House speaker vies with ski instructor for Senate District 5 seat

House Speaker Matt Regier, a Kalispell Republican, is looking to move to the state Senate after terming out of the House. His opponent, Democrat Link Neimark, is hoping to give voters another option for Senate District 5.

Regier, 45, who grew up in the Flathead Valley, is a business owner, longtime legislator and a member of a Northwest Montana conservative political dynasty. Regier’s sister and father — Sen. Keith Regier and Rep. Amy Regier — also represented districts in Northwest Montana in Helena during the most recent legislative session, serving as chairs of the judicial committees of their respective chambers.   

As speaker, Regier oversaw the disbursement of a $2.5 billion surplus and gained national attention for moving to bar transgender state Rep. Zooey Zephyr, D-Missoula, after she criticized Republicans for a bill that looked to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors.   

“After eight years, I'm probably even more frustrated than on year one,” Regier said. “There are legislators that their mindset, whether they admit it or not... is ‘How do we keep government whole?’ ... The people come second.” 

Regier’s campaign is one focused on individuals and families, he said, not big government. 

Neimark is a ski instructor and real estate investor in Whitefish. While he has never held public office, he previously ran in a 2017 race to fill a vacancy in Congress. He lost in the primary.  

Neimark worked as a biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, has been a math and gym teacher, a water sports instructor and vice president of Kramer Auto Parts.  

“What convinced me to run was my opponent ... was running unopposed. And from my perspective, [Regier] has a far-right-wing bent to his politics, and I think we need to move to the middle if we’re going to solve problems,” Neimark said. “I think we need to work across the aisle, I think these polarizing extreme views on either end of the spectrum do more harm than good.” 

While Neimark had no opponent in the primary, Regier beat out Kalispell businessman Marquis Laude, who spent nearly $69,000 on his campaign. Regier spent around $14,000.  

Turning to issues of property taxes and the affordability and availability of housing, Neimark wants the Legislature to refocus on the middle class.  

“The rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer. If we support our middle class, and by that, the working class, that’s the best way to try to get that middle class raised up,” Neimark said.  

Regier said that he is drafting legislation to redirect bed tax revenue into communities for property tax relief rather than to the state, which has another surplus going into the 2025 session. 

“The state is taking too much money to operate state government. We don’t need to be running surpluses, that’s not how government should work. We’re not a business, we’re a government,” Regier said.  

The two differ on several major points, including Medicaid expansion. Neimark advocates for reauthorizing it, arguing the federal dollars benefit rural communities. Regier opposes reauthorizing Medicaid expansion, a program he says has grown too expansive since the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Regier also noted an effort to remove the tax on Social Security benefits and criticized what he sees as partisanship in the state Supreme Court. He advocated for tax relief but didn’t offer policy specifics.  

Neimark reiterated several of his other priorities as well: protecting access to abortion — though he called abortion traumatic and expressed misgivings about it — preserving public lands and upholding the First Amendment.  

“For the past, really, decade there has been an incredible amount of divisiveness in Washington, D.C., and gamesmanship and the representatives stopped representing the people somewhere along the line,” Neimark said. “They're in it for themselves, they're in it for the corporations that back them, and they’re not doing the job they need to do. “They’re not using common sense to solve people’s problems.” 

Reporter Kate Heston can be reached at kheston@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4459.