It’s always been difficult to believe that Montana could possibly elect ‘rats. Plenty of ‘rat history in Butte, Helena, Bozeman and Missoula though.
Missoula and Bozeman vote rat due to being liberal college towns; Helena is full of government unionists (state capital), and Butte is an old mining town, still a lot of old unionist hangers on there. Pretty much the rest of the state is conservative, including Billings and Great Falls, and eastern MT (except for around Glendive and Wibeaux). Good example of a state that was infiltrated by a bunch of rich liberal eco-nuts from the west coast who bought up ranchland and brought their pathetic liberalism with them.