A Democratic Party primary took place on June 7, 2022, in Montana's 2nd Congressional District to determine which Democratic candidate would run in the district's general election on November 8, 2022.

Penny Ronning advanced from the Democratic primary for U.S. House Montana District 2.

Candidate filing deadline	Primary election	General election
March 14, 2022	June 7, 2022	November 8, 2022

A primary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party's candidate for elected office to run in the general election. They are also used to choose convention delegates and party leaders. Primaries are state-level and local-level elections that take place prior to a general election. Montana utilizes an open primary system, in which registered voters do not have to be members of a party to vote in that party's primary.^[1]^[2]

For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, see this article.

This district was one of seven new U.S. House districts created as a result of apportionment after the 2020 census. Click here to read more.

This page focuses on Montana's 2nd Congressional District Democratic primary. For more in-depth information on the district's Republican primary and the general election, see the following pages:

Candidates and election results

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Montana District 2

Penny Ronning defeated Mark Sweeney (Unofficially withdrew) and Skylar Williams in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Montana District 2 on June 7, 2022.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Penny Ronning	58.5	21,983
	Mark Sweeney (Unofficially withdrew)	22.8	8,586
	Skylar Williams	18.7	7,029

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 37,598
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Laurie Bishop (D)
Jack Ballard (D)

Campaign finance

This section contains campaign finance figures from the Federal Election Commission covering all candidate fundraising and spending in this election.^[3] It does not include information on fundraising before the current campaign cycle or on spending by satellite groups. The numbers in this section are updated as candidates file new campaign finance reports. Candidates for Congress are required to file financial reports on a quarterly basis, as well as two weeks before any primary, runoff, or general election in which they will be on the ballot and upon the termination of any campaign committees.^[4] Click here to view the reporting schedule for candidates for U.S. Congress in 2022.

U.S. Congress campaign reporting schedule, 2022
Report	Close of books	Filing deadline
Year-end 2021	12/31/2021	1/31/2022
April quarterly	3/31/2022	4/15/2022
July quarterly	6/30/2022	7/15/2022
October quarterly	9/30/2022	10/15/2022
Pre-general	10/19/2022	10/27/2022
Post-general	11/28/2022	12/08/2022
Year-end 2022	12/31/2022	1/31/2023

Name	Party	Receipts*	Disbursements**	Cash on hand	Date
Penny Ronning	Democratic Party	$175,793	$175,464	$329	As of December 31, 2022
Mark Sweeney	Democratic Party	$123,323	$119,523	$0	As of December 31, 2022
Skylar Williams	Democratic Party	$4,729	$4,729	$0	As of July 8, 2022
Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2022. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). * According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee." ** According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election.

Ballot access requirements

The table below details filing requirements for U.S. House candidates in Montana in the 2022 election cycle. For additional information on candidate ballot access requirements in Montana, click here.

Filing requirements for U.S. House candidates, 2022
State	Office	Party	Signatures required	Filing fee	Filing deadline	Source
Montana	U.S. House	Ballot-qualified party	N/A	$1,740.00	3/14/2022	Source
Montana	U.S. House	Unaffiliated	5% of total votes cast for the last successful candidate	$1,740.00	6/6/2022	Source

District analysis

Click the tabs below to view information about voter composition, past elections, and demographics in both the district and the state.

District map - A map of the district before and after redistricting.
Effect of redistricting - How districts in the state changed as a result of redistricting following the 2020 census.
Competitiveness - Information about the competitiveness of 2022 U.S. House elections in the state.
Presidential elections - Information about presidential elections in the district and the state.
Demographics - Information about the state's demographics and how they compare to the country as a whole.
State party control - The partisan makeup of the state's congressional delegation and state government.

