{"id":262440,"date":"2026-03-02T09:27:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T16:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/montanafreepress.org\/?p=262440"},"modified":"2026-03-03T14:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T21:42:12","slug":"poll-week-how-montanans-feel-about-sales-tax-immigration-and-state-officials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montanafreepress.org\/2026\/03\/02\/poll-week-how-montanans-feel-about-sales-tax-immigration-and-state-officials\/","title":{"rendered":"Poll week: How Montanans feel about sales tax, immigration and state officials"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s poll week here at Montana Free Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re publishing results from an MTFP-Eagleton poll we\u2019ve conducted in late December and early January as part of our ongoing Montana Insights project, examining Montana voters\u2019 opinions on everything from a statewide sales tax (not popular) to the geographic of eastern Montana (mixed takes) and the president\u2019s immigration agenda (quite controversial). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ll be rolling out those and other poll results over several days in the form of stories on our website, montanafreepress.org<\/a> \u2014 and rounding up some of the most interesting takeaways with updates to this post between March 2 and March 6, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what we\u2019ve got:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Most Montana voters don\u2019t want a statewide sales tax<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Nearly half of respondents, 48% indicated that they \u201cstrongly\u201d oppose a statewide sales tax even if the revenue is used to reduce property tax bills. That sentiment was firmly bipartisan, with only 34% of Republicans, 38% of Democrats and 32% of independents voicing support for a sales tax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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READ MORE<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Montana voters <\/a>overwhelmingly view cost as a major hurdle in accessing mental health care<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Montana voters named cost as a major perceived barrier to mental health care access. Fewer respondents rated physical distance and stigma as a significant hurdle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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READ MORE<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\u2018The mostly flat part\u2019: what our poll respondents say about where Eastern Montana really begins<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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A question on how to divide Montana\u2019s eastern region from its western one didn\u2019t produce a clear consensus. The top selections for a dividing line were quite literally hundreds of miles apart \u2014 Billings and the Continental Divide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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READ MORE<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Montanans want more solar, natural gas development, are less interested in new coal plants<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Solar and natural gas power make up a small share of the state\u2019s energy mix, but Montanans are bullish on generating more electricity with them. Additional power from coal plants and wind farms proved to be less popular among poll respondents, with roughly one-third saying they would prefer less electricity from these sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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READ MORE<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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75% of voters want Montana to have at least as much federal land as it does now<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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A majority of Montana voters across the political spectrum say they want the scope of federal land ownership to stay the same or expand. With 62% of Republicans polled agreeing, the findings suggest a gap between the Montana Republican Party Platform \u2014\u00a0 which supports federal land transfer to state ownership \u2014 and Republican voters.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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READ MORE<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We polled Montana voters on an array of issues. Results will roll out the week of March 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1949,"featured_media":250848,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-feature.php","format":"standard","meta":{"everlit_article_id":"","everlit_hide_embed":false,"everlit_embed_size":"","everlit_generation_settings":[],"_everlit_article_id":"","_everlit_hide_embed":false,"_everlit_embed_size":"","_everlit_generation_settings":[],"_everlit_content_hash":"","_everlit_metadata_hash":"","newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-03-02T16:27:36Z","apple_news_api_id":"52b769d7-3714-4832-8edf-6d748341a577","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-03-03T21:42:08Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAg==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AUrdp1zcUSDKO3210g0Gldw","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_primary_brand":0,"_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"hidden","newspack_post_subtitle":"We polled Montana voters on an array of issues. Results will roll out the week of March 2.\n","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[34982],"tags":[34979],"post_format":[],"brand":[],"partner":[],"series":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"type-of-work":[],"coauthors":[2932],"class_list":["post-262440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-montana-insights","tag-montana-insights","entry"],"slp_mobile_featured_image":{"id":250848,"href":"https:\/\/montanafreepress.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250848","image_path":"https:\/\/montanafreepress.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250812LM-Townsend-0002-scaled.jpg","caption":"Cars roll through downtown Townsend on Sunday, Aug. 10, 2025."},"slp_coauthors":[{"display_name":"MTFP Staff","user_nicename":"mtfp-staff","author_link":"https:\/\/montanafreepress.org\/author\/mtfp-staff\/"}],"slp_primary_category":{"id":34982,"name":"Montana Insights"},"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"How Montanans feel about sales tax, immigration and state officials<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We polled Montana voters on an array of issues. 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