By Keila Szpaller | Deputy Editor
“They can say I’m not a Republican, but they don’t own that. They don’t own who they get to call a conservative.” – Rep. Lyn Bennett, on the state GOP’s approach to the Republican primary, which she lost and described as “sinister” and “mean-spirited.”
Sen. Barry Usher, a Republican who lost his primary in June 2026. (Nathaniel Bailey for the Daily Montanan)
Some incumbents won’t be back to the Montana Legislature after primary losses this week, including fixtures such as Republican Sen. Barry Usher. Here’s a look at the wins and losses.
Some held onto their seats by a hair — or by a lot — despite a push from the Montana Republican Party to oust some longtime lawmakers it considers not conservative enough.
It’s an approach some Republicans said is divisive and needs to change, but state GOP Chairman Art Wittich said he’s holding strong, and maybe even doubling down.
Montana sees unofficial primary turnout drop from 2022
by Micah Drew
More than 37.6% of Montana’s registered voters participated in Tuesday’s primary election, down from 39.4% in the 2022 primaries, according to the Montana Secretary of State’s office. Unofficial results show that 297,884 Montanans cast ballots during the 2026 primary, just up from the 293,049 votes cast in 2022. But the drop in voter turnout comes […]
MORE FROM MONTANA
A Pondera County man has been sentenced after poaching a trophy white-tailed deer buck last year.
Tony Zimbelman, 23, initially claimed that he’d taken the deer with archery equipment during archery season, a press release from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks said. Following a tip, game wardens discovered Zimbelman had shot the buck with a rifle the day before archery season opened in September.
COMMENTARY
Columnist George Ochenski argues there are far greater needs for the parks and recreation fees than ballrooms, fountains and statues in front of the White House, and the money should improve much-loved national assets, not get funneled to Trump’s endless vanity projects.
FROM OUR D.C. BUREAU (AND PARTNERS)
The federal government will spend $700 million on building or refurbishing coal power infrastructure across the country in a boost to “clean, beautiful coal,” President Donald Trump said.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox is among a wave of Republican governors across the country who have declared June something other than Pride Month, stepping away from what was a common recognition nationally since 1999.
U.S. Senate Republicans fended off an attempt Thursday to block the Department of Justice from using an “anti-weaponization” fund to pay people who feel they were wrongly prosecuted, as well as another proposal that sought to require congressional authorization for a new White House ballroom.
Trump will nominate acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, his former personal lawyer, to fill the top role at the Department of Justice on a permanent basis, he said.
THE HOOK
Friday! Whew.
Today's Hook comes to you from reader and listener Angie Moretti of Missoula.
Moretti offers up this version of "Africa," with a recommendation to take note of one of the 17,000+ listener comments in particular.
"Imagine being an unassuming pizza consumer ... at a random joint in BF Utah somewhere, and witnessing the greatest g*****n cover in the history of music."
It’s a song by Toto, been popular since it came out in the 1980s, and the original video hit its one billionth view on YouTube in 2024, according to Billboard.
Rolling Stone said this in 2018:
“It’s a song that’s ridiculous by definition — an Eighties ode to Africa by a bunch of L.A. rock dudes who’d never set foot in the place.”
Here’s a newspaper about Africa.
Thank you, Moretti.
If you have a song that you’d like to share, or would like to get in touch with us, please send us a note at [email protected]
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