Montana Republican Party censures nine Republican state senators who formed a coalition with Senate Democrats

By

Ballotpedia staff

Welcome to the Tuesday, April 22, Brew. 

By: Briana Ryan

Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:

  1. Montana Republican Party censures nine Republican state senators who formed a coalition with Senate Democrats
  2. Texas voters in nine of the state’s largest cities to decide 42 local ballot measures on May 3
  3. A roundup of recent election administration legislative activity

Montana Republican Party censures nine Republican state senators who formed a coalition with Senate Democrats

On April 4, the Montana Republican Party censured nine Republican members of the Montana Senate. The party wrote in a statement that the censure was due to the senators “undermining the Republican majority leadership and giving control of the Senate floor to Democrats without any warning to Republican leadership during the two months prior to January 6, 2025.”

The nine censured senators are Jason Ellsworth, Bruce Gillespie, Gregg Hunter, Joshua Kassmier, Gayle Lammers, Denley Loge, Wendy McKamey, Russel Tempel, and Shelley Vance. The censure means that the party no longer recognizes the senators as Republicans and will no longer provide them with funds for political campaigns.

Montana is a Republican trifecta, meaning that Republicans control the governorship and both legislative chambers. Following the 2024 general elections, Republicans have a 32-18 majority in the Senate and a 58-42 majority in the House of Representatives.

The Daily Montanan’s Keila Szpaller wrote that the censured Republicans “joined Democrats this year in the Montana Senate to form a coalition that has become the working majority in the upper chamber… Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade, and members of ‘The Nine’ insist there is no handshake deal. Rather, they have an alliance… It’s about shared angst and shared interests, about fairness, about being part of the conversation, about giving Gov. Greg Gianforte’s agenda a fair shake, and about resisting a plan for Montana that some members of the group see as extreme.”

The party wrote in a statement that while it “recognizes that the votes taken by the Nine Senators are not about policy issues, but rather solely pertaining to ethics, procedure and process which governs the way the Senate operates, and that this is an unprecedented alliance with the Democrat Party by the Nine Senators.” Among the votes that the party cited in their statement was one that they wrote was “to defeat the Republican leadership’s efforts to pass the proposed amended Senate Rules, despite significant efforts by Republican leadership to work with the Nine Senators.”

Eight of the nine senators responded to the censure, writing, “We were elected to serve you, not to follow orders from political insiders. We’ve been working every day to tackle the issues that matter to Montana families, small businesses, and communities across the state. But instead of focusing on passing meaningful legislation, party leadership is focused on punishing members who are actually getting things done.”

This coalition within the Montana Senate isn’t the first time legislators have formed a coalition within a legislative chamber. A recent example of a governing coalition within a legislative chamber happened in Alaska. Following the 2024 general elections, a predominantly Democratic, 21-member coalition—14 Democrats, five independents, and two Republicans—assumed control of the Alaska House of Representatives, with Charles Kopp (R) as the coalition majority leader.

There have also been recent examples in other states of parties censuring a party member in the legislature. This past February, in Texas, the Dallas County Republican Party censured state Reps. Morgan Meyer (R) and Angie Chen Butler(R). This past March in Texas, the Montgomery County Republican Party censured state Reps. Cecil Bell Jr. (R) and Will Metcalf (R).

Now, let’s shift gears and look at another type of censure.

Between 1838 and 2025, we have identified 33 cases in which full state legislative chambers, not parties, have censured legislators. These officials include 12 Democrats, 14 Republicans, and seven members of other parties.

The most recent example of this type of censure happened on April 1 when the Montana Senate voted 44-6 to ban Ellsworth from the Senate floor for life following an ethics investigation into whether Ellsworth gave an acquaintance a government contract. Ellsworth can vote remotely but is banned from being on committees and cannot contact the legislative or executive branches on legislative matters.

Click here for more information on the Montana Republican Party’s censure of nine state senators.

Texas voters in nine of the state’s largest cities to decide 42 local ballot measures on May 3

Every year, we cover local ballot measures in the top 100 largest cities by population in the U.S., including 13 cities in Texas. On May 3, voters in 9 of those thirteen cities will decide on 42 local measures.

This year’s measures include:

This amount is the second-largest number of local measures on a May ballot in Texas’ 13 largest cities since 2019. The May ballot with the greatest number of local measures happened in 2023.

Thirty-four (81%) of the local measures on the ballot are bond measures. A bond measure is when a city, county, or school district asks voters to approve or deny additional proposed spending. The largest bond measure is in the Alamo Community College District, with $987 million in general obligation bonds proposed to construct and renovate college facilities.

Other local measures on the ballot include seven charter amendments and one sales tax measure.

Click here for a closer look at the local ballot measures on the May 3 ballot.

A roundup of recent election administration legislative activity

As legislative sessions continue across the country, we’re following the latest nationwide trends and legislative activity related to election policy.

Let’s start with some key takeaways from last week’s legislative actions:

  • We are currently following 4,324 bills. We were following 2,406 bills at this time in 2023.
  • Legislators in 38 states acted on 509 bills over the last week. During the same week, legislators acted on 253 bills in 2024, 182 in 2023, and 107 bills in 2022. 
  • Nineteen bills were enacted last week. Fourteen bills were enacted during the same week in 2024, 26 bills were enacted in 2023, and 16 bills were enacted in 2022.

Now, let’s check out some other noteworthy election-related developments:

  • On April 16, the Arkansas Senate passed HB1878, a bill requiring county board of election commissioners to provide at least one early voting location in any city with a population of more than 15,000 people. The bill now goes to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) for consideration.
  • On April 14, the North Dakota Senate passed HB1307, a bill codifying the supremacy of state election law over local election laws. Under current state law, cities or counties that have adopted a home rule charter can enact and enforce election laws that differ from state law.
  • On April 14, the League of Women Voters of North Carolina filed a lawsuit in U.S. district court to prevent the North Carolina State Board of Elections from invalidating certain voters’ ballots as part of ongoing litigation regarding a 2024 North Carolina Supreme Court election. The lawsuit “seeks to avert an unprecedented effort to change the results of a statewide election by discarding up to 5,509 votes from military and overseas voters five months after their votes were cast, confirmed, and counted.”
  • On April 13, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) signed SF75, a bill requiring officials in Johnson, Story, and Black Hawk counties to be elected from individual districts rather than at large. Candidates must live in the district where they are running for election and can only be elected by voters also residing there.

Fifty-four bills passed both chambers of any legislature, and governors vetoed no bills. Click here to see all bills awaiting gubernatorial action and their full summaries. To see all vetoed bills, click here.

A version of this story appeared in our April 18 Ballot Bulletin—our weekly email that follows developments in election policy around the country. Click here to sign up.

You can also click here to see a full list of the bills we’re following in 2025.