Attorney general decision could boot GOP primary winners from ballot

Montana House Majority Leader Steve Fitzpatrick said Thursday he’s going to have to file a lawsuit to stay on the ballot after a decision from Attorney General Austin Knudsen this week affected how term limits are calculated.

Fitzpatrick, who ran unopposed for re-election in the Republican primary, called the decision from the attorney general a “total affront to the electoral process” and an “affront to democracy.”

The decision by Knudsen, also a Republican, affects how term limits are calculated, and would require candidates to wait a full election cycle to return to a chamber if they exceed them. The law limits lawmakers to eight years in any one chamber within a 16-year period, but previous attorneys general had taken the position that the law allows lawmakers to move between chambers nonstop.

The change potentially means the Secretary of State’s Office will remove at least two candidates who won primaries from the ballot.

Ballots for the general election need to be certified by Aug. 20. A spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s Office did not respond to a request for comment. 

Knudsen’s office also did not respond to a request for comment.Thursday in Kalispell, Gov. Greg Gianforte said the conflict will likely be decided by the courts.

He declined to answer whether his office would be involved in any legal action but offered strong words for fellow Republicans.

“I think Republicans ought to start getting along with each other because there’s too much important work we have to do for the people of Montana,” Gianforte said.

The decision highlights the rift in the Montana Republican party between ultraconservatives and GOP legislators who call themselves “grassroots” Republicans.

The opinion came at the behest of Republican Senate President Matt Regier, part of the hard right wing of the party.

In a letter, Regier asked Knudsen to determine if Rep. Llew Jones, a Conrad Republican and one of the biggest foes of the ultraconservatives, was eligible to run for state Senate.

Regier, of Kalispell, did not immediately return a request for comment.

Knudsen’s opinion overturns a 2012 decision by then-Attorney General and Democrat Steve Bullock, later the state’s governor. Bullock interpreted the term limits statute as allowing candidates to run for election if they had eight years of the last 16 out of their previous chamber by the start of the next term. 

In practice, Bullock’s interpretation has allowed legislators to switch between the state House and state Senate every eight years should they so choose and be elected. They can switch chambers immediately — they don’t have to wait an election cycle.

But Knudsen’s opinion states if a candidate has served for eight of the last 16 years in a chamber — including the year of the election they are funning for — they cannot appear on the ballot. The opinion, sent to the Secretary of State’s Office, would require those legislators to wait an extra year should they run into the term limit law.

The decision says Regier requested his opinion after Jones won as to whether he is constitutionally eligible to appear on the ballot as the Republican nominee for Montana State Senate District 9 in the November 2026 general election.

In a statement Wednesday to MTN News, which first reported the change, Jones said that Regier and the Freedom Caucus Political Action Committee “spent unprecedented amounts trying to beat me at the ballot box” and lost to him.

Jones, chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee and an architect of the state budget, beat Rep. Zach Wirth in the Republican primary by about 200 votes.

Jones could not be reached for comment Thursday by the Daily Montanan.

Fitzpatrick said Thursday the new opinion was a continuation of a long-running rift in the state Republican party that led to a coalition of Democrats and more moderate Republicans working as an acting majority in the Senate in 2025. It’s been an “immense” distraction for the Republican party, he said.

“We haven’t been able to advance our objectives because Regier is busy fighting and bickering with everybody instead of doing the job,” Fitzpatrick said. “In the middle of an election cycle, I could be out campaigning. Instead, I’m sitting here with my attorneys concocting a lawsuit in order to stay on the ballot.”

Fitzpatrick, an attorney himself, served three sessions in the state House before moving over to the state Senate for two terms. He was reelected and served in the state House last session.

He’s facing Democrat Pam Carroll in the general election.

Jones and numerous other Republicans were targeted by their own party in primaries across the state with mixed results. The Montana Republican Party also disavowed some Republicans and its bylaws are currently the subject of a lawsuit in Lewis and Clark District Court in Helena.

Micah Drew contributed to this report.