues for us will be affordability, affordability and affordability,” Smith told MTFP in a Wednesday interview. 

Rep. SJ Howell, D-Missoula, was elected House Minority Leader, also in a noncompetitive race. Howell’s election speech noted that the Democratic caucus has two dueling opportunities: to collaborate with Republicans on bipartisan legislation, and to thwart Republican efforts regarded as inimical to Democratic values.

“We have to do both of those things every day, and if that feels like an impossible balance, you’ll learn by week two that that is the job,” Howell said.

Rep. Denise Baum, D-Billings, ran unopposed for House minority caucus leader. 

—Zeke Lloyd