Montana voters opted overwhelmingly to support abortion access, but they elected a whole slate of anti-abortion Republican candidates into office. How did it happen?

Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr (D) won reelection Tuesday, assuring her return to the state Capitol in January nearly two years after her Republican colleagues censured her over language she used

WASHINGTON — Montana voters chose to protect the right to an abortion in their state constitution. The ballot initiative sought to enshrine a 1999 Montana Supreme Court ruling that said the constitutional right to privacy protects the right to a pre-viability abortion by a provider of the patient’s choice.

Republican Tim Sheehy shaved Democratic Sen. Jon Tester’s margins in Montana’s populous counties and ran up his lead in the state’s more rural regions.

Three-term incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana is facing perhaps his toughest reelection challenge yet

Republicans controlled both chambers of the Montana Legislature heading into Tuesday’s election and were not in danger of losing their majorities. They controlled the House 68-32 and the Senate 34-16.

Waiting to vote tested the willpower of hundreds of people in an hourslong line that stretched outside a county courthouse in a Montana town.

The state was one of 10 that voted on abortion-related ballot measures in the 2024 election. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the landmark Dobbs decision two years ago, a growing number of states have responded by passing their own laws codifying the right to abortion.

Tim Sheehy won Montana's Senate race on Wednesday, unseating the state's Democratic incumbent, Sen. Jon Tester, and flipping the seat Republican. Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL new to politics, took home a victory with 53% of the vote to Tester's 45.

Montana voters have passed a ballot measure to amend the state’s constitution to include the right to an abortion, cementing access to abortion services in the state.  Constitutional Initiative