HELENA, Mont. — Montanans will cast their votes to decide who they want to sit in the governor’s office for the next four years.

Incumbent Gov. Greg Gianforte, a Republican, was elected in 2020 and received 54.4% of the vote, flipping the governor’s seat. Although Montana is traditionally a red state, Gianforte was the first Republican since 2005 to hold the governor’s seat.

Gianforte has a background in software development. He founded RightNow Technologies in Bozeman in 1997 and created about 500 jobs in the community. The company was acquired by Oracle in 2011 for more than $1 billion.

Gianforte is proud of his pro-business and pro-employment policies. Among his achievements, he cites the creation of 40,000 jobs in the state in the past three years, as well as a record number of new businesses during his term as governor, with 60,000 new jobs. companies founded in 2023.

He is also responsible for establishing an income tax credit of up to $2,500 for families and up to $1,350 for homeowners. According to his campaign website, Gianforte values ​​a tough-on-crime approach, supporting law enforcement and imposing harsher sentences on those convicted of drug trafficking in Montana.

He is running with the current lieutenant governor, Kristen Juras. Before holding public office, Juras worked as an attorney in private practice and taught at the University of Montana School of Law.

Democratic candidate for governor Ryan Busse wants to take over the governor’s seat from Gianforte, under the campaign slogan ‘get your Montana back’.

Busse is a former firearms executive and served as vice president of sales for Kimber America until 2020. In 2021, he published a comprehensive book about the firearms industry and why he decided to leave it, titled: “Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry That Radicalized America.” He is a gun owner and collector and believes in Americans’ right to keep and bear arms, although he criticizes some of the firearms industry’s marketing practices that he believes encourage violence.

If elected, Busse pledges to protect reproductive freedoms and defend the right to privacy afforded to all Montanans under the state Constitution. He opposes “right to work” legislation, a statewide sales tax, the use of tax dollars to fund private and public schools, and the privatization of public land.

Busse portrays himself as the opposite of Gianforte in many ways. On his campaign website, Busse calls Gianforte a “wealthy extremist” and accuses him of “making Montana unaffordable, dismantling our public schools, locking down our public lands, hijacking our freedoms and creating the system for the wealthy to have manipulated.’

He is running for lieutenant governor along with Raph Graybill. Graybill is an attorney who previously served as chief legal counsel to Governor Steve Bullock and successfully blocked the enactment of fourteen Gianforte laws, including several that limited access to abortion care.

Another name Montanans will see on their ballots on Election Day is Kaiser Leib. Leib is the libertarian candidate for governor. He was born and raised in Montana and is currently a software developer and stand-up comedian.