2020 Montana Statewide Elections Megathread

[MT Treasurer]

Daines leading in bellwether Lake 54.5%-45.5%. 64% in.

[MT Treasurer]

Gianforte has taken the lead.

Not calling anything yet, but really hard to see how Republicans lose even one of the statewide races at this point.

[AncestralDemocrat.]

Called for Gianforte.

[Coastal Elitist]

wow what a blowout by Republicans in Montana

[MT Treasurer]

We haven’t talked much about the state legislative races, but the GOP wave was felt in the State House in particular, where Republicans are very close to a veto-proof majority:

Current composition of the House - 58R, 42D

Projected races so far:
R - 60
D - 31
Undecided - 9

Projected flips: HD-3 (D*->R), HD-26 (D*->R)

Too close to call:

HD 23 (D-held, mostly southern/western parts of Great Falls + outskirts)

Scot Kerns (R) - 2,068 - 51.29%
Brad Hamlett (D, inc.) - 1,964 - 48.71%

HD 24 (D-held, mostly Great Falls midtown, some eastern neighborhoods/outskirts)

Steven Galloway (R) - 2,351 - 53.42%
Barbara Bessette (D, inc.) - 2,050 - 46.58%

HD 25 (D-held, Great Falls midtown + some outskirts)

Steve Gist (R) - 2,276 - 52.87%
Jasmine Krotkov (D, inc.) - 2,029 - 47.13%

HD 28 (D-held, Havre)

Ed Hill (R) - 2,293 - 51.82%
Krsytal Steinmetz (D) - 2,132 - 48.18%

HD 48 (D-held, North Billings)

Jessica Karjala (D, inc.) - 2,632 - 52.82%
Leigh Verrill-Rhys (R) - 2,351 - 47.18%

HD 50 (D-held, midtown Billings and South Side)

Mallerie Stromswold (R) - 2,189 - 52.89%
Jade Bahr (D, inc.) - 1,950 - 47.11%

HD 77 (D-held, Anaconda, Philipsburg, Drummond)

Sara Novak (D) - 3,057 - 52.84%
Heather Blom (R) - 2,728 - 47.16%

HD 78 (D-held, Deer Lodge and Warm Springs)

Gregory Frazer (R) - 2,240 - 54.41%
Cindy Hiner (D) - 1,877 - 45.59%

HD 96 (D-held, Frenchtown + outskirts/rurals west of Missoula)

Kathy Whitman (R) - 3,709 - 51.32%
Loni Conley (D) - 3,518 - 48.68%

Great Falls/Cascade County was just a massacre, the Democratic strength down-ballot completely eroded there (and in many other places).

More on the statewide races in the coming days.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

wow what a blowout by Republicans in Montana

.
It was coming to Ds, Oil Drilling and Keystone is important part of the state, with Biden as Prez they won't get oil subsidies or Keystone but they still gonna frack which causes Wildfires and global warming in OR, WA, CO, NV, AZ  and Cali.  

Hawaii is the only West Coast state that's not affected by Wildfires, Typhoons that are from Japan give rise to Hurricanes in Hawaii and protect it from severe drought. Cali is still in a drought and we are almost in Winter

[TML]

wow what a blowout by Republicans in Montana

So would it be fair to say that MT is now as deep red as its neighbors (ID, WY, ND, & SD)?

[MT Treasurer]

Daines already pulling a Tester. Expect his voting record to become more reliable under Biden now that he’s been reelected.

https://www.ktvh.com/news/montana-politics/sen-daines-alleges-democrats-stealing-election-from-trump

[lfromnj]

Bullock got more votes than Tester. Its just Dainese got 100k more
Even biden came close to Tester.

[StateBoiler]

http://ballot-access.org/2020/11/05/montana-democratic-party-accomplished-nothing-for-itself-by-removing-the-green-party-from-the-ballot/

Montana Democratic Party Accomplished Nothing for Itself by Removing the Green Party from the Ballot

Posted on November 5, 2020 by Richard Winger

Earlier this year, the Montana Democratic Party sued to remove the Green Party from the ballot. The state and federal courts ordered the removal of the party in August, even though everyone agreed it had enough valid signatures in March, and even though it was given its own primary in June. The removal was accomplished by the Democratic Party asking people who had signed the petition to put the party on the ballot to remove their names. Only 600 people removed their names, out of over 13,000 signatures that had been submitted, but that was enough to remove the party because it lost its needed signatures in one state house district, and the state has a difficult distribution requirement for the statewide party petition.

The Democrats were motivated to take this action because they hoped to elect Governor Steve Bullock to the U.S. Senate. But Bullock lost to incumbent Steve Daines by ten percentage points. See the results here.

The 2018 Green Party lawsuit, challenging the distribution requirement, is pending in the Ninth Circuit. The distribution requirement is unconstitutional based on a U.S. Supreme Court precedent, Moore v Ogilvie, that distribution requirements must be equal. The Montana requirement is not. In some districts as few as 55 signatures are needed; in others 150 are needed. Therefore the voters of some districts have more clout than those in certain other districts.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Bullock and Cunningham were supposed to win and Cooney, they lost big time.

Glad D's don't have waste anymore time in MT politics anylonger after Bullock