District map

	2024 → ← 2020
Montana's 2nd Congressional District
	Democratic primary; Republican primary; General election
Election details
	Filing deadline: March 14, 2022
	Primary: June 7, 2022; General: November 8, 2022
How to vote
	Poll times: 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Voting in Montana
Race ratings
	Cook Partisan Voter Index (2022): R+16; Cook Political Report: Solid Republican; Inside Elections: Solid Republican; Sabato's Crystal Ball: Safe Republican
Ballotpedia analysis
	U.S. Senate battlegrounds; U.S. House battlegrounds; Federal and state primary competitiveness; Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2022
See also
	Montana's 2nd Congressional District; 1st • 2nd; Montana elections, 2022; U.S. Congress elections, 2022; U.S. Senate elections, 2022; U.S. House elections, 2022; Alabama U.S. House racesAlaska U.S. House racesArizona U.S. House racesArkansas U.S. House racesCalifornia U.S. House racesColorado U.S. House racesConnecticut U.S. House racesDelaware U.S. House racesFlorida U.S. House racesGeorgia U.S. House racesHawaii U.S. House racesIdaho U.S. House racesIllinois U.S. House racesIndiana U.S. House racesIowa U.S. House racesKansas U.S. House racesKentucky U.S. House racesLouisiana U.S. House racesMaine U.S. House racesMaryland U.S. House racesMassachusetts U.S. House racesMichigan U.S. House racesMinnesota U.S. House racesMississippi U.S. House racesMissouri U.S. House racesMontana U.S. House racesNebraska U.S. House racesNevada U.S. House racesNew Hampshire U.S. House racesNew Jersey U.S. House racesNew Mexico U.S. House racesNew York U.S. House racesNorth Carolina U.S. House racesNorth Dakota U.S. House racesOhio U.S. House racesOklahoma U.S. House racesOregon U.S. House racesPennsylvania U.S. House racesRhode Island U.S. House racesSouth Carolina U.S. House racesSouth Dakota U.S. House racesTennessee U.S. House racesTexas U.S. House racesUtah U.S. House racesVermont U.S. House racesVirginia U.S. House racesWashington U.S. House racesWest Virginia U.S. House racesWisconsin U.S. House racesWyoming U.S. House racesSubmit

Below was the map in use at the time of the election, enacted as part of the 2020 redistricting cycle, compared to the map in place before the election.

Montana District 2
starting January 3, 2023

Click a district to compare boundaries.

Effect of redistricting

See also: Redistricting in Montana after the 2020 census

The table below details the results of the 2020 presidential election in each district at the time of the 2022 election and its political predecessor district.^[5] This data was compiled by Daily Kos Elections.^[6]

2020 presidential results by Congressional district, Montana
District	2022 district		Political predecessor district
District	Joe Biden	Donald Trump	Joe Biden	Donald Trump
Montana's 1st	45.3%	52.2%	---	---
Montana's 2nd	35.3%	62.2%	40.6%	56.9%

Competitiveness

See also: Primary election competitiveness in state and federal government, 2022

This section contains data on U.S. House primary election competitiveness in Montana.

Post-filing deadline analysis

The following analysis covers all U.S. House districts up for election in Montana in 2022. Information below was calculated on April 11, 2022, and may differ from information shown in the table above due to candidate replacements and withdrawals after that time.

In 2022, 20 candidates filed to run for Montana's two U.S. House districts, including nine Republicans, six Democrats, four Libertarians, and one independent. That's an average of 10 candidates per district.

This was the first filing deadline under Montana's new district lines adopted during the state's decennial redistricting process. Due to population growth, Montana gained a second congressional district ahead of the 2022 elections.

Incumbent Rep. Matt Rosendale (R), previously the state's at-large representative, filed to run in the 2nd Congressional District. He drew three Republican primary challengers. Overall, the 2nd District drew the largest candidate field at 11, including four Republicans, three Democrats, three Libertarians, and one Independent.

With Rosendale running in the 2nd District, this left the 1st District race open, marking the second election cycle in a row with one open U.S. House district in Montana. In 2020, Greg Gianforte (R) did not seek re-election to the U.S. House, choosing instead to run for governor, which he won.

Presidential elections

Partisan Voter Index

See also: The Cook Political Report's Partisan Voter Index

Heading into the 2022 elections, based on results from the 2020 and 2016 presidential elections, the Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district was R+16. This meant that in those two presidential elections, this district's results were 16 percentage points more Republican than the national average. This made Montana's 2nd the 74th most Republican district nationally.^[7]

2020 presidential election results

The table below shows what the vote in the 2020 presidential election would have been in this district. The presidential election data was compiled by Daily Kos.

