House District 3 Rivals Pledge to Fight Over Policy, Not Personalities

After Derek Peachey won the Republican primary for House District 3 in June, he sat down with the legislative district’s Democrat incumbent, Debo Powers, for a coffee.  

The two have Nov. 4 circled on their calendars for similar post-Election Day plans.  

When the opposing candidates met at Montana Coffee Traders in downtown Whitefish some months ago, they made a promise to each other: focus on the policy, not the personal.  

“We can battle it out and differentiate on policy,” Peachey said. “It doesn’t have to be personal. We can both care about loving this community and the values and this place.” 

“We sat down and met each other before the campaign really got swinging after the primary because we wanted to have a personal connection with each other, and we made an agreement that we would not attack each other,” Powers told the Beacon. “There are other groups who will do the attacking, but he and I are good with each other in terms of that.” 

Powers returned to the Legislature in 2025 after defeating Republican Cathy Mitchell, who also ran against Peachey in this year’s GOP primary, in the newly redrawn District 3, which includes parts of Whitefish and northern Columbia Falls, as well as Olney, Polebridge, West Glacier and Essex. Powers won by fewer than 240 votes. 

Nearly two years later, Powers knows she has an even taller task in her re-election bid taking on the Whitefish resident. 

“He lives in the district and Cathy didn’t, and I think that helps,” Powers said. “He gets out there and knocks on doors, and he’s very personable and likable.” 

Despite what could be another competitive race, Powers said she isn’t focused on her opponent. She is running the same campaign that’s gotten her elected before, one centered on the people of the district she calls home. 

Powers, of Polebridge, spent more than three decades as a teacher and administrator, and has long been involved in the outdoor community locally and statewide as a public lands advocate. She was also appointed as District 3’s representative from late 2019 through January 2021, following the resignation of three-term Democratic state Rep. Zac Perry.  

Like her previous bids, Powers’ campaign is largely anchored in affordability, public education, public lands and the environment. She described herself as a hard worker who has a track record of working across party lines to deliver for her constituents in District 3.  

“I love to be in the Legislature because I’m a problem solver and I like working with people,” Powers said. “It’s important to work with people across the aisle. I try to represent my constituents and think about what’s good for Montana. What will help people? That’s what government is supposed to do.” 

Peachey said he, too, is more focused on promoting himself than on his opponent. The technology entrepreneur and small business investor lives in Whitefish with his wife, Stephanie, and two sons, and volunteers and coaches young athletes in the community.  

Peachey’s central campaign platforms include property tax relief, fire mitigation and insurance, support for small businesses, and school choice and parental rights. He described himself as a “Reagan Republican” who believes in low taxes and limited government, free enterprise and Constitutional freedoms — achieving these things through “civility and respect.” 

“I’ve been in business for 25 years, and I feel like being in business there’s an importance to building trust, building relationships, and working with everyone to find creative solutions to complex problems,” Peachey said. “Property taxes and everything else in government is complex, but there are creative ways to get there, and I think that we can find a lot of common ground to get there together if we take that type of approach.” 

Affordability is a top issue for both Powers and Peachey — along with many voters across the state and country.  

Peachey said that for things to be more affordable, “we need to allow our voters, our constituents, to keep more money in their pocket and have to pay less to the government.” He said that can be done in two ways in House District 3: property tax relief and increasing job opportunities.  

“It’s been positioned as a second home tax, but there are some pieces to that,” Peachey said, referencing the 2025 Legislature’s property tax reform measures. “Most people I know whose primary home is here have seen their taxes double, or in some cases triple, and the hardest examples are seniors on fixed income, and that is all over this district.” 

“I think a property tax on unrealized gains is a very unfair tax, and it has hurt us here in Columbia Falls and Whitefish way more than it has in other parts of the state,” he added. 

Affordability, especially for the younger generation, can be addressed by providing “good opportunities, good jobs, a good pathway to success,” Peachey said. 

“As this county grows, we have a need for skilled trades, electricians, plumbers, builders, HVAC, and I’m constantly hearing that we don’t have enough people with that skill set,” Peachey said. “Let’s focus on trades education and give folks an opportunity to really earn a good wage and make a good living here.” 

To tackle the state’s “affordability crisis,” Powers has packaged her campaign into a three-fold approach: property tax reform, affordable housing and medical insurance.  

“One thing that we did really well in the last session was that we continued Medicaid coverage for people with lower income, and that’s really, really important because it’s important for people to know that Medicaid is not a handout,” Powers said. “It’s not free. It’s just affordable healthcare and it’s really important that people be able to have healthcare. We are really in an affordability crisis around healthcare right now because so many people have lost their healthcare coverage.” 

Powers described the 2025 session’s tax reform as “a step in the right direction” toward equalizing the tax burden among classes of property, noting that the new laws have increased corporate property taxes while attempting to relieve residential taxpayers. She pledged to keep working next session for a more equitable tax structure based on the ability to pay. 

As a longtime educator, young people’s right to a quality public education — and the funding formula to achieve this — is another top issue for Powers.  

Powers is supportive of the state allocating more funds for public education and, ultimately, changing the public school funding formula so there’s less reliance on local property taxes and annual school bonds, which are becoming “harder and harder” for people to vote for when it raises their taxes, she said. 

“I just think it’s a system that doesn’t work anymore because people have stopped voting for those levies, so our schools aren’t really able to function,” Powers said. “I mean these levies aren’t for extra things. They’re for basic services in the school, so I think that’s something we really have to work on, is funding public education.” 

Having long been involved in the outdoor community in a range of capacities, it’s no secret that keeping public lands in public hands and the right to a clean and healthy environment are also among Powers’ priorities.   

“People can always count on me to vote for and to advocate for our public lands, for conservation, for clean water and clean air,” Powers said. “I think that’s really important. It’s especially important to people in my district.” 

For Peachey, another key issue being prioritized in his campaign is fire mitigation and insurance. 

“Right now, it’s going to start raining again,” Peachey said. “It’s going to be winter, and we forget about [fire danger] until all of a sudden it’s next summer, and it’s a severe problem because if there was a fire on Big Mountain and the wind turned a certain way … we’ve got really one egress there. I think that has to be bipartisan, and we can’t take radical views on this.” 

Adequately addressing fire danger for District 3 will take “common sense” fire mitigation and responsible forest management, along with properly resourcing firefighters, Peachey said. 

“I’m a believer in public lands and accessibility to our public lands,” Peachey said. “I’m also a believer that you need to thin the forest and do prescribed burns, and where you need access to get in to control fires, you need to have roads.” 

Ballots were mailed to absentee voters Oct. 9. Election Day is Nov. 3. Voters can check their registration status and the status of their ballot here: https://voterportal.mt.gov/WhereToVote.aspx. To register to vote, voters can either bring their completed voter registration application to their county election office or visit their county elections office to fill out a voter registration application and receive a ballot there. 

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