Zooey Zephyr wins reelection to Montana House

Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr (D) won reelection Tuesday, assuring her return to the state Capitol in January nearly two years after her Republican colleagues censured her over language she used to oppose legislation banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors.

Zephyr defeated her opponent, Republican Barbara Starmer, in the Democratic-leaning district that includes the college town of Missoula, The Associated Press projected. Republicans still hold majorities in both chambers of the Legislature and maintain control of the governorship and attorney general's office.

Montana House Republicans voted unanimously last session to bar Zephyr, one of the state's first transgender lawmakers, from the House floor, anteroom and gallery for telling her colleagues there would be "blood on your hands" if they voted to pass Senate Bill 99, which bans gender-affirming medical and surgical care for trans minors.

She had been unable to speak on a bill for more than a week before she was censured, sparking protests at the state Capitol in Helena that led to several arrests.

A federal judge temporarily blocked the state's gender-affirming care ban from taking effect last year, ruling that the measure "is unlikely to survive any level of constitutional review." Zephyr has since become a leading figure in the fight against anti-transgender legislation and rhetoric, spending the past year crisscrossing the country advocating for trans rights and campaigning for Vice President Harris.

"It is an honor to have been re-elected to the Montana House of Representatives," Zephyr wrote in a post on social platform X after her race was called.

"And I promise to do as I have always done: fight for my constituents, stand up against those who seek to break democracy, and be a bulwark against the rising tide of American fascism," she added.