“It looks like the big money supporting the left in Montana has now largely moved on from partisan campaign efforts and is shifting resources towards ballot campaigns as a means of advancing the progressive agenda.”
There’s a growing list of constitutional amendments trying to get onto Montana’s 2026 ballot. At the time of this writing, I count at least seven constitutional initiative proposals submitted to the Secretary of State, five of which are driven by powerful left-wing backers.
As much as the left have lionized Montana’s 1972 Constitution and fiercely opposed the legislature amending it, they sure see no problem with changing it when they see fit. In fact, there appears to be a concerted shift in strategy towards changing the state constitution via ballot measures, a strategy that Montana’s conservative movement doesn’t really seem to have caught onto yet.
After suffering huge electoral losses over the last decade and facing absolute disarray when it comes to any sort of partisan organization, it looks like the big money supporting the left in Montana has now largely moved on from partisan campaign efforts and is shifting resources towards ballot campaigns as a means of advancing the progressive agenda. There’s a fair chance left-wing ballot campaigns will out-raise Montana Democrat candidates in 2026.
This shift is smart strategy because of the relatively low barriers to getting a policy reform on the ballot in Montana compared to other states. Just over $27 million was spent on the most expensive ballot campaign in Montana history, while spending on ballot initiatives in bigger states regularly exceeds $50 million+. Accessing voters directly also allows backers to directly leverage Montana’s strong populist tendencies towards enacting popular progressive reforms. This all makes Montana a ripe target for the big out-of-state money running national campaigns to push radical policies here that are not yet viable in other states.
Meanwhile, Montana’s conservative movement seems largely consumed in internal partisan power struggles and playing defense.
This is unfortunate because there are many popular conservative reforms that would be likely to pass if placed on the ballot. Here are five ideas:
- Government Growth Limits. Enact a fiscally conservative cap on government budget growth and require excess budget surplus be dedicated to tax relief. Several states already have a form of budget limit like this, with Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights the most notable.
- Taxpayer Protection. Adopt a clause guaranteeing that any sales tax can ONLY be used to replace property taxes. This would block any future efforts to use a sales tax to increase our tax burden and grow government.
- Property Rights. Require the government to compensate property owners when harmful land use restrictions significantly diminish their property values. Arizona passed a similar measure by a 2:1 margin in 2006. Another property rights ballot measure idea from Arizona – allow property owners to seek a property tax refund if their local government fails to enforce ordinances against public camping and other nuisances related to homelessness.
- Prohibit taxpayer-funded lobbying. High-paid lobbyists representing the local governments and public schools routinely come out in force at the legislature to lobby for higher taxes and bigger government. Conservatives in states like Texas have pushed for reform, and polling shows prohibiting taxpayer-funded lobbying is very popular with voters.
- Expanding 2A Rights. When it comes to support for constitutional carry, the Montana focus groups I’ve observed on this issue feel like an NRA convention. We are ranked as the 4th most gun-friendly state, so it follows that additional protections for the 2nd Amendment rights of gun owners would be extremely popular on the ballot.
I’d personally love to see these sorts of conservative ideas on the ballot, and I know many other Montanans would agree.
