State GOP sets party platform during meeting in Billings (2024)

BILLINGS— In a convention that felt tamer than two years ago when the Montana Republican Party had sharp debates over how to deal with things like abortion access, the state GOP set its party platform over the weekend.

“It's time that we take our platform seriously, and we require people to abide by it. That’s all,” former state Rep. Brad Tschida, a Missoula Republican, said to applause at the close of the convention Saturday afternoon. “If they don't want to, I don't have any hard feelings. I think what we need to have them do is to run as an Independent, run as a Libertarian, run as a Green Party member, but don't put an R after your name.”

Some of the more pointed debates were muted this time by convention rules. Jeff Essmann, the former state lawmaker and past party chair who led the meeting, said that any substantive changes needed to be made in individual issue, or plank, committees that met the day prior and were closed to press. Those larger changes would not be up for consideration before the whole group.

The limitations on changes to the platform in the full convention came up quickly when delegate Shane Eaton of Prairie County asked to add a resolution to support teaching the Bible in the classroom, as thestate of Oklahoma recently ordered. That was ruled out of order before any debate.

The rule also shut down any potential debate over abortion, an issue that caused intense disputes in 2021.

“I cannot offer an amendment but I will offer an observation and that is our call in this plank for a total ban on abortion is out of sync with most Republicans, out of sync with most Montanans, and it's frankly setting back the pro-life movement in the state of Montana,” Bedey said. “It's energizing the effort to make abortion a constitutional right. And it's unfortunate that the plank committee did not take this particular issue up. Had I understood the rules of the game as some other people misunderstood here as well, I might have made them play during (the appropriate time).”

The party still saw some of its old fights and division, even though key speakers in a dinner the night prior— including U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy; Sen. Steve Daines, who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee working to get Sheehy elected; and party Chair Don Kaltschmidt— called for unity.

“We've got a bunch of Democrats that run as Republicans in some of these Republican districts,” Butcher, of Winifred, said in discussion on a proposal over vetting candidates. “They need to be vetted at the local level. They need to be exposed, because I'm getting tired of sitting in the Legislature (with) the Republicans voting with the Democrats … and pushing the Democratic agenda.”

Meanwhile, Brad Molnar, a state senator from Laurel who is running for a seat on the Public Service Commission this year, brought a rejected amendment that would have made clear the party should not “attempt to influence the Republican primary process” and that any qualified person could run “without self-appointed party gatekeepers manipulation the process to their satisfaction or the satisfaction of their allies.”

Party platform setting

Elsewhere in setting their party’s platform, the GOP reiterated several of its well-publicized stances over the last few years.

In their resolution on the overall party platform principles, Lisa Bennett of Carbon County brought a motion to alter language a subcommittee wanted to update to say that the party believed in “the rule of law and a separation of powers. The judicial branch is a separate and equal branch of government and it should not be a super-Legislature.”

Bennett instead said “The judicial branch is not an equal branch. It is the weakest branch. The legislative branch is the strongest branch, it can impeach the other two while the other two cannot impeach a representative. I motion that we get rid of the word equal.”

The group Saturday also OK’d a resolution to officially oppose ranked-choice voting in the state, following a stance the party had already made itself clear on. There are two ballot issues that are in the process now of being approved to go before voters in the fall that would dramatically change how primary elections work in Montana, includingone that could implement such an approach.

On property taxes, another proposal from the plank committee dealing with taxation added a line saying “We support a property tax system that is not based solely on appraisals that result in taxation of unrealized capital gains. We believe that tax shifts are unnecessary in a well-balanced tax system.” Montana lawmakers have faced massive uproar over a spike in property taxes after the most recent appraisal cycle, withrates rising on average about 20% but increasing much more in some areas.

State Rep. George Nikolakakos, of Great Falls, objected to that addition, and plank chair state Rep. Becky Beard, R-Elliston, said removing the language would be a friendly change.

However, state Rep. Jane Gillette, from the Gallatin Valley, said that “I don't know that this is the right time to remove a statement on property taxes. For right or wrong, whether it's in the weeds or not, I just think the optics of that are bad. I think your constituents are expecting us to have a platform that protects them from the agony that they have had during this past (property tax cycle). So I would be strongly opposed.”

Beard, however said that there are other ways to address the issue, such as work through legislative interim committee and Gov. Greg Gianforte’s property tax task force.

Molnar said the change was his proposal and that people were being burdened by high property taxes but had no ability to capitalize on the higher value of their home unless they sold it.

The committee also added a line saying “due process prohibits the warrantless seizure of a child unless the child is likely to experience serious bodily harm in the time that would be required to obtain a warrant.”

That comes after debate over fights some lawmakers have had withGianforte’s administration over the handling of a case in Glasgowwhere the state petitioned to remove a child, who is transgender, because the parents were blocking that child from being sent to a facility in Wyoming for treatment for suicidal ideations. The parents objected because that state does not have laws banning gender-affirming care.

Those changes included calling for the deportation of “illegals in Montana,” penalties for businesses that knowingly hire those in the country without documentation and the “absolute refusal to accept into Montana an illegal aliens. Any person, nonprofit or any other entity, such as an NGO, participating in the transport or exploitation of illegal aliens into or within the state of Montana should face losing its nonprofit status and or business license and be subject to criminal charges for human trafficking.”

“Our country has been invaded from within by legal aliens across the border,” said state Rep. Braxton Mitchell, of Columbia Falls.

When it came to natural resources, there was some debate over how to handle language to oppose the transfer orrelocation of bison from places like Yellowstone National Park. Perri Jacobs, a candidate for Senate District 16 that includes parts of the Fort Belknap and Fort Peck reservations, said she understood the concern over bison transfer but said that she felt that part of the plank would alienate Native American voters.

Butcher, however, did not agree with the proposal and said he wanted to stick with the original wording to oppose all transfers and let the Legislature sort out any details.

“The ranchers in Montana are having a big enough problem dealing with this whole idiot bison situation, just because you're trying to cater a bunch of reservations that want to play around with (their) sacred animals,” Butcher said.