And in 2020, the Montana GOP paid for an effort to qualify the Montana Green Party for the ballot that election cycle by funding petitioners in the state’s major cities to gather signatures to qualify Greens for the ballot, despite the fact that the Green Party made clear it did not do any work to qualify for the ballot that year and had not planned to run any candidates.
In the lawsuit, the Democrats say they will be harmed by having a Green Party candidate on the ballot because the party "will be required to divert staff time and resources to developing new messaging strategies that appeal to voters choosing between the Democratic and Green Party candidates."
Earlier this month, a number of top Montana Republicans were said to have been encouraging the Libertarian Senate candidate to drop out and endorse Sheehy, and former President Donald Trump called out the Libertarian candidate in front of a massive audience in Bozeman.
This most recent suit comes in response to a last-minute shake-up in the Greens' U.S. Senate candidates: In an effort to block Barb from winning the June primary election, Helena resident Michael Downey filed to run as a Green Party candidate as well.
The Democrats were successful in this suit and the Green Party was kicked off the general election ballot.
The last time Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester was up for reelection in 2018, the Montana Democrats also sued to get the Greens out of the Senate contest by alleging that the party did not garner enough valid signatures to get their candidates on the ballot.
It is commonly believed that Libertarian candidates stand to garner votes that would otherwise go to Republican candidates, while Green Party candidates can do the same but to Democrats.
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