Beyond Party – Montana First Aims to Break Political Party Strangleholds
Prominent Repubs and Dems Tired of Partisanship, Money Fueling MT Politics
By Bill Lombardi
As factions in Montana Republican and Democratic circles vigorously debate the use of “Dark Money” and spar over outside influences on state races, a new nonprofit has emerged to leverage the seeming rising power of “moderates” who shun party influence and cut legislative deals that anger their partisans.
Beyond Party – Montana First
Called Beyond Party – Montana First, this new nonprofit is helmed by a crew of key Republicans and Democrats who want to temper the partisanship engendered by political parties and ensure that politicians get support to create policy that appears to benefit Montana citizens and not just one political party or another.
“Beyond Party is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to protecting the principles of good government,” the group, which registered with the Montana Secretary of State last October, says on its website.
The group says that “your contribution nurtures Republican and Democratic principles articulated in the Montana constitution by empowering principled candidates, countering the corrosive forces of unrelenting partisanship and unlimited money, and mobilizes citizens to reclaim self-governance at every level.”
Beyond Party President Daniel Kemmis of Missoula told me that members were “motivated” to break from party rule after nine state Senate Republicans (dubbed the “Nasty Nine” by hard-core GOP members) famously teamed up with Senate Democrats last year in the Montana Legislature to “stop really bad legislation, especially about partisan elections for the judiciary.” Currently, candidates don’t declare partisan leanings in judicial races.
“Our feeling has been, that especially those that are in red [GOP] districts, that we’d like to not see them [the nine Republicans] get knocked out,” Kemmis told me. “Most are likely to get primaried. Part of the motivation is to see if there is anything we can do to protect and help these courageous Republicans. And beyond that, we just want to see if there’s anything useful we can do to lower the partisan temperature overall.”
But The Temperature Keeps Rising
The temperature, however, keeps rising in advance of the June 2026 Montana legislative primaries. The feud between more-moderate GOP members, who call themselves Montana Conservative Republicans, and the staunch GOP members who run the party and guide the Montana Freedom Caucus, is boiling over, with social-media darts being lobbed back and forth between the factions.
Montana Freedom Caucus Facebook Post
Far-right Republicans accuse “moderate” Republicans of working with and taking money from Democratic and “progressive” operatives, like Fireweed Campaigns of Helena, while “moderate” GOPers accuse the far-right of being bankrolled by dark money from the Koch-brothers’-funded Americans for Prosperity (AFP) and beholden to “out-of-state interests” and “party bosses.”
Meanwhile, Democrats are, more modestly and discreetly, carping at one another over the same issues – the use of “dark money” that allows donors to be anonymous and is used to elect “moderate” Republicans; the influence of outside groups in dictating who will run for office; and the intervention of a U.S. Senate candidate [Seth Bodnar] who is using former staff and consultants of Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester to run as an independent while criticizing both parties and raising money through the Democratic Party’s ActBlue political action committee account.
Beyond Party wants to eschew the unpleasant work of politics to attract independents
The kind of internecine rugby occurring in both major political parties in Montana is of little use to Beyond Party.
Beyond Party, it seems, wants to eschew the unpleasant work of politics to attract independents and others who want to get things done without getting their hands dirty in partisan shenanigans.
That’s a heavy lift, especially as politicos fiercely compete for attention in a world disorganized by the Texter-In-Chief, President Trump, who has rewired the communication synapses of the masses and patented outrage as a national treasure.
Beyond Party will “actively participate” in elections: “We won’t just endorse; we’ll educate, analyze, and provide clear, unbiased information,” the nonprofit’s website says.
Beyond Party has two purposes: to protect the foundational principles of good government, and to ensure the republic stays strong, relevant, and rooted in the will of the people. Moreover, it will defend citizen self-governance, open government, the democratic process, an independent judiciary, separation of powers, and rule of law.
Who are the bipartisan nonprofit’s founders?
- Former GOP Montana Attorney General and Gov. Marc Racicot, who has publicly criticized President Trump’s sensibilities, judgment and “autocratic compulsions”
- Former Democratic state Sen. Mike Halligan of Missoula, a Vietnam veteran, lawyer, and philanthropic leader who helmed the The Dennis & Phyllis Washington Foundation
- Missoula attorney Mae Nan Ellingson, who served as a Republican – and youngest – delegate to the 1972 Montana Constitutional Convention and has been a distinguished lawyer in state finance law and champion of civic education and constitutional integrity
- Former state GOP Rep. Joel Krautter, a Billings attorney who unsuccessfully ran for Montana’s eastern congressional seat in 2024 and is known for his bipartisan work for rural communities
- Former state Senate President Bob Brown, a teacher and political historian who also served as Montana Secretary of State and ran unsuccessfully for governor as a Republican in 2004
- Former Kalispell Police Department Chief Frank Garner, who served in the Montana House of Representatives as a Republican and worked across the aisle on public safety, accountability and government integrity
- An eastern Montana farm kid who graduated from Harvard, Kemmis is Beyond Party’s president and is a former Democratic speaker of the Montana House of Representatives, former Missoula mayor, and an author who opines on democracy, leadership and civic life
Beyond Party wants to encourage “moderates” of the Republican and Democratic Parties
Beyond Party does kindly critique political parties on its website: “We acknowledge that political parties have played an important role in American democracy from the outset, and that money has played a similarly important role. But we believe that the role of both parties and money should be kept subordinate to the common good. Because that has not happened, unrestrained partisanship and unlimited money have become the twin challenges of our current political system.”
Other efforts to help elect or reelect so-called “moderate” Republicans in GOP-leaning legislative districts in Montana may have more money. But Beyond Party, Kemmis said, has “slender” funding from “some of our friends. We don’t have any big money at all, and really don’t expect to have any.”
Kemmis said he persuaded the group to be transparent, including in how it’s funded. “I’m not certain that we can stick with that and raise enough money to be effective,” he added.
In a follow-up interview, Kemmis said,“I don’t think parties are going to go away.
“If it were up to me to design things, I wouldn’t have this deeply entrenched two-party system. We would be better off if there were room for more parties,” Kemmis said. “I think the most we can do is when we get into polarized situations we should try to encourage the more-sensible people near the middle of both parties so there is some chance of doing joint problem-solving. To me, that’s the most important thing – to be able to be pragmatic in solving some of the big problems we face. When the two parties are locked in a death grip, it becomes difficult to do this.”
Asked about fundamental principles the group supports, Kemmis said, “The core is democracy itself. But that depends on the ability to deliberate. So you have to be able to work across ideological lines at least to the extent to work things out. Another key is some kind of equity on the financial front so that money doesn’t have more of a role in the process than it should have. There has to be some equity and fairness about where the resources come from. That’s not the case now, and there has to be transparency.”
Is “Beyond Party” the path to end the polarization?
It’s hard to keep up with Montana’s intraparty ping-pong matches. Yet it’s fun, vibrant, and lets voters decide – hopefully out in the open – what kind of candidate and political philosophy that they want. To close the blinds on that sunshine would be a disservice to Montana voters, whose historic libertarian and populist streaks are the best counter to too much of anything.
And, simply, let party members choose which faction they like – or if they don’t like political parties, at all.
