Bozeman Democrat Scott Rosenzweig’s win in Montana’s tightest legislative race was confirmed Monday in the Gallatin County recount of House District 57.
Rosenzweig’s lead over Park County Republican Marty Malone narrowed to 17 votes, but the outcome stayed the same in the newly drawn legislative district stretching from north Bozeman to Cooke City some 133 miles away.
The final tally was Rosenzweig 3,802, Malone 3,785.
Rosenzweig, in an earlier interview with Montana Free Press, said he spent more than $70,000 on the campaign, making it one of the most expensive state House campaigns in Montana history. He said he knocked on more than a thousand doors.
Malone posted a $5,400 bond for the recount after the official canvass of the district put Rosenzweig ahead by 20 votes. Park County recounted its share of the district on Nov. 27 and the race tightened.
Malone picked up two votes in the Park County recount, while Rosenzweig lost one. Park County represents 61% of the vote in the two-county House District. Park County was also where Malone found the most support, drawing 2,891 votes to Rosenzweig’s 1,766.
In Gallatin County, Rosenzweig received more than three times as many votes as Malone. The hand count conducted Monday left the county’s tally unchanged in favor of Rosenzweig.
Recounts in legislative races are rare. House District 57 was the only recount race this year and only the eighth legislative race recounted since 2000. In each case, the number of votes for each candidate changed slightly, state election data shows.
Of those eight recounts, Park County has been involved in two, Yellowstone County four, and Cascade and Missoula counties one apiece.
Newly drawn after the 2020 census, House District 57 stretches from Bozeman City Hall to the remote mountain community of Cooke City, some 133 miles away, and the district nearly encircles and excludes Livingston. Republican and Democratic observers both identified HD 57 as a swing district before the 2024 election, emphasizing that while the district has slightly more Democratic than Republican voters, laid-back Park County might reject a candidate from busier Bozeman.
Democrats picked up 10 seats in the state House and two in the state Senate as more districts were added to Montana communities as a result of strong population growth since 2010.
Confident the outcome would withstand a recount, Rosenzweig traveled to Helena to caucus with Democratic lawmakers in mid-November. Leadership assigned him to the Appropriations Committee and the Subcommittee for Long-Range Planning weeks before the election outcome was official.
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