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Endorses Wilson

The race

One seat on the seven-member Montana Supreme Court is up for nonpartisan election on November 3, 2026: Justice Beth Baker, in office since 2011, is not seeking re-election. Both candidates are Flathead County (11th Judicial District) judges, and both advanced from the June 2, 2026 primary — the only two who ran — with Amy Eddy at 51.4% (140,131 votes) to Dan Wilson's 48.6% (132,503). The race is officially nonpartisan, but the alignment evidence is unusually open this cycle: it is the first Montana supreme court election since the Legislature's HB39 repealed the ban on political parties contributing money to judicial candidates, and the Montana Republican Party has contributed $20,000 to Wilson. Bolts describes the court as holding a 4–3 liberal majority, with Baker part of the liberal bloc, Eddy a liberal, and Wilson a conservative; Baker herself often sided with the liberal bloc as something of a swing justice. Alignment below is derived from appointing authority, endorsers, rulings, and the candidates' own statements — disclosed, as always in nonpartisan races.

Amy Eddy — Flathead County district court judge. Democratic Governor Steve Bullock appointed Eddy to the district bench in 2015; she has been re-elected twice. From 2017 to 2025 she oversaw Montana's Asbestos Claims Court, hearing hundreds of cases, many arising from Libby. She pledges to run nonpartisan: she criticized the law allowing party contributions to judicial candidates, refuses donations from partisan groups and speaking at their events, and counts sitting Justices Katherine Bidegaray and Ingrid Gustafson among her endorsers, alongside Montana Conservation Voters, the AFL-CIO Montana, and other labor and conservation organizations. In her Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey she stated a restraint philosophy: statutes are presumed constitutional, constitutional challenges carry a high burden, and judges should decide narrowly, apply the law as written, and respect the legislative and executive branches. In 2025, temporarily filling a vacancy on the supreme court, she joined the court's decision striking several abortion restrictions as unconstitutional.

Dan Wilson — Flathead County district court judge. Wilson has run for this court before, losing a 2024 race to Bidegaray 54–46 while calling then for an "independent and non-political" court. This cycle he has run openly as a conservative: he describes himself as a "judicial conservative" and a "constitutional conservative," headlined a Montana Republican Party event with the keynote at its winter meeting, and takes the state GOP's endorsement and money, plus the backing of state GOP chair Art Wittich. His allies' advertising attacks Eddy's side on sentencing; an opposing group's ad in turn accuses Wilson of giving "predators a second chance" in his sentencing record — an attack claim we print as an opponent's characterization, not a verified finding.

Pros and cons

Eddy: Credits: A decade on a busy district bench with two re-elections, plus the state's asbestos docket — a heavy, technical caseload few trial judges carry; a stated restraint philosophy in her own questionnaire words (presumption of constitutionality, narrow decisions, law as written) that is exactly the language this page looks for, and we credit it in full; a genuine nonpartisan-conduct pledge (no partisan money, no partisan events) that she has kept as a campaign rule. Dirt and debits: The 2025 pro tem vote is the counterweight and it is heavy: sitting temporarily on the supreme court, she joined striking down several abortion restrictions — a proven appellate act, not a questionnaire answer, and it points the other way from her restraint text; her appointing governor was a Democrat, her endorsers are the labor-conservation bloc, and Bolts classifies her as the race's liberal. A Democrat-aligned judge earns our support on a proven restrained bench record; her one proven supreme court act was not restrained.

Wilson: Credits: A sitting district judge with a supreme court candidacy already vetted statewide in 2024; an open, own-words conservative constitutional identity — voters are not asked to guess; the state Republican Party's endorsement and contribution, and its chairman's personal backing. Dirt and debits: He lost the 2024 race by eight points — a documented statewide verdict; his shift from 2024's "non-political court" framing to headlining party events and taking party money this cycle is a documented inconsistency in his own stated standard, and we price it as such; the opposition's sentencing attack is unverified in this pass and is printed only as their claim, but a sentencing record is exactly the kind of file a law-and-order voter should expect answered before November; his supreme court record is unproven (he has never sat on it), recorded as unproven, not a demerit.

Record gaps

OUR CALL

Our call: endorse Dan Wilson. This is the race where our doctrine's order of operations matters, so we show it. Eddy's questionnaire states restraint beautifully — and her one proven act on this court was to join striking down the Legislature's abortion restrictions. Proven conduct outweighs stated philosophy; that is the proven-versus-unproven rule applied symmetrically, and it is the same rule that protects Wilson's never-served status from being counted against him. Wilson's flaws are real and priced: a lost 2024 race and a framing shift from non-political to party-keynote that voters should weigh. Against them stands an explicit constitutional-conservative identity backed by the state Republican Party, on a court where this seat moves the 2028 math. The choice is between a judge who says restraint and voted expansion, and a judge who says conservatism and is backed by the people who would hold him to it. We take the second.

Vote Dan Wilson.

For the complete Election 2026 breakdown — every race, claim by claim — see the full coverage on our website.

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Sources

Election result — November 4, 2026

Result pending. No verified call (Associated Press or official) as of November 4, 2026. This page will be updated when the race is called or certified. The original article above is unchanged.

AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.

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