No, Montana is not a Democratic state. It is one of the more reliably Republican states in the country, with the GOP holding the governorship, both U.S. Senate seats, both U.S. House seats, and majorities in both chambers of the legislature after the 2024 election. But the question of whether Montana is a Democratic state has a more interesting answer than a simple no: Montanans elected Democratic governors for 16 straight years as recently as 2005 through 2021, and the state has a ticket-splitting streak that has only recently begun to fade.
How Montana Votes Today
Republicans control every level of Montana government. Governor Greg Gianforte won re-election in 2024 with about 59% of the vote.1Montana Secretary of State. General Election Results – Statewide In the marquee race of the cycle, Republican Tim Sheehy unseated two-term Democratic Senator Jon Tester roughly 53% to 45%.2Montana Secretary of State. General Election Results – Federal Tester was the last statewide Democrat in Montana, and his defeat left the party without a single major elected official in the state.
Both U.S. House seats stayed Republican. Ryan Zinke held District 1 with about 52%, and Troy Downing won District 2 with roughly 66%.2Montana Secretary of State. General Election Results – Federal Steve Daines, first elected in 2014, remains the state’s senior senator. Donald Trump carried Montana’s four electoral votes with about 58% of the popular vote.3Montana Secretary of State. Montana Electoral College Votes Cast for President Donald Trump Republicans hold a 32–18 edge in the state Senate and a 58–42 edge in the House.
Montana Wasn’t Always This Red
From 1969 through 1989, Democrats held Montana’s governor’s office continuously across three administrations. Democrats also frequently controlled the state legislature and the congressional delegation during those decades, and voters routinely split their tickets between state and federal races.
The realignment began in 1988. Stan Stephens became the first Republican governor since the 1960s, and Conrad Burns broke a long Democratic hold on the state’s U.S. Senate delegation. By 1994, Republicans had captured both legislative chambers. At the presidential level, Montana went for Bill Clinton in 1992 and has not backed a Democratic presidential nominee since. Every race from 1996 through 2024 has gone Republican, usually by double digits.
The Ticket-Splitting Tradition
The most telling feature of modern Montana politics is the gap between its presidential votes and its choices for governor. While the state was voting comfortably for Republican presidential nominees, Montanans elected Democrat Brian Schweitzer as governor in 2004 and re-elected him in 2008. His successor, Democrat Steve Bullock, won in 2012 and again in 2016. Montana had a Democratic governor for 16 straight years without once backing the Democratic presidential candidate during that stretch.
Schweitzer was a rancher with a populist style who appealed to rural voters skeptical of federal overreach. Bullock, a former attorney general, ran on fiscal responsibility and public-land access. Jon Tester’s Senate career followed the same pattern: a flat-top-wearing farmer who won three terms even as the state moved rightward at the federal level. Montanans have historically weighed the individual candidate more heavily than the party label in state-level races.
That tradition may be fading. Tester’s 2024 loss marked the first time in decades that Montana had no prominent elected Democrat in statewide or federal office. Whether ticket-splitting returns or the state’s partisan alignment hardens is now the central question in Montana politics.
Where Democrats Still Win
Montana’s geography drives its politics. The state covers more than 147,000 square miles with roughly 1.1 million people, and most of that land votes heavily Republican. Ranching, farming, mining, and energy communities tend to prioritize property rights, resource development, and limited regulation, and in statewide races the rural vote usually overwhelms the urban vote.
The exceptions cluster around a few growing cities. Gallatin County, home to Bozeman and Montana State University, went for Kamala Harris in 2024 by about 50% to Trump’s 46%.4Montana Secretary of State. Gallatin County Election Results Missoula, the state’s other college town, has long been Montana’s most reliably Democratic county. Both have grown rapidly on the strength of a tech sector, an outdoor recreation economy, and an influx of younger, college-educated residents. Democrats can win legislative districts there, but translating those wins into statewide majorities has become steadily harder.
Native American voters are the other historical piece of the Democratic coalition. Montana’s tribal population is roughly 8% of state residents, one of the highest shares in the country, spread across seven reservations. Reservation precincts have often voted heavily Democratic, and that bloc was widely credited as essential to Tester’s narrow Senate wins in 2006, 2012, and 2018. Its influence has become less predictable in recent cycles. Turnout swings significantly, some evidence points to narrower Democratic margins among Native voters, and in 2024 even strong reservation turnout was not enough to save Tester’s seat.
The Supreme Court Exception
One branch of Montana government doesn’t fit the Republican-dominance picture. State Supreme Court justices run in nonpartisan elections, and the court’s ideological balance has historically been more evenly split than the legislature or the congressional delegation. In 2024, Cory Swanson, backed by conservative groups and Governor Gianforte, won the chief justice seat, while Katherine Bidegaray, endorsed by Democratic-aligned organizations including the Montana Federation of Public Employees, won an associate justice seat. Neither side came away with a clear majority.
The court has become a recurring flashpoint. Republican legislators have clashed with the judiciary on environmental regulation and election law, and the governor’s allies have invested heavily in trying to shift its composition. The nonpartisan format keeps the court outside the party machinery that controls the rest of state government.
Why Montana Leans Republican
Montana’s economy explains much of the deepening lean. Agriculture, including cattle ranching and cereal grain farming, remains a major employer across the rural interior. Oil, gas, and coal production, concentrated in the eastern plains and along the Bakken formation, tie large portions of the workforce to energy policy. These industries tend to produce skepticism of environmental regulation and federal land management, which aligns naturally with Republican positions.
Tourism, outdoor recreation, and a small tech sector centered in Bozeman have grown into meaningful economic forces and have brought in higher-income professionals with different political priorities. Those newer sectors haven’t yet grown large enough to offset the traditional resource industries that set the statewide political tone. Low population density reinforces the pattern: residents in rural areas prize self-reliance and are wary of programs designed for more urban states, and Montana’s vast distances make federal policy feel remote in ways it doesn’t in denser places.