Montana Republicans won by huge margins. So did abortion.

When Nondi Harrington filled out her ballot this year, she darkened the bubbles next to every Republican candidate on the ticket. But the Sheridan resident who has spent the last 40 years of her professional life helping health care institutions raise money also voted to pass the ballot measure codifying an explicit right to abortion in the Montana Constitution.

"I believe that abortion is a personal choice," Harrington said. "It doesn't have anything to do with the government, and it's situational. I don't think that anybody should be telling anybody else what to do with health and their own body, especially women."

Harrington wasn't alone in her voting behavior this election cycle.

Republicans — most of whom voiced staunch opposition to abortion rights throughout their campaigns — trounced their Democratic competition up and down the ballot in races for statewide office in Montana, even as the abortion initiative garnered double-digit support on its way to a comfortable victory.

Constitutional Initiative 128 creates a constitutional right to an abortion before fetal viability for Montanans. People can access abortion care later in pregnancy if a medical provider deems it necessary to protect the life or the health of the mother. CI-128 also shields health care providers who offer abortions from prosecution.

With all precincts reporting by Friday, results from the Montana secretary of state show CI-128 secured more than 50% support in 24 of Montana's 56 counties. Needing a simple majority across the state, CI-128 passed with 58% of all votes cast, a total of 336,451 ballots. Of those counties where it passed, 13 also went to Senator-elect Republican Tim Sheehy, who was endorsed by a well-known anti-abortion organization and opposed the ballot measure. In another six counties where Sheehy won by 20 points or more, CI-128 failed but by a much tighter margin of 5 points or less.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life American, a major anti-abortion nonprofit organization, endorsed Sheehy in January and campaigned heavily on his behalf.

According to the group, they visited over 114,500 Montana homes and spent more than 6,800 hours reaching voters through 82 canvassers.

Abortion out-performed Democrats, including three-term incumbent Sen. Jon Tester, all over the state — in smaller, rural counties like Meagher and Granite and more populous counties like Cascade and Yellowstone, in the far west in Mineral County and the far east like Custer County.

"Montanans have long supported reproductive access and abortion care," said Minority House leader Rep. Kim Abbott, D-Helena. "(CI-)128 passing shows that's still true. Clearly, a lot of Republican voters voted for 128."

Though Sheehy softened his stance on abortion as Election Day drew nearer, he spent many months denouncing it in public and private. He peddled untrue claims that Tester condoned abortions "up to and including the moment of birth" during the first debate between the two candidates. In recordings obtained by Char-Koosta News, Sheehy labeled young people motivated by abortion rights as "indoctrinated."

Tester, on the other hand, made reproductive rights central to his campaign platform. As recently as 24 hours before Election Day, he raised the ballot measure during remarks to supporters.

"You know what he's really saying? He's saying that my daughter and granddaughter aren't smart enough to make their own health care decisions," Tester said to a crowd in Helena, referencing Sheehy. "I'm going to tell you something — kids, plug your ears — that's a bunch of bullshit."

How CI-128 passed so convincingly while Sheehy defeated Tester puzzles some, but comes as no surprise to others.

Joan Ehrenberg, an advocate with abortion rights group Northwest Montana Pro-Choice and longtime community organizer in the Flathead Valley, said she was "baffled" and "shocked" by election night losses across the board, especially given the extensive ground game operation they stood up statewide. Significant defeats for Democrats made CI-128's passage bittersweet, she said.

"I don't think reproductive rights hurt anybody on the ballot at all," Ehrenberg said. "I guess the question you would ask is did it take away from the larger effort to get Democrats elected? And that could be a valid question."

Back in 2022, the summer that the U.S. Supreme Court threw out decades-old federal abortion protections with the Dobbs decision, a Nashville-based political consulting firm saw the writing on the wall. The Rural Voter Institute issued a report cautioning Democrats that while abortion ballot measures would motivate voters to turn out, support for reproductive rights would not automatically translate into support for candidates who shared that belief.

"When it is a ballot initiative, it drives turnout," said Isaac Wright, a Democratic strategist who leads the Rural Voter Institute. "Does that equate to a Democratic advantage in a turnout model? The data we have says 'no.'"

Andrea, a southwestern Montana resident who declined to share her last name for fear of community backlash, is another voter whose support for reproductive rights led her to vote "yes" on CI-128 while also casting an entirely Republican ballot.

