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Articles written by Arren Kimbel-sannit


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  • The GOP scrum for Montana's second House district

    Arren Kimbel-Sannit, Montana Free Press|Updated May 17, 2024

    The eastern congressional district candidate forum that the Yellowstone County Republicans hosted at their Lincoln Reagan Dinner in April was, by the standards of campaign-season political events, remarkable. But not because of emotional fireworks or raised voices or intra-party bickering. Those are all commonplace. What was remarkable, instead, was that in a sprawling Montana Republican Party with no shortage of internal divides, almost all of the eight Republicans vying for...

  • Matt Rosendale drops out of eastern Montana House race

    Arren Kimbel-Sannit, Montana Free Press|Updated Mar 15, 2024

    Continuing a series of campaign reversals, Republican Montana Congressman Matt Rosendale announced Friday morning that he will not seek re-election to the state's eastern U.S. House district. Rosendale, a hardliner who was elected to the House in 2020 after serving as Montana State Auditor, launched a long-anticipated campaign for the U.S. Senate Feb. 9, only to call it off six days later. Then, at the end of February - by which point several Republicans had already begun...

  • Rosendale drops out of race for U.S. Senate 

    Arren Kimbel-Sannit, Montana Free Press|Updated Feb 23, 2024

    Montana Congressman Matt Rosendale, who just last week announced a highly anticipated run for U.S. Senate, is dropping his campaign after former President Donald Trump - the ultimate kingmaker in modern GOP politics - endorsed his primary opponent Tim Sheehy last Friday, shortly after Rosendale's announcement. "I have long been a supporter of the President, and remain so. But I have been forced to calculate what my chances of success would be with Trump supporting my...

  • Transparency project aims to help Montanans navigate their right to know

    Arren Kimbel-Sannit, Montana Free Press|Updated Jan 11, 2024

    This story is excerpted from Capitolized, a weekly newsletter featuring expert reporting, analysis and insight from reporters of Montana Free Press. A group of Montana law students and young activists launched an organization this week to help facilitate freedom-of-information requests and to educate both the public and policymakers on the state Constitution's right to know. The founders of the Montana Transparency Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, say they want to complement the state's existing landscape of FOI...

  • Who was Tim Sheehy before he started running for Senate? Here's what we know

    Arren Kimbel-Sannit, Montana Free Press|Updated Dec 13, 2023

    Before Tim Sheehy was the frontrunner in Montana's 2024 Republican primary for U.S. Senate, the ex-Navy SEAL, aerial firefighter, millionaire business owner, part-time rancher and occasional political donor was a 2004 graduate of a Minneapolis-St. Paul area private high school who grew up in a lake house outside Minnesota's Twin Cities. Sheehy emerged earlier this year from relative obscurity as a top recruit of the National Republican Senatorial Committee - the organization...

  • Sheehy's political positions at forefront during 'America First' town hall

    Arren Kimbel-Sannit, Montana Free Press|Updated Aug 9, 2023

    Montana U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy was in Gallatin Gateway Thursday for a town hall moderated by the America First Policy Institute, a right-wing think tank founded by former advisers to former President Donald Trump. And while his team ushered Sheehy away after the event and declined to field questions from Montana Free Press - questions that would have addressed, for example, how he plans to ethically run for Senate while continuing to serve as CEO of an aerial...

  • Local Republicans name three candidates to replace retiring Sen. Terry Gauthier

    Arren Kimbel-Sannit, Montana Free Press|Updated Dec 7, 2022

    Members of the Lewis and Clark and Powell County Republican central committees on Friday advanced three candidates to replace resigning Sen. Terry Gauthier, R-Helena, in Senate District 40. By statute, the decision now falls to the Lewis and Clark and Powell county commissions, which will choose between sitting Rep. Becky Beard, R-Elliston, Helena businessman and former state Senate candidate Matt Olson, and Conrad Evarts, who guides international hunting and adventure trips...