In the race for Montana Secretary of State, incumbent Republican Christi Jacobsen has succeeded in fending off challenges from Democratic candidate Jesse Mullen and Libertarian candidate John Lamb, securing a second term. The Associated Press called the race for Jacobsen shortly before 1 a.m. Wednesday. Jacobsen had already proclaimed herself the winner hours earlier, taking the stage at an event in Helena to tell supporters, “This victory is ours.”“Tonight you have shown that you want to keep Montana’s future in our hands, and I will continue to defend your trust,” Jacobsen said in the speech shortly after 9 p.m., when less than 10% of the vote had been counted and voters in Bozeman, Great Falls and several other cities were still facing hours-long waits to cast their ballots. “Montanans approve of my job performance. I think the numbers speak for itself.”Jacobsen’s campaign formally echoed her declaration in an email release shortly after 11 p.m., calling it a “decisive victory.”Mullen briefly posted a concession Tuesday night on social media but quickly took it down. His formal concession appeared on Twitter just before 6 a.m., with Mullen congratulating Jacobsen on her victory and wishing her success over the next four years.“To my supporters, thank you,” Mullen wrote in a follow-up tweet. “Thank you, so much for your time, effort, passion, dedication. I’m incredibly blessed to have worked with you over this past year.”Jacobsen will now continue as the state’s top election official and head of the office’s business services division, which caters to the registration and filing needs of Montana business owners. The secretary of state also sits on the Montana Land Board, reviewing and voting on matters related to state-owned public lands.Jacobsen began her tenure in January 2021 after serving as deputy secretary of state under her Republican predecessor, Corey Stapleton. In the years since, a group of conservative lawmakers and activists has repeatedly raised questions about perceived vulnerabilities in the state’s election system — part of a broader national narrative inspired by the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. Jacobsen, who has repeatedly declined to make herself available for interviews with MTFP and other media outlets since she first ran for office in 2020, has distanced herself from such claims by describing Montana elections as a “gold standard” for election integrity in America. Jacobsen has also emerged as a key defender of several election administration laws passed by the Legislature in 2021 and subsequently struck down as unconstitutional by state courts. She is currently petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a Montana Supreme Court ruling on those laws, which included changes to voter identification requirements and the elimination of Election Day voter registration.Jesse Mullen came to the race from a background in journalism, having co-founded the Mullen Newspaper Company, which now owns roughly 20 newspapers across the Rocky Mountain West. A Deer Lodge resident, Mullen previously told MTFP his aim was to bring more transparency and accountability to the secretary of state’s office and support the needs of local election workers. He criticized Jacobsen’s defense of challenged 2021 election laws, describing the legal battles as costly for Montana taxpayers, and argued the functionality of online services for Montana businesses has suffered under her charge.Jacobsen swept much of the state on her path to victory, securing 62% of the votes with 92% of the vote counted as of Wednesday morning. Jacobsen posted wins in all but a handful of counties, staking out major leads in several locations, including Yellowstone and Flathead counties, where ballots were still being counted Wednesday morning.The post Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen wins a second term appeared first on Montana Free Press.