"I feel like Republicans, if we're for ... less government intervention, why are they telling us reproductive rules? It should be my choice," she said.

Andrea explained that she was better able to stomach votes for the Republicans if she could "still keep control" over the abortion issue by voting for CI-128.

"Nobody can make the decision better than yourself," she said.

Multiple people, including Abbott, the outgoing House minority leader in the state Legislature, took issue with that rationale, however.

"Our state Constitution would not protect us from a national abortion ban," Abbott said.

Ultimately, it seems some voters who supported Republicans and CI-128 believed soon-to-be-president Donald Trump when he said he wouldn't restrict abortion at the federal level, instead leaving it up to states to decide. Voting for the ballot measure alongside Republicans, as they saw it, allowed them to get Republicans into elected office without sacrificing abortion rights.

When asked how she would feel if Trump did enact a federal abortion ban, Harrington said she would be very discouraged, but simply didn't think he would do such a thing.

"He is a man of his word," she said.

Montana isn't alone in this apparent discordance.

The Treasure State was one of 10 with measures on the ballot this cycle to enshrine or expand abortion protections. A majority of voters supported codifying the right in seven of the 10 states that ran the electoral gamut, including New York, Arizona, Missouri and Nevada.

Republicans won handily at the top of the ticket in Missouri despite abortion being on the ballot and were looking poised to win in Nevada and Arizona too, as of Friday afternoon.

A poll ahead of the election from nonprofit media outlet 19th News found that nearly a quarter of women voters who think abortion should be legal all or most of the time would vote for Trump.

Ultimately, that prediction panned out. The Republican candidate for president was handed huge victories in nearly every population group nationally — including women — despite Vice President Kamala Harris presenting herself as the candidate for reproductive freedom.

"Abortion is not and has never been a partisan issue," a spokesperson for Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights, the coalition behind CI-128, said in an emailed statement. "Republicans have tried for decades to create a political divide out of a woman's right to make decisions about pregnancy and her own body. It hasn't worked."

Despite MSRR's repeated efforts at positioning the ballot measure as apolitical, the prominence of reproductive rights in political advertisements and stump speeches from Montana Democrats can't be denied.

Think Big America, a 501(c)(4) that lobbies for abortion rights, also published a report in August encouraging Democratic candidates nationally to "continue to hammer on abortion," calling it a "Republican wedge issue that is working for us and a believable starting point."

"[Montana Democrats'] philosophy is Democrats will show up and vote and support those abortion initiatives and hopefully at the same time they'll support Jon Tester," said Sen. Greg Hertz, R-Polson.

With that strategy having arguably failed electorally in Montana, what to do next is almost equally flummoxing for Democrats as it is for anti-abortion advocates, many of whom were left bewildered by the widespread support for the ballot measure.

Don "K" Kaltschmidt, chair of the Montana Republican Party, acknowledged the popularity of abortion rights, but ultimately blamed the trend on out-of-state groups spending millions in Montana to push CI-128, and therefore influencing residents to vote for it.

"...There were millions and millions and millions of dollars that were spent to push those initiatives through," he said. "We've let these outside groups dictate to Montana how we're going to change our Constitution."

The state Democratic party declined an interview but sent a statement over email.

"Montana voters made it clear: They believe women deserve the right to make private decisions about abortion and their health care — not the government," Executive Director of the Montana Democratic Party Sheila Hogan said in an emailed statement.

On behalf of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena, which came out in strong opposition to CI-128, spokesperson Dan Bartleson said the large margin of support could be attributed to Montanans not understanding the measure. The Catholic Church has repeatedly characterized CI-128 as extreme.

Though the success of CI-128 gave abortion providers like Blue Mountain Clinic in Missoula reason to celebrate, it was not without pause. Tess Fields, the facility's policy executive director, said she anticipates a series of attacks on reproductive freedom as a result of the federal elections for president and the U.S. Senate.

Recalling the memo his organization penned in 2022, Wright said if the election became a choice for voters between rights and the economy, the economy would win. He said Democrats all over the country this election cycle failed to show they could be both.

"There are tiers, if you will, to the hierarchy of needs," he said. "The ability to pay for gas and the grocery bill is fundamental and foundational in the hierarchy of needs. It took precedence."

Carly Graf and Victoria Eavis are reporters for the Montana State News Bureau.

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