Happy Wednesday Beacon readers! Mariah Thomas, back with a new ACL, and here for your Daily Roundup dispatch.

It has been a big week in Montana politics-land … and that’s an understatement. We kicked off the week with the major announcement from U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke that he wouldn’t be running to retain his western congressional district seat, citing recovery for unspecified injuries he sustained from his career in Special Operations. A letter the representative posted to social media also cited his belief in term limits.

His departure cleared the field for a slew of Republicans to jump into that race — and jump in they did. Aaron Flint, the conservative radio host of Montana Talks, became an early favorite for several Republican figures, boasting campaign endorsements from Zinke and President Donald Trump, who had formerly endorsed the incumbent.

A video announcing Flint’s candidacy touched on a host of Republican talking points: locals being priced out of Montana, sanctuary cities (which are outlawed in the state) and advocating his stance against transgender athletes participating in sports.

Flint was joined by Dr. Al Olszewski, the Flathead County Republican Central Committee chairman who ran against Zinke in the 2022 primary for the then-new western congressional district. Olszewski finished fewer than 2,000 votes behind Zinke in that primary.

And on Tuesday, Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen announced her bid for the seat. Jacobsen’s announcement video framed her as both a political outsider and a Trump ally, heralding his endorsement in her bid for Secretary of State in 2024.

The Republican primary sets up an opening for Democrats, too, as the party has viewed the western seat as potentially competitive since the new map was adopted in 2021. It’s already earned attention from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which put the seat on a short list of “Districts in Play” for 2026 last month. Still, the Cook Political Report lists the seat as “likely Republican.”

Analysts have said it’s a challenging pickup opportunity with a known Republican incumbent — but Zinke’s now out of the mix, and some of the Democratic candidates who’ve been in the primary on the left side of the aisle put an exclamation point on the opportunity that poses for their campaigns.

“Ryan dropping out puts us one step closer to winning real representation for working people in Montana,” said Sam Forstag, one of four Democrats in the race, in a video posted to Instagram. “This is our chance to elect a new generation of leadership and finally fix broken systems like housing, healthcare, and childcare and to make them work for all of us.”

Forstag is joined in the Democratic primary by Ryan Busse, a former firearms executive from Kalispell; Russell Cleveland, a Navy veteran and rancher from St. Regis; and Matt Rains, a rancher and Army veteran from Simms. Those four candidates will have a roundtable at the Whitefish Performing Arts Center at Whitefish Middle School next Monday, March 9, at 7 p.m.

One independent, Kimberly Persico, of Hot Springs, also filed for the seat yesterday.

On the Senate side, the last-minute, widely anticipated entry of former University of Montana president Seth Bodnar into the race finally happened Wednesday. He’ll be running as an independent — and his entry into the race has been met with criticism from both the right and the left.

Reilly Neill, one of four Democrats in the mix and the fundraising leader among them, posted on X about Bodnar’s entry, highlighting a gender discrimination lawsuit the university faced during his tenure as president.

“In this year, 2026, we don’t need to inject an Independent candidate who has been sued by over 70 women,” Neill wrote. “Bodnar has already cost the taxpayers a bucket of money settling the lawsuit against him for discrimination against 18 women. He won’t cost us another six years of Daines.”

That lawsuit was filed in August 2021, when this newsletter author was still a UM student and covered it for the Montana Kaimin. It was eventually settled out of court with an agreement for UM to pay a $350,000 settlement and provide Title IX training to its employees. The claims in the suit ranged from four original plaintiffs who left the school since Bodnar had become president, to several plaintiffs who claimed a discriminatory culture had existed on campus well before Bodnar took the helm.

The state’s GOP also took aim at Bodnar Wednesday, calling him an “Independent in Name Only.”

Bodnar’s campaign announcement video similarly lobbed critiques at both the Democratic and Republican parties, claiming they’d become ineffective, and a “new approach” was needed.

And in more local news, the Flathead has four House districts with competitive Republican primaries: House District 3, House District 4, House District 6 and House District 7.

House District 3 is currently held by Democrat Debo Powers, but both Cathy Mitchell and Derek Peachy will compete to go head-to-head with the incumbent. In House District 4, Republican Lyn Bennett will contend with a three-way primary, with Shaun Pandina and Nathan Purdy entering the race to challenge her. House District 6, currently held by Rep. Amy Regier who is mounting a run for the state Senate, has two Republicans angling to take her spot in Arthur Dunn and Jim Riley. And Courtenay Sprunger, the incumbent in House District 7, will face a challenger in Luke Maxwell.

If you, like me, are an avid watcher of Montana politics, you know these last-minute filings and curveballs in the big-ticket races are likely to color much of the next few months as we see who prevails in primaries and look toward the general election in November. And we’ll be watching the tenor of these local House races, too. It’s just the beginning … and we’re in for quite a year. I, for one, can’t wait.

But for now, here’s the rest of your Daily Roundup.