Montana Rep. Zooey Zephyr must win reelection to return to the House floor after 2023 sanction

HELENA (AP) — Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr is seeking reelection in a race that could allow the transgender lawmaker to return to the House floor nearly two years after she was silenced and sanctioned by her Republican colleagues.

Zephyr, a Democrat, is highly favored to defeat Republican Barbara Starmer in her Democrat-leaning district in the college town of Missoula. Republicans still dominate statewide with control of the governor's office and a two-thirds majority in the Legislature.

The first-term Democrat was last permitted to speak on the chamber floor in April 2023, when she refused to apologize for saying some lawmakers would have blood on their hands for supporting a ban on gender-affirming medical care for youth.

Before voting to expel Zephyr from the chamber, Republicans called her words hateful and accused her of inciting a protest that brought the session to a temporary standstill. Some even sought to equate the non-violent demonstration with an insurrection.

Her exile technically ended when the 2023 session adjourned, but because the Legislature did not meet this year, she must win reelection to make her long-awaited return to the House floor in 2025.

Zephyr said she hopes the upcoming session will focus less on politicizing transgender lives, including her own, and more on issues that affect a wider swath of Montana residents, such as housing affordability and health care access.

"Missoula is a city that has cared for me throughout the toughest periods of my life. It is a city that I love deeply," she told The Associated Press. "So, for me, getting a chance to go back in that room and fight for the community that I serve is a joy and a privilege."

Zephyr's clash with Montana Republicans propelled her into the national spotlight at a time when GOP-led legislatures were considering hundreds of bills to restrict transgender people in sports, schools, health care and other areas of public life.

She has since become a leading voice for transgender rights across the country, helping fight against a torrent of anti-trans rhetoric on the presidential campaign trail from Donald Trump and his allies. Her campaign season has been split between Montana and other states where Democrats are facing competitive races.

Zephyr said she views her case as one of several examples in which powerful Republicans have undermined the core tenets of democracy to silence opposition. She has warned voters that another Trump presidency could further erode democracy on a national level, citing the then-president's role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Trump's vice presidential pick, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, has said he does not think his running mate lost the 2020 election, echoing Trump's false claims that the prior presidential election was stolen from him.

Zephyr's sanction came weeks after Tennessee Republicans expelled Democratic Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson from the Legislature for chanting along with gun control supporters who packed the House gallery in response to a Nashville school shooting that killed six people, including three children. Jones and Pearson were later reinstated.

Oklahoma Republicans also censured a nonbinary Democratic colleague after state troopers said the lawmaker blocked them from questioning an activist accused of assaulting a police officer during a protest over legislation banning children from receiving gender-affirming care, such as puberty-blocking drugs and hormones.