Fundraising is an essential part of running a campaign at any level. When done openly and honestly, it doesn’t cause much of a problem. Progressive donors funding progressive causes and candidates? Makes sense. Conservative donors funding conservative causes and candidates? Perfectly normal. However, progressive donors funding progressive candidates and then calling them conservative doesn’t make sense, and it isn’t normal.

In Montana, liberal elites like Democrat megadonor Melinda Gates, failed Democrat presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg, and former Clinton Climate Initiative director Kathryn Murdoch have been funneling millions of dollars to progressive legislative candidates but telling the public that those candidates are actually Republicans. They are lying through their teeth to the people of Montana and hoping we don’t notice. But we did notice.

The organization “Conservatives4MT” appears like a Republican-aligned group on the surface, but really it’s part of the progressive dark money network. They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on mailers, digital ads, and radio campaigns for legislative candidates that ended up voting more like Democrats than Republicans once in office.

The dark money gets laundered into Montana politics through several organizations, who also support groups like Planned Parenthood and Forward Montana. Why would these organizations also support “Republican” candidates? It’s simple: they’re not really Republicans; they’re pawns for progressives.

Republican voters need to carefully check out each candidate and even ask them directly whether they were backed by liberal groups like Conservatives4MT, Guarantee PAC, Unite America, or WPLN Action. If progressive donors backed their campaign, whose values are they really representing?

Liberals like Llew Jones, Josh Kassmier, Brad Barker, and David Bedey (to name a few) run as Republicans but fundraise and vote like Democrats. Last session, they spent more time scheming with Democrat leadership than they did speaking to their Republican peers. Liberal dark money explains who’s pulling their strings. If they won’t be honest with Montanans about who’s supporting them, then it’s our duty to expose them.

The Montana Republican Party is working hard to deliver a Bright Red Future driven by everyday Montanans, not swamp donors.

Don’t let liberal billionaires handpick your Republican legislators. Do your research, look at their votes, and follow the money.

Senator Jeremy Trebas
SD-10 (Great Falls)

Published in Lee Enterprises newspapers, March 14, 2026 (https://helenair.com/opinion/column/article_bddc3a88-f403-5646-8f3b-7d174cba62a1.html)