More Republican leaders say state party is ‘purging.’ GOP says it’s ‘vetting.’

More Republican legislators are finding themselves on the outs with the Montana Republican Party ahead of the 2026 election — even those long considered hard-liners.

Last year, the state GOP disowned a group that party leaders called the “Nasty Nine,” moderate Republican senators who worked with Democrats on significant legislation during the 2025 Montana Legislature.

Last month, the state GOP disavowed 16 Republican primary candidates, including longtime legislators and county committee leaders. The party also released an Honor Roll with candidates it said demonstrate support for the platform, but incumbent Republicans with conservative bona fides were missing.

Speaker of the House Brandon Ler, who earned a score of 100 on the ultraconservative Montana Family Foundation legislative scorecard, didn’t make the cut, nor did the state GOP’s own vice chairwoman Stacy Zinn.

The party’s approach has Republican lawmakers across the conservative political spectrum asking about consequences for the upcoming legislative session — and for democracy.

“I don’t know by the time this is over who is going to be left,” said Rep. George Nikolakakos, a Republican from Great Falls. “It’s going to be a real small group.”

Rep. David Bedey, a Hamilton Republican in the state House since 2019, said state GOP Chairman Art Wittich is trying to “purge the party” of anyone unaligned with “a very narrow, right-wing ideology.”

“It’s obvious that he seeks to set the legislative agenda, and he expects to have a caucus of Republicans who will vote the way he tells them to vote,” Bedey said. “There’s no other way to sugarcoat that.”

Wittich declined an interview with the Daily Montanan through a spokesperson. In responses to emailed questions, Wittich said the party is not undertaking a “purge,” but it does expect Republican candidates to adhere to the platform and be upfront about where they stand.

“The Montana Republican Party is a big tent, but it only remains standing if we have sturdy poles and a solid foundation holding it up,” Wittich said in an email. “ … We don’t want Democrats in our big tent trying to tear it down from the inside.”

State GOP active in primary, but fracturing evident

In the 2025 Montana Legislature, hard-line Republicans were elected to leadership positions in the Senate but lost control of the agenda after a group of nine GOP senators joined Democrats to pass significant legislation.

In red Montana, a primary election can be the determining race for many legislative battles, and Republican Rep. Kerri Seekins-Crowe said she believes the firm stance the state GOP is taking ahead of June 2 is an understandable reaction to the actions of “The Nine.”

That said, Seekins-Crowe also said actions can have unintended consequences.

The Billings Republican said she will not belittle the state GOP for its Honor Roll, but she also sees effective incumbents with high scores on conservative scorecards missing.

“I can tell you right now there are some really great Republicans that the state (GOP) decided to slight,” Seekins-Crowe said.

She said that Speaker Ler, recently endorsed by the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund, is among them. Ler did fill out a questionnaire the state GOP used to screen candidates for the Honor Roll, a campaign consultant said.

Seekins-Crowe said term limits already mean legislators lose inertia and power, and losing incumbent seats to newcomers means the branch that’s “closest to the people” could become ineffective — or cede power to lobbyists or the executive branch.

“We’re supposed to be one united football team,” Seekins-Crowe said. “Instead it looks like Brawl of the Wild.”

Seekins-Crowe didn’t fill out the questionnaire used to screen candidates for the Honor Roll — she said she doesn’t know what the right answers are supposed to be, and she has a voting record if voters or party members want to know about her. She doesn’t have a primary, but she wasn’t alone in not returning the questionnaire.

The Honor Roll resolution said 36 candidates didn’t return it, and at least one Republican candidate, Michele Binkley of Hamilton, said she didn’t bother turning it in because “I already knew they don’t like me.”

On her campaign page, Binkley, who served four years in the state House, said she’s a lifelong Republican who believes “first and foremost in limited government.” But she said many Republicans have become beholden to “party bosses” rather than the Constitution and their constituents.

“The state is made up of Republicans that cross the spectrum of Republicanism,” Binkley told the Daily Montanan. “So if you purge that, what are you going to end up with? … Is the end game to take our majority away and give it to the other party?”

Wittich disagreed. The end game, he said, is to ensure candidates who declare they’re Republicans actually adhere to those values.

