Two seats are up for election on the Montana Supreme Court, although the sparse results available by 10 p.m. suggested both races were still too close to call.
Cory Swanson, Broadwater County Attorney since 2014, maintained an early lead in the contest for chief justice of the Montana Supreme Court over retired federal magistrate Jeremiah Lynch. The winner will succeed Mike McGrath to be the first new jurist to lead to the judicial branch in 15 years. Cory Swanson, candidate for the Montana Supreme Court chief justice, introduces himself during a forum at the Wilma in Missoula on Sept.
12. Without an incumbent in either race, heated exchanges and outside spending became a regular feature of these nonpartisan contests. Katherine Bidegaray, a longtime District Court judge from northeast Montana, and Flathead County District Court Judge Dan Wilson, remained in a tight matchup in the race to replace Justice Dirk Sandefur.
Outside spending continued to pour into these races in the final months of the campaigns, almost always bundling candidates as if they emerged from the same party. The Republican State Leadership Committee announced an eleventh-hour, $300,000 digital ad campaign supporting Swanson and Wilson. Planned Parenthood’s super PAC, meanwhile, spent $2.
2 million in October on ads opposing Swanson and Wilson, while outdoor conservation groups painted Bidegaray and Lynch as champions of public access. Each candidate is required by the Judicial Code of Conduct to campaign.