2025 Montana legislative session

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2025 Montana legislative session
Seal of Montana.jpg
General information
Scheduled session start:    January 6, 2025

Scheduled session end:    April 30, 2025

Leadership
Senate President
Matt Regier (R)

House Speaker
Brandon Ler (R)
Majority Leader
Senate: Tom McGillvray (R)
House: Steve Fitzpatrick (R)
Minority Leader
Senate: Pat Flowers (D)
House: Katie Sullivan (D)

Elections
Next Election:    November 3, 2026

Last Election:    November 5, 2024

Previous legislative sessions
2024 • 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018
Other 2025 legislative sessions


In 2025, the Montana State Legislature was scheduled to convene on January 6 and adjourn on April 30.

The legislators serving in this session took office following the 2024 elections. Republicans won a 32-18 majority in the Senate and a 59-41 majority in the House. The party also controlled the governorship, creating a Republican state government trifecta. At the start of the 2025 session, Montana was one of 23 state legislatures where neither party had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers.

At the beginning of the 2025 legislative session:
  • Republicans held a majority in the Montana state House and state Senate.
  • Montana was one of 23 Republican state government trifectas.
  • Montana's governor was Republican Greg Gianforte.

    • Leadership in 2025

    See also: Leadership positions in state legislatures

    Montana State Senate

    Montana House of Representatives

    Partisan control in 2025

    See also: State government trifectas

    Montana was one of 23 Republican state government trifectas at the start of 2025 legislative sessions. A state government trifecta occurs when one political party holds the governor's office, a majority in the state Senate, and a majority in the state House. For more information about state government trifectas, click here.

    Montana was also one of 23 state legislatures where neither party had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers. Veto overrides occur when a legislature votes to reverse a veto issued by an executive such as a governor or the president. If one party has a majority in a state legislature that is large enough to override a gubernatorial veto without any votes from members of the minority party, it is called a veto-proof majority or, sometimes, a supermajority. To read more about veto-proof supermajorities in state legislatures, click here.

    The following tables show the partisan breakdown of the Montana State Legislature in the 2025 legislative session.

    Montana State Senate

    Party As of January 2025
         Democratic Party 18
         Republican Party 32
    Total 50

    Montana House of Representatives

    Party As of January 2025
         Democratic Party 41
         Republican Party 59
    Total 100

    Regular session

    The list below shows up to 25 pieces of legislation in the 2025 legislative session that most recently passed both chambers of the legislature, were signed by the governor, or were approved by the legislature in a veto override. If no bills are displayed below, no legislation has met these criteria yet in 2025. This information is provided by BillTrack50.

    Legislation trackers

    See also: Legislation Trackers

    Ballotpedia’s legislation trackers are your go-to resource for staying on top of key legislative topics. We capture any bill introduced on the topic across all of the 50 state legislatures, and we track the movement of the bill every step of the way. We provide real-time updates and translate legislative legalese into easily understandable language. As of the 2025 session, Ballotpedia provided tracking on the following topics. Click on the links below to view related bills from the 2025 session:

    Standing legislative committees

    See also: Standing committee and List of committees in Montana state government


    A standing committee of a state legislature is a committee that exists on a more-or-less permanent basis, from legislative session to session, that considers and refines legislative bills that fall under the committee's subject matter.

    At the beginning of the 2025 legislative session, there were 33 standing committees in Montana's state government, including 17 state Senate committees and 16 state House committees.

    Senate committees

    House committees

    Legislatively referred constitutional amendments

    In every state but Delaware, voter approval is required to enact a constitutional amendment. In each state, the legislature has a process for referring constitutional amendments before voters. In 18 states, initiated constitutional amendments can be put on the ballot through a signature petition drive. There are also many other types of statewide measures.

    The methods by which the Montana Constitution can be amended:

    See also: Article XIV, Montana Constitution and Laws governing the initiative process in Montana
    Montana Constitution
    Flag of Montana.png
    Preamble
    Articles
    I • II • III • IV • V • VI • VII • VIII • IX • X • XI • XII • XIII • XIV • Schedule

    The Montana Constitution provides three mechanisms for amending the state's constitution—a citizen-initiated process, a legislative process, and a state constitutional convention. Montana requires a simple majority vote (50% plus 1) for voters to approve constitutional amendments.

