Montana historian Brenda Wahler says the state’s history of resisting corruption in politics is playing out again in the present day. REUTERS/Brad Brooks
Montana voters will decide this November whether to make their state the first in the nation to bar corporations from spending money on elections.
The move taps into growing, bipartisan anger over the pervasiveness of so-called dark money in elections.
Similar efforts are underway in over 30 states, but the fact that the measure made the ballot in Montana, a deeply conservative state that President Donald Trump won by nearly 20 points in 2024, may seem surprising. But this is a place where robber barons once ran wild, and people remain deeply suspicious of money in politics, according to interviews with voters, historians and political scientists.
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