New Legislative Districts Attract Candidates
Author: MT 43 News Staff Reporter
New Legislative Districts Attract Candidates
MT 43 News Staff Reporter
Republicans Jane Gillette and Kyle McMurray will compete for the District 77 seat in the Montana House of Representatives on primary election ballots of voters in Broadwater County and in a sliver of Gallatin County. The winner of that race will face Democrat Jeremiah Dawson in the general election.
And in balloting for a seat in the Montana Senate, Broadwater County voters will choose between Republican E. Wylie Galt and Democrat Bruce Schultz in the general election. Also voting for that Senate District 39 seat will be voters in all or part of seven other counties.
All the legislative districts are newly constructed because of reapportionment conducted once every 10 years. House District 77 covers all of Broadwater County and a small portion of Gallatin County. The sprawling Senate District 39 covers all of Broadwater, Judith Basin, Meagher and Wheatland counties, and portions of Gallatin, Cascade, Fergus and Sweet Grass counties.
Jane Gillette of Three Forks, a dentist, served in the 2021 and 2023 sessions of the legislature as a representative of what was then House District 64. She bills herself as running for re-election. Kyle McMurray, of Manhattan, a political newcomer, operated an optometry practice in Gallatin County for 40 years. Jeremiah Dawson, Three Forks, is the lone Democrat seeking the House 77 seat.
Wylie Galt, of Martinsdale in Meagher County, served in the state House in the 2021 legislative session representing what was then District 30. The Galt family ranch corporation is perhaps the largest landholder in Meagher and Broadwater counties. Bruce Schultz, of Raynesford in Judith Basin County, is a rancher.
