Meet the all-new SD-38 — and the candidates who want to win it

One year ago, Becky Beard, then a state representative, had just been tapped by county commissioners to fill the unexpectedly vacated seat for Senate District 40 in the upcoming legislature. Jeremy Mygland, meanwhile, had recently launched a long-shot campaign to challenge Jon Tester for the U.S. Senate.

And a year ago, Montana’s Senate District 38 was an odd kludge of Jefferson County and half of Butte, represented since 2017 by Democrat Edie McClafferty, a school teacher from the “Mining City.”

When the 2024 election cycle begins on Jan. 11 with the opening of the window for candidate filings, all of that will change.