    Initiative

    See also: Initiated constitutional amendment

    An initiated constitutional amendment is a citizen-initiated ballot measure that amends a state's constitution. Eighteen (18) states allow citizens to initiate constitutional amendments.

    In Montana, the number of signatures required for an initiated constitutional amendment is equal to 10% of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election. Montana also has a distribution requirement that requires proponents to collect signatures equal to 10% of the qualified electors in each of two-fifths (40) of the state's 100 legislative districts. A simple majority vote is required for voter approval.

    Legislature

    See also: Legislatively referred constitutional amendment

    A two-thirds (66.67%) vote is required of all members of the legislature during one legislative session for the Montana State Legislature to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. Since Montana has 150 legislators (100 Representatives and 50 Senators), at least 100 members must vote in favor of a constitutional amendment for it to pass. Amendments do not require the governor's signature to be referred to the ballot.

    Convention

    See also: Convention-referred constitutional amendment

    According to Section 3, Article XIV of the Montana Constitution, a question about whether to hold a state constitutional convention is to automatically appear on the state's ballot every 20 years, if it has not otherwise appeared on the ballot in the last 20 years. Montana is one of 14 states that provides for an automatic constitutional convention question.

    The table below shows the last and next constitutional convention question election years:

    State Interval Last question on the ballot Next question on the ballot
    Montana 20 years 2010 2030


    The Montana State Legislature is also authorized to submit a constitutional convention question to voters via a two-thirds (66.67%) vote of both chambers. Citizens may also initiate a constitutional convention question. The number of signatures required to place the question on the ballot is equal to 10% of the qualified electors of the state, including at least 10 percent of the qualified electors in each of two-fifths of the legislative districts. Any amendments proposed by a convention must be ratified by the voters.


    Historical partisan control

    The table below depicts the historical trifecta status of Montana.

    Montana Party Control: 1992-2025
    No Democratic trifectas  •  Fifteen years of Republican trifectas
    Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.

    Year 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
    Governor R R R R R R R R R R R R R D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D R R R R R
    Senate D D D R R R R R R R R R R D D D D R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R
    House D R R R R R R R R R R R R S S R R S S R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R

    Historical Senate control

    Republicans won control of the Montana State Senate in 2008. In 2024, they won a 32-18 majority.

    The table below shows the partisan history of the Montana Senate following every general election from 1992 to 2024. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.

    Montana State Senate election results: 1992-2024

    Year '92 '94 '96 '98 '00 '02 '04 '06 '08 '10 '12 '14 '16 '18 '20 '22 '24
    Democrats 30 19 16 18 19 21 27 26 23 22 23 21 18 20 19 16 18
    Republicans 20 31 34 32 31 29 23 24 27 28 27 29 32 30 31 34 32

    Historical House control

    Republicans won control of the Montana House of Representatives in 2010. In 2024, they won a 58-42 majority.

    The table below shows the partisan history of the Montana House following every general election from 1992 to 2024. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.

    Montana House of Representatives election results: 1992-2024

    Year '92 '94 '96 '98 '00 '02 '04 '06 '08 '10 '12 '14 '16 '18 '20 '22 '24
    Democrats 47 33 35 41 42 47 50 49 50 32 37 41 41 42 33 32 42
    Republicans 53 67 65 59 58 53 50 50 50 68 63 59 59 58 67 68 58
    Other 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

    Analysis

    Adopted legislation, 2011-2024

    See also: The State Legislative Decade - Montana

    In 2024, Ballotpedia released analysis of bills enacted in each state in the preceding decade. The charts and table below detail legislation passed each year by party sponsorship.

