KEY
A-F = Letter grade; "?" means no voting record OR MSSA
Candidate Questionnaire returned. Bold/E = Endorsed by MSSA
Candidate (Party) - Grade
U.S. Senate
Jon Tester (D) - F Tim Sheehy (R) - AQ Endorsed
U.S.
House of Representatives
District #1
Ryan Zinke (R) - B Endorsed Dennis Hayes (L) - ?
Monica Tranel (D) - ?
District #2
Troy Dowing (R) - A Endorsed
John Driscoll (D) - ?
Governor
Greg Gianforte (R) - A Endorsed Ryan Busse (D) - ?
Attorney General
Austin Knudsen (R) - A Endorsed Ben Alke (D) - ?
State Auditor
James Brown (R) - A Endorsed John Repke (D) - ?
Superintendent of Public Instruction
Susie Hedalen (R) - ?
Shannon O'Brien (D) - F
Montana
Supreme Court
Chief Justice
Cory Swanson (NP) - B Endorsed Jeremiah Lynch (NP) - F
Justice #3
Katherine Bidegaray (NP) - ?
Dan Wilson (NP) - B Endorsed
Montana Legislature
Explanation about legislative candidate grades and endorsements
(PLEASE READ): A HUGE amount of information goes into
compiling these grades and endorsements. MSSA tracks
legislative votes on gun-related bills before the Legislature.
For example, MSSA tracked ten different votes for 100 members of the
House and 17 votes in the Senate in the 2023 session. That's
1,850 pieces of data to track. So, when an incumbent candidate
is graded, know that this is from hard data and historic
performance. Votes cast are highly relevant and dependable as
a litmus of a candidate's RKBA performance and attitude. It
also means that the candidate is an incumbent (usual) or has served
in the Legislature before, so we have a voting record. MSSA's 2024
Candidate Questionnaire (CQ) has 12 questions for a candidate
to answer with any one of five answers. That times the 232
candidates just for the House and Senate in the General Election is
potential 13,920 bits of data to receive, store, and collate.
If a candidate returned MSSA's 2024 Candidate Questionnaire but has
not served in the Legislature (if the candidate has a voting record,
we consider votes cast to be a more reliable litmus and use that),
then the candidate is graded based on that CQ. Many candidates
(especially Democrats) are advised by others to NOT complete or
return MSSA's CQ, which is why the reader will see so many
candidates with a "?" rather than a grade. These candidates
have no voting record and no CQ on file with MSSA. It is
MSSA's position that these candidates are likely hostile to the
RKBA, which is why they declined to return MSSA's CQ. Rarely,
MSSA will grade a candidate with some other basis. That's
because MSSA has some other source if information about the
candidate than a voting record or CQ. For those few candidates
who have a "+" after an "A" grade, that is because MSSA reserves the
A+ only for legislators who have carried bills for MSSA. These
are especially dedicated and proven supporters of the RKBA.
Endorsed candidates are in Bold.
Note: MSSA does not endorse candidates who have no
challenger and therefore no contest in the General Election.
An endorsement declares that one candidate will better represent gun
owners than other candidates in the same race. If there are no
other candidates and no race, no endorsement. Further note: Of the 232 candidates seeking the 125
seats up for grabs in the 2025 Legislature, MSSA has endorsed
70 Republicans and one Democrat. Unfortunately, MSSA could not
endorse many Democrats, either because incumbents had poor voting
records or because new candidates chose to not return MSSA's
Candidate Questionnaire (or, rarely, did return MSSA's CQ but did
not score well). Honestly, MSSA would love to be able to
endorse more Democrats. However, we won't do that
gratuitously. To earn MSSA's endorsement, incumbents must have
voted for pro-gun bills and new candidates must have returned a good
CQ.
Also: An "E-V" means endorsed because of a voting
record. An "E-Q" means endorsed because of a candidate
questionnaire.
