Derek Skees

Hardline conservatives and moderate Republicans continued their longstanding clash at the Montana GOP convention in Billings over the weekend. Yellowstone Public Radio’s Ellis Juhlin and Montana Public Radio’s Shaylee Ragar break down who holds power and what the GOP’s priorities are ahead of the 2023 legislative session.

A state lawmaker has conceded the race for a seat on the state’s utility oversight board after requesting a recount. Annie Bukacek, a Flathead area doctor, is the presumptive winner of the Republican primary race by a razor thin margin.

Montana’s Secretary of State has announced a recount will take place in the Republican primary for a seat on the state’s utility oversight board.

Unofficial election results for the District 5 Public Service Commission seat show Republican candidates Annie Bukacek and Derek Skees both won 31% of 35,500 votes cast. Bukacek has a lead of 74 votes.

A Supreme Court leak adds more drama to the 2022 midterm election in Montana and elsewhere. Overturning Roe will also drive a spate of new anti-abortion bills in the next Legislature. New campaign ads from both parties try to define who's a "real Montanan."

The district represents counties near the Continental Divide in northwest Montana. It’s one of two district seats on the ballot this year.

The group of 10 lawmakers are asking for a joint committee to investigate the state’s election security, saying there’s “widespread belief” among Montanans that irregularities have sown doubt in its election integrity.

After months of discussion and a flurry of political clashes, the push for a special legislative session has lost steam. That likely leaves the districts of Montana’s powerful utility oversight commission in the hands of a panel of federal judges.

Republican lawmakers and Gov. Greg Gianforte agree that a special session is needed to redraw districts for the state’s utility oversight board. However, a GOP faction was also pushing to create a special committee to investigate election integrity in the same trip to the Capitol. That effort appears to have failed.

In states where courts have ruled that their constitutions’ explicit privacy rights extend to the right of a woman to have an abortion, the procedure would continue to be legal even if the Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling is overturned, legal scholars and abortion-rights advocates said.