    Noteworthy events

    Senate votes to change committee rules

    When the Montana Legislature convened on January 6, a group of nine Republican lawmakers voted with Democrats 27-23 to amend proposed committee rules for the Senate. The proposed rules included the elimination of the executive branch review committee.[1]

    Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers (D, who asked senators to eliminate the committee, said it was not necessary and that it would prevent Democratic members from being on other committees. Former Senate President Jason Ellsworth (R), one of the Republicans who also voted for the committee's removal, said that the committee would not have enough work and that legislators' time would be better spent on other committees: "The experience that we would be lacking in the other committees would harm us as a body as a whole."[1] Sen. Wendy McKamey (R), who also voted to remove the committee, called it, “a parking place for people, to kind of keep them out of the way.”[2]

    Sen. Greg Hertz (R), who voted to keep the committee, said it was too early to disband it and said that if it was ultimately not needed, it could be re-evaluated later on.[1] Sen. Becky Beard (R) said the debate over the rules was a waste of time and asked Republican lawmakers to support the committee: "We have frittered away now four days dealing with this when we should be serving the state of Montana and our voters."[3] Republican Senate leadership, including Senate President Matt Regier (R) and Senate Majority Leader Tom McGillvray (R), asked senators to vote to keep the committee and said that voting to remove it would undo months of work.[1]

    According to The Daily Montanan, the conflict delayed Senate work for the first four days of the session.[3] Afterward, lawmakers disagreed on the effect of the delays. Regier said, “It was a reshuffling of the deck, which, to me, was very … dismissive of the caucus and everything we did in November and the two months prior."[3] Sen. Janet Ellis (D) said she wouldn't call the delays disruptive because the changes happened early enough in the session and said she instead was happy to have extra time to prepare bills.[3]

    Montana Republican Party censures nine state senators

    The Montana Republican Party announced on April 4, 2025, that it had censured the nine Republican state senators who voted with Democrats during the session and would no longer support or recognize them.[4]

    “

    Therefore, Be It Resolved that the Executive Committee of the MTGOP makes it be known that:

    1. The Nine Senators be censured for their collective, willful, and continual alignment with the Democrat Party throughout the 69th Legislative Session;
    2. The Nine Senators are no longer considered by the MTGOP as Republicans for the damage they have exacted on the Montana Senate by undermining the Republican Senate leadership, the Republican Party, and the will of the Montana Republican voters;
    3. The MTGOP Executive Board unanimously no longer supports the Nine Senators because they have disqualified themselves as speaking on behalf of Montana Republicans; and
    4. The Montana Republican Party will withhold any future political funding for the Nine Senators.[5][6]

    		”

    Legislative leaders reflect on the session

    The Associated Press' Matthew Brown and Hannah Schoenbaum wrote, "GOP legislative leaders went home frustrated at their failure to remodel the state’s judiciary, rein in spending or fix rising property taxes."[7]

    Senate President Matt Regier (R) said, "There’s always politics. You’re jockeying for control. But I think at the end of the day, what’s weird about it is that I think the conservative faction has been largely left out of conversations, left out of a seat at the table."[7] Regier also said, "There are many reasons for Senate Republicans to hold their heads high. And we will look forward to continuing our efforts in the interim, and also in the next session."[8]

    In a joint press conference with Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers (D), House Minority Leader Katie Sullivan (D) said, "This session, Montana Democrats stood firm in defending our fundamental freedoms under the Montana constitution and our Montana way of life. When Republicans spent dozens and dozens of hours pushing bills to legislate every aspect of our lives, Democrats fought back."[8]

    See also

    Elections Montana State Government State Legislatures State Politics
    Ballotpedia Elections Badge-VOTE-no shadow-Square.jpg
    Montana State Flag-Close Up.jpg
    State Houses-Tile image.png
    State Courts-Tile image.png

    External links

    Footnotes

    1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Daily Montanan, "Montana’s 69th Legislature ready to do business," January 6, 2025
    2. ↑ KTVH ,"Montana Senate Republican caucus still split, after rules vote," January 10, 2025
    3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Daily Montanan, "While the Senate stalls, other work gets done at the Capitol," January 9, 2025 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "dm2" defined multiple times with different content
    4. ↑ Daily Montanan, "Montana Republican Party censures nine GOP senators; no longer considers them Republicans," April 4, 2025
    5. ↑ Montana Republican Party, "Resolution of the Montana Republican Party (MTGOP) Rescinding Recognition of Nine Montana Senators as 'Republicans,'" accessed May 9, 2025
    6. ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
    7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Montana Free Press, "Montana Republicans dominated the 2024 election. Things got ‘weird’ as some sided with Democrats," May 6, 2025
    8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Daily Montanan, "Montana Legislature gavels out 69th session," April 30, 2025
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