UPDATED: Fielder leads in PSC District 4 race as votes are counted
Wednesday morning results showed Republican incumbent Jennifer Fielder overtaking an early lead from opponent Elena Evans, an Independent, in the 2024 race for Montana's Public Service Commission District 4 in western and northwestern Montana.
As of noon Wednesday, Fielder had 55% of the votes counted so far, compared to Evans' 45%, according to the Montana Secretary of State. A total of 110,847 ballots had been counted in the race.
Evans had a strong lead in Missoula County, where noon results showed she held 64% of the 44,246 votes counted there so far. After initial results were released Tuesday night, the Missoula County votes had buoyed Evans to an early overall lead in the race.
But more votes were counted and results released into Wednesday morning — including, crucially, Flathead County, the last in the district to begin reporting results — and Fielder took the lead.
Fielder led in Flathead, Lake, Lincoln, Mineral, Ravalli and Sanders counties. In Flathead County, which recorded the second most votes in the race behind Missoula County, Fielder led 69% to Evans' 30% as of 11:30 a.m. Wednesday.
In a statement posted to her website Wednesday morning, Fielder claimed victory in the race, thanking god and Montana voters.
"I'm grateful for the power of truth and our positive message about the excellent work we have accomplished at the Montana Public Service Commission these past four years," the statement read in part, "including setting the once troubled agency on a better path, expanding consumer choice and saving Montana utility customers millions."
Fielder said the result was a win on her part over "anonymous dark money donors" she claimed had backed Evans, whom she accused of being a Democrat rather than an Independent.
Evans released a written statement just after noon Wednesday. She did not mention Fielder by name or directly address the preliminary vote tally numbers, but she did thank voters in the race regardless of whom they voted for.
"For me, this campaign has always been about placing regular people above political parties," the statement read in part. "Last spring, I decided to run as an Independent because I believe extreme partisanship and political polarization are existential threats to democratic process."
She noted the thousands of signatures more than the required threshold she submitted to get on the ballot, and the "158 volunteers from Stevensville to Libby" who helped gather them.
"I won't stop fighting for Montanans over monopolies," she concluded. "I won't stop fighting for candidates who have the independence to do what's right. I won't stop fighting for a better future for our children. And I need you to fight for hope as well."
Evans, from Missoula, challenged Fielder, of Thompson Falls, who was elected to the PSC in 2020 over Democrat Monica Tranel. Fielder was unchallenged in this year's Republican primary election after Al Dunlap of St. Regis was disqualified for violating state political practice laws.
Evans gathered more than 5,000 verified petition signatures — well exceeding the required 3,050-signature threshold — to qualify for the ballot. No Democrats ran for the seat this year.
PSC District 4 includes "all or parts of Lincoln, Flathead, Sanders, Mineral, Lake, Missoula and Ravalli Counties," according to the body's website. It includes significant parts of Missoula and Kalispell, and stretches from the middle of the Bitterroot Valley on the south through to the U.S.-Canada border on the north.
The PSC districts, set by the Republican-controlled state Senate in 2023, are likely illegally gerrymandered to disfavor non-Republican voters , a court ruled earlier this year. Specifically, cities like Missoula and Bozeman were split between districts to dilute the power of left-leaning voters concentrated there. But the judge allowed the districts to remain in place for the 2024 election because there wasn't time to remake them before the election and the previous districts were imbalanced by population.
The PSC regulates large utility companies that operate as monopolies in the state, primarily NorthWestern Energy and Montana-Dakota Utilities. The commission approves the utility rates the companies charge Montana's more than 400,000 utility customers. In theory, the commission works to keep things like electricity and natural gas affordable and reliable for consumers while also ensuring companies' revenue covers their costs to provide energy.
The PSC is comprised of five commissioners, one from each of the state's five districts, who each serve four-year terms. They make a base salary of $115,876 annually, are not required to work a certain amount of hours, and can hold other jobs. The commission has been entirely Republican since 2009, with many former state legislators running for the body after leaving the statehouse.
Fielder herself is a former state senator who served eight years in the Legislature, from 2012–20. She served on the Legislative Consumer Committee that oversaw the PSC, as well as the committees for judiciary, fish and game, and natural resources. She previously worked for two decades in planning, design and project management of utility, transportation and public works infrastructure.
Fielder's biography on the PSC website states that she led a software modernization project for the body and reorganized its strategic planning and internal policy manual. Her campaign website claims she saved Montana consumers $35 million in her four years on the PSC.
Fielder is also the CEO of the American Lands Council , which advocates for states wresting control of federal public lands from the U.S. government. The group is helping Utah sue the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to take its lands in the state.
She was criticized in 2023, along with the four other commissioners, for approving a 28% increase in NorthWestern Energy rates for residential customers. The rate increase was a 28% jump over energy rates from a year prior, in summer 2022, and was 8% more than existing rates under an interim increase of 19% the PSC approved in fall 2022.
On her campaign website , Fielder denied that the PSC approved a 28% rate increase, writing that "Those who claim the PSC did are incorrect." In fact, NorthWestern's energy rates for residential consumers increased by 28% under the plan the PSC approved .
Fielder ignited controversy in 2021 when she left a voicemail for staff at St. Peter's Health hospital in Helena in which she threatened to sue the hospital for not providing unapproved and unproven treatments — ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine — for a politically connected friend who was hospitalized there with COVID. Hospital officials said they were "harassed and threatened" by Fielder, Attorney General Austin Knudsen and his deputy, Kris Hansen, in the matter.
PSC commissioners selected Fielder as the body's vice president in January 2023.
Evans has told the news media, and states on her campaign website, that she was compelled to run against Fielder because of her vote in favor of the 28% rate increase. Evans holds a master's degree in geology from University of Montana and is a water quality expert. She works as Missoula County's environmental health manager, overseeing the county departments for air quality, water quality and junk vehicles. She was previously the director of the Montana Association of Conservation Districts.
Joshua Murdock covers the outdoors and natural resources for the Missoulian. He previously served as editor-in-chief of The Boulder Monitor in Jefferson County, Montana, and has worked as a newspaper reporter and photographer in rural towns in Idaho and Utah.
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