Greg Gianforte currently leads Ryan Busse in the election for Montana State Governor, according to initial voting results from AP News.
Incumbent Governor and Republican candidate, Greg Gianforte was elected as Montana’s governor in 2020 and is the first Republican to hold the position in 16 years. He originally ran for governor in 2016, losing to the then-incumbent Steve Bullock.
Gianforte is running alongside incumbent Lieutenant Governor Kristen Juras, who became the second female elected lieutenant governor of Montana in the state’s history in 2020. Before being elected, she served for 32 years as an attorney in private practice in Great Falls and in 2000, joined the faculty at University of Montana Law School.
Ryan Busse grew up on a farm in rural Kansas before he moved to Kalispell in 1995. There he raised his two sons with his wife, Sara, and spent 25 years working as a salesman for the firearm company Kimber, before he left his position as vice president of sales in 2020.
Busse is running alongside Lieutenant Governor candidate, Raph Graybill, who previously served as chief legal counsel to former Governor Steve Bullock. Graybill served as an auxiliary police officer with the New York City Police Department for four years while studying political science at Columbia University. He was also the 2020 Democrat candidate for MT Attorney General, losing to now-incumbent, Austin Knudsen.
