GREAT FALLS — Montana Republicans are in Great Falls this weekend to officially launch the party’s campaign efforts for the 2026 elections.
The state party is holding its Winter Kickoff event Friday and Saturday. First on the agenda Friday morning was the race for control of the Montana Legislature. Dozens of prospective legislative candidates were on hand for a news conference with the Montana Republican Legislative Campaign Committee.
“When Republicans run strong, with disciplined campaigns, Republicans will win,” said Sen. Greg Hertz, R-Polson, who has chaired the MRLCC for the last three election cycles.
(Watch the video to see more from Friday's news conference.)
Montana Republican Party chair Art Wittich said issues of taxes and spending are major concerns for voters every cycle, and he expects that to be the top general theme for the party again this election. Hertz said he expects voters will again be focused on the cost of living.
Republicans currently hold 90 out of 150 seats in the Legislature – 58 in the House and 32 in the Senate. Hertz says the committee has been focusing on recruiting candidates to help maintain those majorities. He says they’ve been looking for people with strong connections to their communities, and whose policy views are a good match for their district.
“When you get into some of the swing districts that might be 50-50 districts, you have to have the right candidate who could potentially win that seat and walk away and represent the people of Montana,” he said.
Hertz says, so far, Republicans have candidates for 82 of this year’s 125 legislative races. He says they hope to recruit someone for every district, but that under the current district lines – which Republicans claimed advantaged Democrats – it’s difficult to get people willing to run in some heavily Democratic districts.
Hertz said he only expects about 12 to 15 legislative races to be truly competitive between the two parties this year.
“In the past, before redistricting, we had close to 35 districts that were very competitive across the state,” he said.
But before Republican candidates even get to the general election, some of them will likely have to go through heated primaries, as divisions within the party over issues like property taxes, state spending and judicial reform have remained on display.
Montana Republican Party chair Art Wittich was elected in the summer, saying GOP control of the Legislature hadn’t led to the kind of policy victories conservatives have hoped for. In one of his new initiatives, the party began sending questionnaires to Republican legislative candidates, asking them to explain how their views line up with the party’s platform.
“The Republican Party has a very clear platform; it has very clear principles that resonate with Montanans,” Wittich said Friday. “Montana is a red state, and when people go to the polls and they see an R or a D next to a name, it makes a huge difference.”
Some Republican lawmakers have publicly criticized the questionnaires, calling it an attempt to “purge” the party. The most vocal of those critics – people like Rep. Llew Jones, R-Conrad, and Rep. Brad Barker, R-Luther – were not in attendance for Friday’s event.
Wittich said party leaders haven’t yet decided what they’ll do with the information from the questionnaires. Candidate filing will close on Mar. 4, and he said they will want to see the answers from all the declared candidates before taking any action.
“We probably will do something with the information, because we think that that serves Montana voters,” he said.
Hertz says MRLCC won’t get involved with helping one candidate over another in a contested primary, but they will provide candidates with technical support before the general election is set.
“Do they need help setting up a social media account? Do they need help getting registered with the COPP [Commissioner of Political Practices]?” he said. “Those are the type of things, the technical things behind the scenes. A lot of voters don't realize what it takes to run for office.”
Candidates have already been able to start campaigning and raising and spending money, but they will not be able to officially file to get onto the ballot until Feb. 17.
