Montana Rural Voters Win 16 Races

Years of Organizing Lead to New Era of Governance

Late on election night in November 2024, Montana Rural Voters (MRV) staff anxiously awaited the outcomes. Was this the year to break the legislative supermajority, which had wielded power so dangerously?

MRV and coalition partners had been building for this moment. Overcoming years of gerrymandering, the 2024 elections were the first to use Montana’s new, fairly drawn legislative maps. MRV knew they needed to pick up seats to have a chance of renewing the state’s Medicaid expansion, which provides healthcare to more than 80,000 Montanans.

They ran ambitious campaigns that centered Montana’s economy, environment, and rural communities. They had more than 140,000 conversations with voters on the phone or at their doors, ran 19,000 radio spots across 82 rural stations, placed 500 newspaper ads in 66 different rural papers, and placed 1,200 yard, highway, and barn signs to reach rural Montanans.

Big wins in Big Sky Country

It worked. MRV helped Montanans elect 16 local leaders to the legislature, flipping 12 seats, breaking the House supermajority, and achieving the biggest state legislative gains in 34 years. In HD-57, a mostly rural district, Scott Rosenzweig won by just 20 votes. In HD-91, Shelly Fyant, a leader of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, defeated her real estate broker opponent who sought to limit Tribal sovereignty.

MRV, along with Rural Democracy grantees Northern Plains Resource Council, Western Native Voice, Forward Montana, and Big Sky 55+, contributed to statewide wins. Montanans approved a ballot measure to enshrine abortion in the state constitution and voted on judicial races, creating the state’s first-ever majority-female Supreme Court. 

These gains are the result of year-round, multi-year work. Their success points to the possibilities for sustained organizing across the country.