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 August 27, 2026 As data center politics reached a boiling point in Billings this month, the most tech-savvy Republican in the state Senate drew two opponents in his race to represent Billings Heights and Shepherd. Sen. Daniel Zolnikov is being campaigned against online and IRL by write-in candidates Cari Olson and Elijah Tidswell. The lawmaker’s last registered employer is Broad Reach Power, whose parent company, Houston, Texas-based EnCap Investments, is a stakeholder in Quantica Infrastructure, developer of a proposed data center near Broadview. Olson has nicknamed the incumbent “Data Center Danny” on Facebook. She’s been an outspoken critic of the proposed Broadview data center. And Olson has political experience working on Democratic campaigns in Billings.  Tidswell, 21, is a local real estate agent who ran as a Republican against then-incumbent Democratic state Sen. Kathy Kelker in 2022.  Opponents of the Quantica project have raised concerns ranging from water use to electricity rates. They organized a petition to pause data center development, but were unaware that the deadline for submitting signatures to county officials had been changed by the Legislature in 2025. Only after Quantica alerted the county to the deadline change was the new date observed and the petitions denied. “He’s passing bills that help these data centers out massively,” Tidswell said of Zolnikov. “You have almost 15,000 people that signed a petition saying we want a voice in this process, and they’re just being ignored. I don’t think that’s becoming of a state senator.” In 2025, the Legislature extended a reduced property tax rate to power plants constructed specifically to electrify data center facilities. The bill was carried by Zolnikov’s spouse, Katie, a Republican who serves in the House.  “I used to be Data Security Dan,” Zolnikov said, referencing his reputation for carrying bills addressing cybercrime. He was also the legislator who a decade ago sold lawmakers on legalizing Uber, an early Montana step into the gig economy. State Sen. Daniel Zolnikov. Credit: Courtesy Montana Legislature “The bill says, ‘if you build your own generation, you get the data center rate,” Zolnikov said of his wife’s bill. The actual tax rate for data centers was established about eight years ago in a bill carried by Rep. Ed Buttrey, R-Great Falls, he said.  Sen. Zolnikov also carried a “right to compute” act in 2025, addressing artificial intelligence. That bill required that state regulations related to AI be centered on public health and safety, not on personal dislike of the technology. The bill applies to state regulation of data centers as well.  Zolnikov said his challengers are likely to split the write-in vote. There’s only one write-in line per race on the ballot, regardless of how many write-in candidates there may be.  Write-in campaigns for public office are rarely successful, but they do occasionally strike a nerve. Municipal races in West Yellowstone have been won by write-in candidates. Senate districts have about 22,000 residents. Zolnikov’s 2022 Senate race drew 7,400 voters, with Zolnikov picking up 66% of them. People are agitated about data centers, Zolnikov said, adding that he’s added an extra security door to his home to prevent break-ins. —Tom Lutey Don’t Wait for the Book Reilly Neill, having lost the Democratic primary to Alani Bankhead, has some things to say about Montana’s U.S. Senate election, and she’s telling all in a new podcast called “Montanaland.”  Episode one, titled “Sour Grapes,” dropped Aug. 23 with some sharp criticisms of Bankhead, the Democratic Party, and the press.  “I thought the press or the party would raise some concerns, do some vetting, but they did not,” Neill said.  For months, Neill was the presumed frontrunner in the Democratic Senate primary. She had been a candidate since the day following the 2024 election. She had better name ID than her four opponents, having previously campaigned for U.S. House, governor, and state House, where she represented Livingston from 2013 to 2015.  Neill also had the largest purse, having raised $200,000 with another $88,000 in loans. No other Democrat had raised more than $25,000. She argues in the podcast that her fortunes changed when super PACs descended on the race shortly before mail ballots were issued. There was $3 million spent specifically on promoting Bankhead. The treasurer of the PAC responsible for that spending is now publicly backing independent candidate Seth Bodnar. Another $1.8 million was spent by a Republican PAC on advertising that sometimes characterized Neill as the race’s true progressive, and other times promoted Bankhead. Neill is no fan of Bankhead, having seized on the nominee’s own podcast comments about being instructed by Jesus to enter the race. She also accuses Bankhead of embellishing her military accomplishments. There are more episodes to come. Neill tells Capitolized she plans to drop an episode each Sunday, including a two-part series on Bodnar. Former Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Reilly Neill. Credit: Lauren Miller, Montana Free Press, CatchLight Local/Report for America “I hope we get a chance to do deep dives on all the Montana Senate candidates before November, because you got a lot of dissatisfied voters out there who don’t like any of the choices they themselves made,” Neill tells listeners in the first episode. “And we also have a megalomaniac [President Donald J. Trump] in D.C. who needs to be stopped. So, it really is anyone’s race, and a Democratic candidate with some chops could be an asset to the entire state right now.” A piano plays through multiple segments of the 40-minute first episode. It should sound familiar to anyone who listened to primary election ads by Progressive Vet PAC, the committee that spent $3 million promoting Bankhead and disparaging Neill, who explains the source of the tune when signing off.  “This is Reilly Neill, and you’ve been listening to Montanaland, a new podcast on politics in the Treasure State. Theme music was composed by AI and the Progressive Vet PAC, who used this melody in an AI-generated attack ad on our campaign for U.S. Senate. The tune has been recreated here by myself on a Yamaha keyboard. Thanks for listening.” —Tom Lutey Court Enjoins Republican Party Bylaws Several Montana Republican Party bylaw provisions designed to exert control over publicly elected officials are likely illegal, a Lewis and Clark County District Court judge ruled this week. Judge Michael McMahon ruled Wednesday that the party went too far in requiring oaths and dues from elected officials while allowing only officers deemed to be in “good standing” to participate in party decision-making. Such rules cannot be applied to officials elected by the public, McMahon ruled.  The bylaws were approved with strong support by attendees of the June MTGOP platform convention. Attorneys for the party attempted to use that support to justify enacting the new bylaws. McMahon wouldn’t have it.  “It does not matter how many people pass a bylaw contrary to law. It is still illegal,” McMahon said.  The judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Republican Party from enforcing the new bylaws at least until a lawsuit brought by county-level party committees and elected officials is concluded.  Republicans are coming off a multimillion-dollar primary election battle between hardliners and pragmatists over legislative seats. The yearslong feud centers on who controls the state House and Senate. Hardliners have the numbers to control the majority caucus in each legislative branch, but pragmatists have successfully collaborated with minority-party Democrats and Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte to prevail on priority laws and the state budget. The judge sided with MTGOP on matters that don’t concern publicly elected officers, including whether the party wants to associate with elected Republicans who engage in bipartisanship. Voters, McMahon said, might take issue with candidates more loyal to MTGOP than to the public.  A week earlier, two state district courts and the Montana Supreme Court rejected a reinterpretation of term limits intended to remove two key bipartisan Republicans from the Legislature. Republican Attorney General Austin Knudsen had issued the reinterpretation at the request of Senate President Matt Regier. —Tom Lutey The post How Daniel Zolnikov became ‘Data Center Danny’ appeared first on Montana Free Press. ...read more read less