HELENA — In the latest sign of an ongoing rift within the Montana Republican Party, three state senators are now suing the party, after they were kicked out of the state GOP convention in June.
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Sens. Jason Ellsworth, R-Hamilton; Denley Loge, R-St. Regis; and Shelley Vance, R-Belgrade, filed suit this week in state district court in Lewis and Clark County. They argued their exclusion from the convention violated party rules and their rights as lawmakers.
The three senators were part of the group commonly called “The Nine”: nine Republican senators who repeatedly broke with their party leadership during the Montana Legislature’s 2025 session.
Ellsworth told MTN Wednesday that he believed the lawsuit was a necessary step to push back against a state party that was seeking to control lawmakers’ actions.
“That's not Republican; Republican is where you do allow for individualism,” he said. “So I think Montanans need us to do this. If not, we're heading down a dangerous path as a Republican Party.”
The nine senators frequently split with Senate GOP leaders and voted with Democrats on procedural matters, as well as on key votes on issues like the state budget.
In June, a majority of delegates at the GOP convention voted to overturn the outgoing party chair’s ruling and exclude the Nine from participating, because of their actions during the session. The plaintiffs said they attempted to appeal the decision within the party, but leaders haven’t responded to them.
The lawsuit claims the state party essentially changed its rules by removing duly elected members, and that the Montana GOP bylaws require a two-thirds majority to make such a change. It also argues the party’s actions violated lawmakers’ “legislative immunity.”
“MT GOP does not hold the elected office and has no right to condition association on MT Republicans voting at the direction of Senate Leadership or MT GOP leadership,” the senators’ attorney wrote. “When attempting to control Senate votes through rebuke, censure and ouster, it has usurped MT Republicans’ elected offices.”
Ellsworth defended the Nine’s actions during the session, saying they were responding to Senate leadership attempting to sideline them, and that they got things done for Montanans in areas like property tax reform.
“We're not elected by our party,” he said. “We are elected by the people, that vote, and we represent them.”
At the June convention, delegates elected Art Wittich as party chair. The lawsuit asks the court to order a new election of party leadership, with the nine included in the vote.
“We're not looking to be punitive,” Ellsworth said. “I have no issue with the people that got elected. I know a lot of them personally. I think a lot of them are very good people. But it's about the process.”
MTN reached out to the state GOP for comment on the senators’ lawsuit. Tyler Newcombe, the party’s executive director responded in a statement.
“Frankly, we’re confused as to why they’re upset,” he said. “You can’t quit the team, suit up for the other side, and then sue the coach for benching you. By organizing with Democrats, The Nine removed themselves from the Republican Party. All we did was recognize what they had already made clear through their votes and their alliances.”
The senators’ attorney in this case is Joan Mell, who also represented Ellsworth this year in an ethics investigation into his handling of a state contract while serving as Senate president. In April, the Senate voted to bar Ellsworth from the floor of the chamber and remove his committee assignments in response to the investigation’s findings.
MTN asked Ellsworth if he believed that investigation would have any impact on this lawsuit, and he said he saw them as two separate issues.
“I would imagine people are going to try to spin it that way in some degree,” he said. “I would hope that the public would look at what it is, and what the issue that's being brought about is.”
