This year Montanans voted to fill two open seats on the Montana Supreme Court, an associate justice and chief justice. Polls recently
closed and the races have yet to be called.
The chief justice candidates are Jerry Lynch and Cory Swanson.
Jerry Lynch is a former federal magistrate judge for the District of Montana working out of Missoula. Lynch, a Butte native, served as a law clerk for federal judge and former Montana chief justice Paul Hatfield. He then spent ten years in private practice before serving as a magistrate judge from 2006 to 2019.
Cory Swanson, of Townsend, has served as the county attorney for Broadwater County since 2015. Prior to that, he worked as a deputy attorney general under former Attorney General Tim Fox. In addition, he’s an officer with the Montana Army National Guard.
The associate justice candidates are Dan Wilson and Katherine Bidegaray.
Dan Wilson, of Kalispell, is one of five judges of the 11th Judicial District, which covers Flathead County. He was elected to the position in 2016 and reelected in 2022. Wilson previously worked as a deputy county attorney, then spent about a decade in private practice, doing a variety of work – including family law and criminal defense. In 2010, he was elected as a justice of the peace for Flathead County.
Katherine Bidegaray, of Sidney, has been a district judge since 2003 – one of two serving the 7th Judicial District, which covers Richland, Dawson, McCone, Prairie and Wibaux Counties on Montana’s eastern edge. She said her rural and eastern Montana background would bring a different perspective to the court.
