Commentary: Flowers Emerges as a Leader by Finding Common Ground

By Russell Rowland for the Daily Montanan

Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade, pictured outside the Capitol in Helena during the 69th Montana Legislature. (Micah Drew/ Daily Montanan)

Pat Flowers has been a member of the Montana Senate since 2019. Flowers was elected the Senate Majority Leader for the 2025 legislative session, and is currently the highest ranking Democrat in the Treasure State.

A small contingency of Republican Senators—nine of them— have made a conscious decision to break from recent trends by working with the Democrats on legislation that is important to both parties. Because the Republicans have a majority of 58-42, this particular number is crucial, because it has swung the vote on several important bills.

Flowers explained how an interesting strategy by the Republican majority backfired on them to create this fissure within the party. It started with the Committee on Committees, made up entirely of members of the majority party, which determines who is going to be assigned to each committee. When this committee had completed most of the assignments, they announced a new committee called the “Executive Oversight Committee,” which was made up of the more moderate Republicans. These moderates believed that the reason for the committee assignment was to isolate them from some of the more influential committees, and they responded by making an effort to break some of the gridlock that has become so prevalent in the past few years in the Montana Legislature.

Flowers has been the beneficiary of this decision as the oversight committee worked closely with the Democrats to bring a better balance to the other committees, putting people in positions where they’re able to utilize their strengths. And this has led to positive movement on bills affecting Medicaid expansion, property tax adjustments, bills affecting the Supreme Court, and funding for schools and housing—all issues that the Democratic caucus, as well as many Republicans, have viewed as the most important of the moment.

Flowers is philosophical about the issues that they don’t agree on.

“That’s kind of the way it should be, I think,” he says. “People should be encouraged to vote their conscience.”

One of the issues Flowers is most optimistic about is the legislature’s efforts to address the enormous property tax increase implemented during the last session.

“There are three bills in the works,” Flowers said, “and two of them propose a graduated tax rate as people move into higher tax brackets. Our bottom line as Democrats is that the final result has to be something that’s fair to lower- and middle-income Montanans.”

Flowers is also optimistic about a majority of the Legislature showing strong support for Medicaid expansion. Bills proposing expansion have drawn support from both sides of the aisle, which also seems important considering the enormous number of Montanans that were dropped from enrollment during the past couple of years.

In terms of education, Flowers is hoping that moving away from the Elsie Arntzen regime will give Montana’s education system a chance to “stabilize.”

“I haven’t heard any news one way or the other yet, but I’m hopeful.”

A bill has been proposed by Senator Jonathan Windy Boy from Fort Belknap that will hold school districts more accountable for the use of their Indian Education for All funding. The ability of the education department to hold districts accountable for those funds has been lax in recent years,

When asked whether he’s enjoying the job, Flowers is frank.

“As much as I’m pleased with how things are progressing, it’s been hard. There is a lot of tension. The conflict between the two factions has brought a constant feeling of tension, so when I get home every night, I’m exhausted,” he said.

I wondered whether the national atmosphere has contributed to that.

“Well, we have so much going on that the last thing I want to do is hear about politics when I get home, so I usually don’t pay that much attention to the national stage right now. But one thing that has had a huge impact is the job cuts — especially with the Forest Service. It’s just inevitable that these cuts are going to impact our public lands, and when fire season starts…mark my words, these same people who are supporting these cuts are going to be the first to blame the Forest Service if things go badly.

“The last thing I want to mention is that I’m really hoping we can utilize the huge surplus we have right now to set up some long term trusts so that money has more long-lasting benefits. Last session it felt as if there was a determination to spend as much of that money as possible, and I think we’re fortunate to still have a lot left over, so I’m hoping we can find better ways to take advantage of that.”