Lynch, Swanson, Wilson and Bidegaray advance to Montana Supreme Court general election

The four most prominent candidates for the Montana Supreme Court all advanced from their primary elections Tuesday evening.

With almost all ballots counted, Broadwater County Attorney Cory Swanson captured 46% of the vote and came in first in the primary for chief justice of the Montana Supreme Court, followed by former federal magistrate Jerry Lynch, who took 37% of the vote. In the race for the second open seat on the high court, eastern Montana district court Judge Katherine Bidegaray came in first with 48% of the vote, followed by Flathead County District Court Judge Dan Wilson.

Montana Supreme Court primaries are nonpartisan elections, and the two candidates with the most votes advance to the general election in November. Swanson and Lynch defeated Doug Marshall, an attorney in Carbon County, while Bidegaray and Wilson defeated former Columbia Falls Republican lawmaker Jerry O’Neil. 

The two candidates who advanced from each primary — Swanson and Lynch in one race and Bidegeray and Wilson in the other — will now focus on each other as they vie for the pair of open seats on Montana’s high court, a body that makes decisions with profound political implications and that has come under intense partisan scrutiny, especially from Republicans. 

“Julie and I extend a heartfelt thank you to the thousands of Montanans who have supported this campaign and delivered victory today,” Swanson said in a statement Tuesday evening. “Montanans have made it clear they don’t want politically motivated justices on the Montana Supreme Court. My pledge to Montana voters is that I will rule on the facts and the law in each case, not on politics.”

In a video on Facebook, Bidegaray thanked supporters for their faith in her and “dedication to a fair judiciary.”

“As we move forward, unified in our belief in the fundamental rights that our Constitution provides — the right to privacy, equal education and a sustainable environment — we all must continue to pull together to ensure that our courts remain fair, impartial and dedicated to justice for all Montanans,” Bidegaray said.

Partisan interests have already taken sides in these elections. 

Last month, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee and a Planned Parenthood political committee announced they would jointly spend $5 million on state Supreme Court elections across the country, including in Montana. The organizations did not explicitly identify who they’d support. Generally, Democratic-aligned groups like the Montana Federation of Public Employees and Montana Conservation Voters have endorsed Lynch and Bidegaray while Swanson and Wilson have received support from some prominent conservatives, including Gov. Greg Gianforte, who, along with his wife, Susan, has donated several hundred dollars to the campaigns of both candidates. 

“Unfortunately, the national Democratic Party is undermining the non-partisan nature of our Court by supporting my opponent’s campaign,” Swanson said in his statement Tuesday night. “Montanans deserve a fair and impartial Supreme Court free from partisan interference. Please join our fight to protect the integrity of our judicial system.”

But the Republican Party — which in 2022 faced pointed criticism for its early and open involvement in the nonpartisan judicial races that cycle — is also wading into the fray. Montanans for a Fair Judiciary, a PAC affiliated with GOP strategist Jake Eaton, spent about $25,000 on mailers in support of Wilson and Swanson in May. 

The primary source of the group’s funding is $30,000 from another Eaton-adjacent group, the Montana Judicial Accountability Initiative, which itself received $50,000 from the state GOP last month in addition to $35,000 from Spirit for Montana PAC. That committee has received donations from the state GOP, the state chamber of commerce and tobacco company Reynolds American. 

This week’s ballot also featured primary races for clerk of the Montana Supreme Court, a partisan official who manages access to court records and files legal documents. 

On the GOP side, incumbent Bowen Greenwood narrowly defeated challenger Jason Ellsworth, the sitting president of the state Senate. With most precincts fully counted, Greenwood has 53% of the vote to Ellsworth’s 47%. 

“Serving the people as your elected, Republican clerk of the Montana Supreme Court has been the highest honor of my life,” Greenwood said in a statement. “God is very good, and I have the best friends and supporters in the entire world. I am humbled beyond measure that Montana Republicans nominated me for another term.” 

Ellsworth will now serve out the remainder of his Senate term. 

On the Democratic ballot, lawyer Erin Farris-Olson cruised to victory against U.S. Navy veteran Jordan Ophus, capturing more than 80% of the vote. Farris-Olson has been critical of the Republican candidates’ avowed partisanship. 

Ellsworth has been a leading exponent of Republican criticism of the Supreme Court, recently establishing a select legislative committee to probe the court because of recent adverse rulings. Greenwood campaigned on the promise that he would continue to do what he could to aid Republican attorneys and the office of Republican Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen in their legal fights for abortion restrictions and other conservative priorities. 

“Today we’re celebrating Montanans’ commitment to impartiality in the court,” Farris-Olson said on Facebook. “The race to return judicial integrity to the clerk’s office starts now.”

Arren Kimbel-Sannit is a reporter for the Montana Free Press, a Helena-based nonprofit newsroom, and can be reached at akimbel@montanafreepress.org.