By admin 
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen won re-election on Tuesday, defeating Democratic challenger Ben Alke. Knudsen had a 60% vote share to Alke’s 40%, with 528,599 votes counted. The attorney general gave a speech at the Armory Hotel in Bozeman about the string of Republican victories.
History favored the re-election of Knudsen, an attorney from the community of Bainville in northeastern Montana and a former state lawmaker. No Montana attorney general seeking re-election has been denied a second term, dating back to 1942.
Alke had not prepared any concession comments after the race.
The election marks a month in which Knudsen faced a two-day disciplinary hearing, resulting in the recommendation that his law license be suspended for 90 days for refusing to follow a Supreme Court order denigrating judges in 2021.
The attorney general and his allies in the Legislature characterized the conduct allegations against Knudsen as politically motivated.
Alke, a native of Helena and an attorney in Bozeman, campaigned for the restoration of order at the Justice Department.
Knudsen acted as a defender of women and children and as a hands-on prosecutor, although during his conduct hearing he described the attorney general’s office as more of a management position.
“I’m the administrator of the Montana Department of Justice. So within the Montana Department of Justice, there are a number of bureaus and agencies that I oversee. People generally think they are lawyers, but honestly they are much more other tasks,” Knudsen told a jury of lawyers at the Commission on Practice.
Alke described the attorney general’s duties similarly to managerial duties, but said Knudsen had strayed from impartiality and lost staff with experience in civil litigation. Alke pointed to Knudsen’s low grades as a manager at the Montana Highway Patrol, which the attorney general oversees.
The attorney general’s office has been a political springboard to other state offices in recent decades. Three of the five attorneys general who immediately preceded Knudsen went on to higher office. Republican Marc Racicot and Democrat Steve Bullock became governors. Democrat Mike McGrath currently serves as Chief Justice of the Montana Supreme Court.
Knudsen’s political rise was rapid. He was first elected to the Montana Legislature in 2010, became Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2015 and was elected Roosevelt County Attorney in 2018 before launching his AG campaign the following year.