Ellsworth Challenges Schillinger In Eastern Montana House Race
State Sen. Jason Ellsworth, a Hamilton Republican who has been charged with official misconduct, has filed for election in House District 34, which is in southeastern Montana.
That seat is currently held by Rep. Jerry Schillinger, a Republican who is chairperson of the Freedom Caucus. Schillinger has been in the Montana House since 2020 and was on the Appropriations Committee last session and served as vice chairperson of the Rules Committee.
Ellsworth has represented Hamilton as a state senator since 2019 and is now filing in a district hundreds of miles away.
Ellsworth did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment on candidacy. Lee Montana reported he owns property in the district and shared a partial photo of his drivers license with an address in Custer County, near Ismay.
Ellsworth notably joined eight other Republican senators last Legislative session on voting with Democrats on committee assignments and significant pieces of legislation.
Schillinger said he wasn’t surprised a challenger filed in his race.
“The Democrats that call themselves Republicans had vowed to put challengers in every conservative race,” Schillinger told the Daily Montanan on Friday, March 6 The breakaway senators have drawn significant ire from the state GOP, which kicked those nine Republicans out of the party following the 2025 Legislative session.
Ellsworth filed with a Hamilton P.O. box on March 4. Schillinger filed with a Circle address in the middle of February.
“The biggest thing I heard was a real frustration with people that campaigned as conservatives and then went to Helena and became Democrats,” Schillinger said of conversations with his constituents. “And I think you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone in my district that feels that way about me.”
Schillinger has served in the Montana House since 2020 and has ran unopposed in the last two elections. The last time he was challenged, in 2020, he won by nearly 5,000 votes in a race that had slightly over 6,000 cast total.
Schillinger said he’s focused on property tax legislation that passed last session, which has been a major topic of conversation in the state Republican party, saying, “It wasn’t just bad, it was terrible.”
Schillinger noted regional differences should be part of the conversation around property taxes, noting the oil boom and bust cycle as a comparison.
He added he also wants to see all energy producers — including wind, solar and coal — be taxed at the same rate. It will be one of the first bills he submits to the Legislature, he said. Ellsworth is under investigation for allegedly procuring a $170,000 contract for a friend and business associate in his final days as Senate president during the 2023 Legislative session. Late last year, a Lewis and Clark County District judge found probable cause in the case and Ellsworth is due back in court later this month.
Ellsworth was stripped of his committee assignments in a contentious state Senate floor hearing last year — many Republicans wanted him fully kicked out of the Senate.
