Tim Garrison (Missoula City Council Ward 2, Montana, candidate 2025)

Tim Garrison

Do you have a photo that could go here? Click here to submit it for this profile!

---

Nonpartisan

Candidate, Missoula City Council Ward 2

Elections and appointments

Last election

September 9, 2025

Education

Bachelor's

University of Idaho, 2002

Military

Service / branch

U.S. Marine Corps

Years of service

1992 - 2020

Personal

Profession

Military officer

Contact

Campaign Facebook

Personal LinkedIn

Tim Garrison ran for election to the Missoula City Council Ward 2 in Montana. He was on the ballot in the primary on September 9, 2025.^[source]

Garrison completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Tim Garrison provided the following biographical information via Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey on August 11, 2025:

• High school: Troy High School, Troy MT
• Bachelor's: University of Idaho, 2002
• Military citation: Marine Corps University, 2012
• Military citation: Marine Corps Distance Education Progeam, 2015
• Military service: United States Marine Corps, 1992-2020
• Gender: Male
• Profession: Military Officer
• Prior offices held:
  • Northside Westside Neighborhood Committee Chair (2022-2023)
• Incumbent officeholder: No
• Campaign slogan: For the Children; an investment in tomorrow.

Elections

General election

General election for Missoula City Council Ward 2

Rebecca Dawson and Justin Ponton are running in the general election for Missoula City Council Ward 2 on November 4, 2025.

		Candidate
	Submit photo	Rebecca Dawson (Nonpartisan)
	Submit photo	Justin Ponton (Nonpartisan)

---

	Incumbency information for this election was not available.
= 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.

Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Missoula City Council Ward 2

Hayden Cook, Rebecca Dawson, Tim Garrison, Justin Ponton, and Michele Whitmire ran in the primary for Missoula City Council Ward 2 on September 9, 2025.

		Candidate
		Hayden Cook (Nonpartisan)
	Submit photo	Rebecca Dawson (Nonpartisan)
	Submit photo	Tim Garrison (Nonpartisan)
	Submit photo	Justin Ponton (Nonpartisan)
	Submit photo	Michele Whitmire (Nonpartisan)

---

	Incumbency information for this election was not available.
= 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.

Endorsements

Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.

Campaign themes

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Tim Garrison completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Garrison's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I’m a fifth generation Montanan, investing in tomorrow by investing in the youth today. I’m an active volunteer in the community giving back and investing time into established youth and veteran programs. I am willing to work with county, state, and federal governments to ensure we have nonpartisan and bipartisan support for our shared constituents. As a team, we will succeed.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Support local community members through a nonpartisan and bipartisan relationship with county, state, and federal governments, ensuring we are maximizing the resources and funding available to our community.
• Affordable housing: Our problems are not unique, and many of our issues have real solutions available. By doing a little research and applying existing processes we can make progress for a better tomorrow. Through maximizing under utilized city property, we can maximize infill while minimizing cost to developers and tax payers. This is a common practice that is underutilized in Missoula.
• Available housing: Through developing of our city outskirts and annexation of additional land we can continue to grow as a city. New land is new tax base and will fund its continued expanded infrastructure. The city cannot grow on infill alone. The city cannot grow on low cost affordable housing alone.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Lowering costs, fees, and wait times for contractors waiting to start building. We need affordable and available housing now. Our processes should reflect our needs. No short cuts, just improved processes!

What qualities does this office possess that makes it a unique and important part of the state government and legal system?

City Council ties directly to the county, state, and federal governments as we represent the same constituents with the same needs. Through maximizing our interagency communications we can better work as a team to bring a nonpartisan and bipartisan solution to problems that are supported at all levels of government.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

Mike Mansfield was a Marine and later a great politician in Montana. As a Marine myself, I have always looked up to his leadership style.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Education and experience that lead to a working understanding of the needs of the city. Missoula deserves better than a part time employee using their position of authority to make personally beneficial decisions that do not lead to solutions for real issues in the city.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

I am a fifth generation Montanan. My children and grandchildren live in Missoula. I have an investment in the future of this city. I have traveled and had opportunities to work with a wide range of infrastructure development throughout the world. I have knowledge of existing solutions to problems that are not necessarily unique to Missoula.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

Bias for action. We must make educated and timely decisions that directly affect our needs for affordable and available housing.

What legacy would you like to leave?

I envision a city that has surplus housing, affordable housing, and habitual working relations with county, state, and federal government officials to best support the constituents.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

Elvis died when I was four years old, giving me an understanding that sometimes people leave and don’t return. It was not necessarily the point that Elvis died, but a general understanding of death.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

I worked for several years as a teen in Troy Montana, for Dennis Welch. I planted fruit trees, trimmed Christmas trees on a tree farm, and other common landscaping services.

What is your favorite book? Why?

Just and Unjust Wars because it speaks to a countries responsibility to assist when someone has broken the peace of nations. We are a global community and we cannot in good conscience, watch as atrocities play out.

If you could be any fictional character, who would you want to be?

Captain America because he values integrity even in the face of challenging authority.

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

Buffalo by Jenner Foxx band.

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

I struggle when I see my children without a stable guaranteed place to live next year, challenged to pay their rent and not knowing what another rent increase will bring. I lived this life as a teen and want better for Missoula.

What kind of skills or expertise do you believe would be the most helpful for the holders of this office to possess?

There is no better experience than that of being engaged in your community. Through engagement in city neighborhood committees, nonprofit organizations, and volunteer service most already have a strong understanding of the community’s needs. Having an understanding of how our issues exist in many cities and spending time to research and communicate with other governments, we can apply many existing processes to our community.

Tell us your favorite joke.

A Democrat and a Republican walked into a coffee shop; and they talked and drank a cup of coffee because that’s what normal people do.

What are your views on financial transparency and government accountability?

We must commit our budget to its intended purpose. We have a list of needs that drive our taxes and we must commit to a purpose that spends the taxpayers dollars on that budget. We cannot continue to fund multimillion dollar projects without public vote.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

See also

2025 Elections

What's on the ballot? U.S. Congress special elections State executives State legislatures State courts Ballot measures Municipal government School boards Election analysis hub

Government

Who represents me? U.S. Congress State executives State legislators State courts Ballot measures Municipal government School boards

Newsletters

The Daily Brew The Weekly Brew The Ballot Bulletin Checks and Balances Economy and Society Hall Pass Number of the Day Robe & Gavel Union Station

External links

Search Google News for this topic

Candidate

Missoula City Council Ward 2

Facebook

Personal

LinkedIn