MISSOULA - The unofficial results of the Tuesday, September 12, 2023, Missoula Municipal Primary Election have been tallied.
City voters selected two candidates for mayor as well as two candidates for Missoula City Council Ward 5.
Click here to view the latest (unofficial) voting results.
Andrea Davis — who is the executive director of Homeword — has claimed the top spot while current Missoula City Council member Mike Nugent finished in second place. Current Mayor Jordan Hess — who was selected last September to lead the city following the death of long-time mayor John Engen — polled in third. Also on the ballot were Missoula businessman Shawn Knopp and Brandi Atanasoff.
The three Ward 5 candidates were Dave Bell, Bob Campbell and Lynn-Wood Fields. The unofficial count has Campbell leading, followed by Fields and then Bell. The top two meet again in the general election in November.
The results are unofficial at this point with election officials saying they will formalize the data on Wednesday, September 20,,2023 and it's now likely that Davis and Nugent will face off in November.
September 12, 2023 report
Current Mayor Jordan Hess, who was selected last September to lead the city until the election, spent most of his childhood in Helena before attending the University of Montana in 2005. He is also Missoula’s longest-serving council member and has held several leadership roles in transportation and clean energy projects.
His colleague on the council, Mike Nugent, was born and raised in Missoula and is also a UM graduate. He's made a career in real estate and serves on several boards from the fairgrounds to United Way. Nugent currently represents Ward 4 of the City Council, which is the southeast area of Missoula.
Andrea Davis, a Kalispell native, is making her first run for public office after over two decades working in the housing sector. For the past 15 years, she's been the executive director of Homeward and a large part of her platform addresses Missoula's housing crisis.
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The fourth candidate on the ballot is Shawn Knopp, a Missoula businessman who's running on a platform of fiscal responsibility. Knopp has thrown his hat in the ring before but believes with his experience, he can help the city address its taxes and housing issues.
The fifth candidate is Brandi Atanasoff, a public relations consultant, who also has ties to the University of Montana.
There are also several races for Missoula City Council, but only Ward 5 has a primary on Tuesday. Three candidates — Dave Bell, Bob Campbell, and Lynn-Wood Fields — are all vying to make the November ballot.
Bell is a commercial photographer who's lived in Missoula since 2003. He also chairs the Missoula Human Trafficking Task Force.
Fields grew up in the Flathead and is a filmmaker, producer, and educator. She owns Montana Film Tax Credits and Montana Media Center.
Campbell is a retired police officer who began his law enforcement career in Hot Springs and Plains before serving in the Missoula Police Department. He retired in 2022.
