County Commissioners voted unanimously July 22 to appoint Eric Tilleman to fill the vacancy for House District 23 representative created by Scot Kerns’ resignation last month.

Kerns filed his resignation with the Montana Secretary of State on June 3, which was effective on June 30.

The SOS office contacted the Montana Republican Party asking that it contact the Cascade County Republican Central Committee to have them provide a list of three prospective appointees to fill Kerns’ seat.

Results: Primary election 2024

Under state law, when there’s a vacancy in the Legislature, it must be filled by appointment by the county commission in that district.

The appointee must be a member of the same political party and selected from a list of three people provided by the local political party.

On July 10, the Central Committee met to create the list of three names.

Eric Hinebauch, local party chair who is also running for a county commission seat, sent a letter to commissioners on July 11 with three names nominated for the vacancy by the party:

• Eric Tilleman
• Pete Anderson
• John Proud

“Although HD-23 is newly redistricted, it is significantly similar to the current HD-23 represented by Scot Kerns. The three individuals nominated by the CCRCC ran for election in the recent HD 23 Republican primary finishing top three in a four-way race. Eric Tilleman: 822 votes; Peter Anderson: 293 votes; lohn Proud: 185 votes,” Hinebauch wrote.

Under the law, commissioners must made an appointment and notify SOS within 15 days of receiving the list of names from the local political committee.

During their July 22 meeting, Commissioner Joe Briggs moved to appoint Tilleman to fill the vacancy.

He said that since Tilleman was the top vote getter in the Republican primary for the seat, “I see no reason to make an appointment other than that.”

Commissioner Rae Grulkowski thanked the three people who offered to fill the vacancy since “this political environment right now is very heated.”

Commissioner Jim Larson said, “I think voters have spoken” and based on the primary results, he was fine with appointing Tilleman.

Tilleman faces Democrat Sandor Hopkins for the seat on the November ballot.