Nov. 22 – A voting bloc in downtown Kalispell bucked prevailing conservative trends in the 2024 election, emerging as an island of blue amid Northwestern Montana’s overwhelming sea of red.
Data shows Kalispell’s newly elected district has 25 favored Democrats in each of the major statewide and federal races. The area includes a portion of downtown Kalispell from Fourth Street East to 14th Street East, and from First Avenue West toward Woodland Avenue. It was previously divided between the former sites 3 and 4.
Residents of the new district favored Monica Tranel over Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke (52% to 45%), and Democratic Sen. Jon Tester over challenger Tim Sheehy 54% to 43%. In the gubernatorial race, the area backed Democrat Ryan Busse over Gov. Greg Gianforte 51% to 47%. Just over 1,100 ballots were cast in the district.
The results mark a shift from the 2020 election, when the same area, though in differently divided districts, favored all Republicans in statewide races.
The district’s boundaries were changed for the 2024 elections due to redistricting. State law limits the number of registered voters in each precinct to 2,500 or fewer.
While District 25 turned blue, neighboring Kalispell districts tipped slightly toward Republicans in each of the races. Sheehy’s margin of victory was just 17 votes in Kalispell’s District 27, which stretches from Woodland Avenue to Meridian and includes the northern half of Main Street downtown. Zinke won 53% of the vote in this district, and Gianforte won with 55% support. In District 27, approximately 1,100 ballots were counted.
Kalispell’s District 26 also favored Sheehy, Zinke and Gianforte. Just under 1,000 ballots were cast in the area stretching from the Flathead County Fairgrounds to the Conrad Cemetery.
Meanwhile, a newly elected district in Whitefish flipped from blue to red during the gubernatorial election. The voting bloc in District 4 includes East Lakeshore Drive north of The Lodge at Whitefish Lake, Iron Horse Golf Club and Whitefish Mountain Resort. These residents supported the incumbent Gianforte over Busse 50% to 48%, but gave Tranel a narrow 13-vote advantage and supported Tester with 54% of the vote. In 2020, the area supported all Democrats.
Columbia Falls’ new District 10, which includes the city north of U.S. 2 from Meadow Lake to the Flathead River, favored Tester over Sheehy by just 16 votes. The same area gave Republican Sen. Steve Daines an edge in 2020 in his race against challenger Steve Bullock.
However, the district outright supported Zinke’s 2024 re-election bid, giving the Republican 55% of the vote total, while Gianforte won the area with 56% of the vote.
Of Flathead County’s 56 precincts, only eight favored Tester in the Senate race, and only seven supported Tranel and Busse.
Al Olszewski, chairman of the Flathead County Republican Party, praised the broad support for conservative candidates in the county and the high turnout.
“Compared to 2020, more than 14,000 more people voted in our province,” Olszewski noted in a letter to supporters this week. “They voted overwhelmingly for Republican candidates.”
That matches voter data in Montana showing that the state’s new residents over the past 15 years have been more likely to be Republicans.
IN THE House race, Zinke was able to increase his overall margin of victory in the rematch against Tranel by locking down the western district’s rural communities.
The Whitefish Republican won every precinct in Lincoln, Sanders, Mineral, Ravalli, Granite, Beaverhead and Powell counties. In most of these areas, Zinke won 75–80% of the vote, offsetting his opponent’s strength in urban areas.
Missoula’s University District generally supported Tranel with 80-85% of the vote. Bozeman’s support was not as robust, but Tranel still earned about 70-80% of the vote in the city’s college districts. The Democrat also won Butte’s key voting bloc, albeit by a less convincing margin. The Uptown Historic District supported Tranel with about 65% of the vote.
Zinke’s home district in downtown Whitefish favored Tranel with 66% of the vote total.
