End Montana’s race-based gerrymandering

Last week’s Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais delivered a decisive 6-3 victory for the Constitution and equal treatment under the law.

The court struck down Louisiana’s racially gerrymandered congressional map, ruling that race cannot be the predominant factor in drawing districts even under claims of Voting Rights Act compliance. Justice Alito made clear: the Equal Protection Clause forbids turning electoral maps into tools of racial engineering.

Montana must immediately apply this same standard. The Democrat-backed maps forced through the Districting and Apportionment Commission created state legislative districts around Native American reservations that are blatantly gerrymandered. These districts twist across the map with race as the dominant consideration, ignoring compactness, contiguity and traditional communities of interest. They were drawn to favor Democrats by producing predetermined racial and political outcomes rather than fair, neutral boundaries.

Remember, two House districts make up one Senate district. Clear examples of this abuse include Senate Districts 8, 16 and 46. These districts stretch unnatural distances to pack voters by race. Senate District 8 stretches from Browning all the way to St. Ignatius. Does that genuinely keep communities of interest together? Senate District 16 is even worse: Its lines create a bizarre muskrat-shaped district. This is blatant gerrymandering, plain and simple.

The so-called “independent” chair of the commission, Maylinn Smith, a Democrat donor, voted with the two Democrat commissioners to approve these maps. Smith should resign immediately and the state Supreme Court, which claims to be independent, should appoint a true independent who will prioritize the Constitution over partisan and racial politics and follow House Bill 711 which was passed in the 2025 legislative session.

We are calling on the Montana Districting and Apportionment Commission to immediately review and redraw the racially gerrymandered legislative districts encompassing Native reservations. We cannot wait for the next census. The commission has the authority and duty to produce constitutional maps that are compact, contiguous and free from racial quotas or partisan manipulation.

Every Montanan, Native and non-Native, deserves equal voting power without racial engineering. The U.S. Supreme Court has provided the roadmap back to color-blind redistricting. 

Montana should lead by replacing these flawed Democrat maps with fair districts that unite communities and uphold the law. We stand ready to support this effort. The era of race-based and partisan mapmaking in Montana must end.

Rep. Braxton Mitchell, R-Columbia Falls, and Rep. Terry Nelson, R-Stevensville.