Get an insider’s look into what’s happening in and around the halls of power with expert reporting, analysis and insight from the editors and reporters of Montana Free Press. Sign up to get the free Capitolized newsletter delivered to your inbox every Thursday. Sign up February 5, 2026 A Montana district court judge has denied an injunction to three Republican state senators disenfranchised at a party convention last summer. Judge Christopher Abbott, of Lewis and Clark County, concluded Wednesday that he didn’t have the authority to intervene in Montana Republican Party management issues, while acknowledging that the party might have ignored its own bylaws by not allowing the senators to vote in its June 2025 leadership elections. “The de-credentialing not only denied the Senators the opportunity to vote but also to make nominations and participate in debate,” Abbott said in his order. “Thus, if the only question for the court were whether the Senators’ de-credentialing comported with the Party’s procedures, the Senators’ complaint would present on its face a potential claim.” Injunctions allow a judge to force parties to act, or stop them from acting, before a lawsuit is decided. Parties seeking an injunction must show they’re likely to win the still-undecided lawsuit. The lawsuit filed by Sens. Jason Ellsworth, of Hamilton; Denley Loge, of St. Regis; and Shelley Vance, of Belgrade, is still playing out. The gist is that as party members with recognized voting privileges, the three lawmakers should have been allowed to vote for party leadership at the MTGOP officers’ convention June 28, 2025. At the convention, Sen. Barry Usher, R-Molt, led a vote not to recognize the three lawsuit plaintiffs and six other Republican senators who had voted opposite the more conservative members of their caucus on several key votes during the 2025 Montana Legislature. The convention vote was supported by a strong majority of conventioneers. The party chair elected at the convention, Art Wittich, promised a “red policy committee” to review legislative proposals. And, the new chair promised candidate endorsements in contested primary elections, something the Republican National Committee hasn’t supported in presidential primaries.  Sen. Shelley Vance, R-Belgrade, testifies in Lewis and Clark District Court on Sept. 3, 2025. The court denied an injunction request to Vance and two fellow senators on Thursday, Feb. 5. Credit: Tom Lutey/MTFP “They will be vetted, and if we determine that they are good for the party, we will endorse them,” Wittich said at convention. The other faction of Republicans, he continued, “actually say they’re more conservative, and you are not … It will be very easy to tell the truth.” In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs are asking the court to order a new round of leadership voting that the three senators can not only vote in, but also nominate Republicans for leadership, including each other. Meanwhile, Republicans will finish the week in Great Falls for the launch of the 2026 election cycle. Friday, MTGOP leadership will introduce its legislative candidates at Meadowlark Country Club. Friday and Saturday, the party holds its Republican Winter Kickoff at the Heritage Inn. Red Policy Committee member Rep. Jane Gillette is on the Saturday breakfast schedule. Gillette, of Three Forks, was instrumental in disenfranchising Senate moderates at the officers convention. Several Republican legislative incumbents in both the House and Senate have been targeted for months by robocalls and anonymous ads on streaming services. Commissioner of Political Practices Chris Gallus concluded last June that his authority to enforce transparency in campaign advertising was limited to just 60 days before an election. More recently, Americans For Prosperity is identified as the source of attack mailers against the Republicans who supported the 2025 Legislature’s bill to lower property taxes on primary residences. Legislators with multiple properties are sour on the tax break, which is a one-home deal. AFP is also on the Friday schedule for the kickoff in Great Falls. Republican lawmakers who voted to extend the state’s expanded Medicaid program are also being hit by mailers.  —Tom Lutey A Chapter in Every School Gov. Greg Gianforte speaks during a Turing Point USA event highlighting Montana high school students who started America Clubs at their schools on Feb. 4, 2026, at the Montana State Capitol. Credit: Lauren Miller, Montana Free Press, CatchLight Local/Report for America Credit: Lauren Miller, Montana Free Press, CatchLight Local/Report for America Gov. Greg Gianforte endorsed Turning Point USA’s youth program, Club America, in front of high school students who gathered in the Rotunda at the Montana Capitol on Wednesday. “In Montana, we have about 200 high schools. We’d like to see a Club America chapter in every single one of them,” Gianforte said. Turning Point is looking to maintain momentum after a recent spike in participation that followed the death of organization founder Charlie Kirk in September 2025. Gianforte rallied the students alongside TPUSA field director Andrew Sypher during the press conference, which focused on increasing youth participation in the conservative Christian organization. Erika Kirk, who took the helm of TPUSA after the assassination of her husband spoke with students at a private reception after the rally. Press was not allowed.  The event kicked off with a chant of “USA” from about 60 students gathered from the 20 Montana high schools that already host TPUSA chapters. Every Montana university except two, Great Falls College and Montana State University Northern, hosts a college chapter. At an Oct. 7 event, Gianforte and Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy spoke in Charlie Kirk’s place at a Turning Point event in Bozeman that focused on faith and condemned political violence.  Turning Point USA rally goers at Montana State University hold up posters of Charlie Kirk weeks after his Sept. 10, 2025, assassination. Credit: Tom Lutey/MTFP Kirk’s death inspired some young Montanans to start Turning Point chapters oriented around faith. Josie Abbott, a first-year student at Helena’s Carroll College who founded the school’s Turning Point chapter in the fall of 2025, said she was disappointed to find that the school didn’t have one when she first arrived. Abbott, a Catholic, said her chapter is more about faith than politics.  “I view Turning Point as an organization with specific Christian-like values and traditional American beliefs,” Abbott said. “And it’s kind of like how even though the American Founding Fathers weren’t necessarily Catholics, they all had some religious belief, ‘one nation under God, all men are created equal,’ all that stuff has a base Christian flavor.” High school students Kiera Kraft, Kirsten Kraft and Isabelle Nelson began a similarly faith-focused chapter in Sidney a week after Kirk’s death. The trio traveled to Helena to attend the event.  “Our goal is to just start spreading the gospel in Sidney, trying to carry on the legacy of Charlie Kirk,” Kirsten Kraft said.  —Zeke Lloyd The post No cause for pause appeared first on Montana Free Press. ...read more read less