HELENA, Mont. — Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen says candidates filing for the offices of Governor and Attorney General highlighted the week of candidate filing in the Secretary of State’s Office. Another candidate also emerged for the Montana Supreme Court Chief Justice race.
Twenty-one new candidate filings were processed by the Secretary of State’s Office this week, bringing the total to 296 candidate filings processed for 173 different offices. In addition to the Gubernatorial, Attorney General, and Chief Justice candidates mentioned above, filings were processed this week for U.S. Representative (District No. 2), Public Service Commission, State Legislature, and District Court Judge.
To date, 10 filings have been processed for Montana’s three federal races – United States Senator and two U.S. Representative seats. On Thursday, Ming Cabrera became the fifth candidate to file for the state’s District 2 congressional race. Only one candidate filing has been processed for the District 1 race, as incumbent Ryan Zinke seeks another term.
Two candidate filings have been processed for the state’s Attorney General position after current AG Austin Knudsen officially filed for re-election on Thursday, joining Ben Alke as a candidate for the race. The State Superintendent of Public Instruction race also has two candidates, while the offices for Governor, Secretary of State, and State Auditor each have a lone candidate.
Earlier in the week, Cory Swanson filed for the Supreme Court Chief Justice position, joining Jeremiah Lynch in the race. Dan Wilson and Katherine Bidegaray each filed for the Supreme Court’s Justice No. 3 position on the opening day of candidate filing, January 11.
Incumbent Bowen Greenwood has filed for re-election for the Clerk of the Supreme Court position.
A total of 227 candidate filings have been processed for the Montana Legislature – 47 for the Montana Senate and 180 for the House. Thirteen of the 25 Senate races currently have two or more candidates, while 56 of the 100 House races have multiple candidates as of Friday afternoon. Senate Districts 21 and 44, along with House Districts 68 and 88, currently lead the way with four candidate filings each.
Five candidate filings have been processed for the Public Service Commission (PSC) with three of those for the District 3 seat. District 2 and District 4 currently have a single candidate filing.
Forty-two filings have been processed for District Court Judge seats, 27 listed as incumbents to the bench.
To date, 154 Republican candidate filings have been processed compared to 92 Democratic and four Libertarian.
The latest results for candidates filing with the Secretary of State’s Office can be found on the 2024 Candidate Filings website. Local candidates file with the county election office.
For more information about candidate filing, visit the Candidate Filing page on the Secretary of State’s website. Montana’s 2024 election calendars are also available online.
Candidate filing closes at 5 p.m. on March 11, 2024.
