Amy Eddy cruises to victory in Montana Supreme Court race

Flathead County District Court Judge Amy Eddy will replace retiring Montana Supreme Court Justice Beth Baker after a commanding victory over fellow Flathead District Court Judge Dan Wilson. 

The Associated Press called the race late last night, and vote counts at noon on Wednesday showed Eddy pulling 59.2% to Wilson’s 40.8%.  Wilson also ran unsuccessfully for the state supreme court in 2024.

“It feels totally overwhelming,” Eddy told the Daily Montanan on Wednesday morning. “I’m a little bit in shock.”

The nonpartisan supreme court race had an overtly partisan flavor this year as Wilson was backed financially by the Montana Republican Party and spoke at GOP events. Eddy, while backed by liberal-leaning organizations, stayed away from partisan political events.

She said it was “really gratifying, frankly, that Montanans wanted to maintain this nonpartisan tradition that we have and rejected this overt partisan influence.”

Statewide, Montanans also overwhelmingly backed an initiative to enshrine nonpartisan judicial elections in the state constitution, making a 90-year state of affairs permanent. 

“In one way it doesn’t change anything. We had nonpartisan judicial elections, we just ran a nonpartisan judicial election,” Eddy said. “But more than anything, it signals to the legislators that the public is committed to nonpartisan judicial elections, and they wanted that question taken away from the legislature.”

In 2025, Republican legislators made multiple attempts to make judicial candidates run with party labels, saying it would help inform voters. 

Montana’s supreme court race was put to voters during the June primary with Eddy winning by 3 points — though with both candidates advancing to the general election, it was a low stakes contest. 

In Flathead County, Wilson won the primary vote by 10 points. On Tuesday, Eddy prevailed by 2 points.