Tuesday’s municipal elections across Montana featured six mayoral contests in the state’s largest cities.
While a couple featured incumbent candidates, residents in several cities will have new executives in office in the near future, the Daily Montanan reports. All of Montana’s mayoral races are nonpartisan.
Here’s a short roundup of the changes in city halls across the state. All results are considered unofficial.
Kalispell
In the state’s fastest growing city, Ryan Hunter, an incumbent city councilor supported by the Flathead County Democrats, won a three-way race against Republican-endorsed Kisa Davison and Sid Daoud, former chair of the Montana Libertarian Party. Hunter campaigned heavily on pushing for fair and responsible growth in the city, addressing the housing and homelessness crisis, and bolstering walkability and open spaces.
Helena
In the capital city, two sitting city commissioners with roots in Democratic politics faced off to replace Mayor Wilmot Collins, who served in the role since 2018.
Emily Dean held a 203-vote lead over Andy Shirtliff according to the county’s unofficial votes, a reverse of the results of the city’s primary election, which saw Shirtliff prevail. Dean was endorsed by Collins and City Commissioner Sean Logan.
Billings
With Billings Mayor Bill Cole on his way out of office, two city council members, a local businessman and a young political newcomer vied for the open seat to lead the state’s largest municipality.
Unofficial results show hotel owner and developer Mike Nelson with a 185-vote lead over city councilor Jennifer Owen, who has a background in law and community development. Montana’s automatic recount law kicks in at a victory of less than 0.5%, and Nelson’s lead is roughly 0.6%.
The narrow lead could change as the county elections department deals with rejected ballots that voters were able to fix on Wednesday, and counts provisional ballots.
Missoula
Missoula Mayor Andrea Davis has been in office since winning a special election in 2023 to serve out former Mayor John Engen’s term after he died in 2022.
Davis won her first full four-year term this week over Shawn Knopp by roughly 38 percentage points. Davis said she was running for re-election to work to implement new land-use and zoning regulations to work on housing affordability in the city, as well as prioritizing sustainability and a clean environment.
Knopp had run on a platform of changing the status quo, increasing fiscal responsibility and addressing high property taxes.
Bozeman
The City of Bozeman has a unique governing system where mayors are elected two years out from when they begin their term, and serve as deputy mayor in the interim.
City Commissioner Douglas Fisher took a commanding lead over environmental lawyer John Meyer and a political neophyte Brendan O’Connor, with 61.5% of the vote. Fisher was endorsed by six former and current mayors, including current Mayor Terry Cunningham and Deputy (and soon-to-be) Mayor Joey Morrison.
Great Falls
Great Falls was the only big city with a full-term incumbent mayor running for reelection. Mayor Cory Reeves, first elected in 2023, won his second term with 72.5% of the vote. He has drawn on his background in law enforcement, working for both the Great Falls Police Department and the Cascade County Sheriff’s Office.
Daily Montanan is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Daily Montanan maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Darrell Ehrlick for questions: info@dailymontanan.com.
