Cory Swanson, Candidate For Chief Justice Of The Supreme Court
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Cory Swanson
Candidate for Montana Supreme Court Chief Justice |
Cory Swanson, Candidate for Chief Justice of the Montana Supreme Court
MT43 News Staff Reporter
Background:
Cory Swanson, 47, is currently Broadwater County Attorney. One of six siblings, he is a fourth-generation Montana who grew up on the Hi-Line. His father served in the Army National Guard before going into construction. He graduated from Manhattan High School, did a year at Montana State University and completed a political science degree at Carroll College where he was a member of the l999 Fighting Saints national champion debate team. He graduated with honors from the University of Montana Law School in 2004.
He joined the Army National Guard in 1997 and has risen to the rank of Colonel. During his 26 years in the Guard, he has served on three deployments to the Middle East, including as commander of the 1-163rd Combined Arms Battalion for Operation Spartan Shield in 2022. He was awarded the Bronze Star medal.
He began his career as a partner at a law firm in Helena and in 2013 served as a deputy attorney general for Montana Attorney General Tim Fox in the Department of Justice in Helena. He was elected Broadwater County Attorney in 2014 and is presently in his third four-year term as county attorney. He was unopposed in 2018 and 2022. He and his wife, Julie, have two children at Broadwater High School. Julie serves as a children's speech therapist in Townsend.
Why should Broadwater County residents vote for you? Although Cory has never been a judge, he points out he has experience in the Attorney General’s office and in the courtroom as a prosecutor. Since 2014, Broadwater County Attorney’s office has prosecuted up to 50 felonies and 300 misdemeanors per year. Swanson currently has two deputy attorneys who aid in that work. If elected to the eight-year position, Cory would return to the fundamentals of a conservative judge, not let political activities influence his decisions on the bench. He pointed out that even though he has never been a judge, many others in the state have become judges without previous experience. He named Mike McGrath, Jim Rice and Beth Baker as examples of attorneys who had no previous experience.
Because of his military experience as a leader, he could fill the Chief Justice position which carries major responsibilities of administrating the judicial branch, working with the legislative budget and leading court branch commissions.
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