2020 presidential results in Montana's 2nd based on 2022 district lines
Joe Biden	Donald Trump
35.3%	62.2%

Presidential voting history

See also: Presidential election in Montana, 2020

Montana presidential election results (1900-2020)

10 Democratic wins
21 Republican wins

Year	1900	1904	1908	1912	1916	1920	1924	1928	1932	1936	1940	1944	1948	1952	1956	1960	1964	1968	1972	1976	1980	1984	1988	1992	1996	2000	2004	2008	2012	2016	2020
Winning Party	D	R	R	D	D	R	R	R	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	R	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R

Demographics

The table below details demographic data in Montana and compares it to the broader United States as of 2019.

Demographic Data for Montana
	Montana	United States
Population	1,084,225	331,449,281
Land area (sq mi)	145,549	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White	87.8%	70.4%
Black/African American	0.6%	12.6%
Asian	0.8%	5.6%
Native American	6.2%	0.8%
Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.2%
Other (single race)	0.8%	5.1%
Multiple	3.8%	5.2%
Hispanic/Latino	3.9%	18.2%
Education
High school graduation rate	94%	88.5%
College graduation rate	33.1%	32.9%
Income
Median household income	$56,539	$64,994
Persons below poverty level	12.8%	12.8%
Source: population provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "Decennial Census" (2020). Other figures provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2015-2020).
**Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

State party control

Congressional delegation

The table below displays the partisan composition of Montana's congressional delegation as of November 2022.

Congressional Partisan Breakdown from Montana, November 2022
Party	U.S. Senate	U.S. House	Total
Democratic	1	0	1
Republican	1	1	2
Independent	0	0	0
Vacancies	0	0	0
Total	2	1	3

State executive

The table below displays the officeholders in Montana's top four state executive offices as of November 2022.

State executive officials in Montana, November 2022
Office	Officeholder
Governor	Greg Gianforte
Lieutenant Governor	Kristen Juras
Secretary of State	Christi Jacobsen
Attorney General	Austin Knudsen

State legislature

The tables below highlight the partisan composition of the Montana State Legislature as of November 2022.

Montana State Senate

Party		As of November 2022
	Democratic Party	19
	Republican Party	31
	Vacancies	0
Total		50

Montana House of Representatives

Party		As of November 2022
	Democratic Party	33
	Republican Party	67
	Vacancies	0
Total		100

Trifecta control

As of November 2022, Montana was a Republican trifecta, with majorities in both chambers of the state legislature and control of the governorship. The table below displays the historical trifecta status of the state.

Montana Party Control: 1992-2022
No Democratic trifectas • Twelve 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
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
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
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

External links

Suggest a link

Search Google News for this topic

Footnotes

↑ National Conference of State Legislatures, "State Primary Election Types," accessed April 19, 2023
↑ Christi Jacobsen Montana Secretary of State,"Frequently Asked Questions," accessed April 19, 2023
↑ Fundraising by primary candidates can be found on the race's respective primary election page. Fundraising by general election candidates can be found on the race's general election page.
↑ Federal Election Commission, "2022 Quarterly Reports," accessed March 2, 2022
↑ Political predecessor districts are determined primarily based on incumbents and where each chose to seek re-election.
↑ Daily Kos Elections, "Daily Kos Elections 2020 presidential results by congressional district (old CDs vs. new CDs)," accessed May 12, 2022
↑ Cook Political Report, "The 2022 Cook Partisan Voting Index (Cook PVI℠)," accessed February 6, 2023

[show]

Montana's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Steve Daines (R)

Tim Sheehy (R)

Representatives

District 1

Ryan Zinke (R)

District 2

Troy Downing (R)

Republican Party (4)

[1] National Conference of State Legislatures, "State Primary Election Types," accessed April 19, 2023

[2] Christi Jacobsen Montana Secretary of State,"Frequently Asked Questions," accessed April 19, 2023

[3] Fundraising by primary candidates can be found on the race's respective primary election page. Fundraising by general election candidates can be found on the race's general election page.

[4] Federal Election Commission, "2022 Quarterly Reports," accessed March 2, 2022

[5] Political predecessor districts are determined primarily based on incumbents and where each chose to seek re-election.

[6] Daily Kos Elections, "Daily Kos Elections 2020 presidential results by congressional district (old CDs vs. new CDs)," accessed May 12, 2022

[7] Cook Political Report, "The 2022 Cook Partisan Voting Index (Cook PVI℠)," accessed February 6, 2023

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

Montana's 2nd Congressional District election, 2022 (June 7 Democratic primary)

Contents