“Asking Republican candidates about their principles and whether they align with the Republican Party platform expected by voters isn’t making them ‘kiss the ring,’” Wittich said. “It’s a commonsense honesty check.”

Pushback mounts against State GOP

Earlier this month, 10 chairpersons of Republican county committees pushed back against Wittich and the state GOP in a letter that said the state party has historically been a grassroots organization — built from the ground up.

The letter, distributed to news outlets and posted on social media, said admonishments from party leadership were ineffective.

Rep. Curtis Cochran and former Rep. Ross Fitzgerald were among the signers and verified the letter to the Daily Montanan.

“This is not how an effective grassroots Republican operation prospers,” they wrote. “This is how a top-down organization consolidates power. A representative republic is built on local representatives carrying the voice of local people to Helena — not bowing to a party boss or an Executive Committee.”

Nikolakakos said the state GOP can provide limited support to candidates on the campaign trail, some of its endorsements resonate with a certain portion of the population, and the party can “make your life suckier” by spreading misinformation.

But Nikolakakos, one of the candidates admonished by the GOP along with Bedey and Binkley, said the approach of “focusing the guns inward” will have consequences, and he fears it means Republicans will lose legislative seats. The GOP had a supermajority in both legislative chambers in 2023, and it had a majority in 2025.

“What they’re doing is unprecedented at least in recent Montana history,” Nikolakakos said. “If their leadership sends us off a cliff, they should have the accountability to resign.”

But in the closely contested primary, the state GOP is endorsing neither Republican candidate, and both have legislative experience.

Nikolakakos’ primary opponent, Montana Public Service Commissioner Randy Pinocci, is also on the outs with the state GOP. Pinocci refused to cut ties with a publication that has been critical of the Montana Republican Party, as party leaders demanded.

“When you look up ‘Republican’ in the dictionary, ‘Montana Republican,’ it has to be my picture,” Pinocci said.

State GOP vetting, doing ‘honesty check,’ leaders say

Former state GOP Chairman Don “K” Kaltschmidt oversaw a red wave in Montana the last six years, with Republicans winning all statewide and federal offices. As he passed the torch last summer, he told the Daily Montanan the next party leader would be charged with steering in a new era of GOP dominance.

“It’s really up to the next chairman to take it to the next level, which would be learning how to be a red state,” he told the Daily Montanan.

In June, Wittich was elected as head of the state GOP, and at the time, the former legislator and majority leader from 2013 told his colleagues Montana was a red state that could become “a bright red state.”

In written responses to the Daily Montanan, Wittich defended his quest to ensure elected Republicans cleave to the party platform, and he disagreed the state GOP’s approach could hurt its legislative agenda in 2027.

Former state Sen. Keith Regier, a Kalispell Republican, led the party committee that undertook the effort to name members to the Honor Roll. Regier is the father of two current legislators, including Senate President Matt Regier.

“The state GOP is just trying to identify who the true Republicans are that are running and get that information to the voters,” Keith Regier said.

Regier pointed to the case of Seth Bodnar, the former University of Montana president who’s running for a U.S. Senate seat as an independent. Regier said he believes Bodnar is a Democrat but doesn’t want to run as one.

“If you can’t win as a Democrat, you try as a Republican or as an independent,” Regier said.

Bodnar continues to maintain he’s neither a Democrat nor a Republican; as recently as earlier this month, he eschewed party labels, and he said he believed his boss should be the people of Montana, “not party elites, not outside business interests.”

In an email, Wittich said plenty of people support the state GOP’s priorities and platform, contrary to any argument the “big tent” is getting smaller.

“We’re the party of less government and lower taxes,” Wittich said. “We expect some disagreement on how exactly to achieve those goals with legislation, but we don’t want candidates who strive to grow government and raise taxes. It’s that simple.”

Although Wittich disagreed the party is “purging,” Regier said any incumbent who loses an election could say they were “purged” out of that office.

It’s the voters who benefit from the party assessing values, he said.

“If they vote for a Democrat, they should be able to rely that they’re going to get Democratic representation,” Regier said. “If they vote for a Republican, they should be able to rely that they’re going to follow the Republican platform the best they can.”