# Jonathan Karlen

Jonathan Karlen is a Democratic member of the Montana House for district 98.

- Party: Democrat
- Seat: Montana House, district 98
- Serving since: 2023-01-02
- Current term: MT 2025–26 session
- Open States ID: ocd-person/5692ad8b-7258-409d-bbf3-63d6748e8b68

Source: https://americaspoliticalpulse.com/p/5692ad8b-7258-409d-bbf3-63d6748e8b68 (America’s Political Pulse, Polarization Research Lab), data through 2026-10-27. Data under CC BY 4.0. Cite as: Westwood, Sean J., and Yphtach Lelkes. 2024. America's Political Pulse [data set].

## Headline

100% of Karlen’s itemized money in the 2026 cycle came from Montana, in the top tenth of State House Democrats.

## What Karlen says (MT 2025–26 session)

65 classified statements: 65 posts on X. Each rate is the share of statements with the label, against the State House Democrats average; rank 1 is the highest rate.

| Label | Karlen | State House Democrats average | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal attacks | 0.0% | 2.5% | 584 of 764 |
| Policy criticism | 21.5% | 10.4% | 107 of 764 |
| Policy discussion | 81.5% | 39.2% | 11 of 764 |
| Bipartisanship | 29.2% | 2.9% | 1 of 764 |
| Credit claiming | 53.8% | 14.4% | 3 of 764 |
| Extreme labels | 1.5% | 1.0% | 155 of 764 |

Most discussed policy areas: Education 28% (State House Democrats 15%); Families 19% (State House Democrats 5.0%); Taxation 19% (State House Democrats 3.6%); Housing and Community Development 17% (State House Democrats 6.2%); Health 13% (State House Democrats 15%).

## Ideology (CSIP)

CSIP score −0.49 (standard error 0.03), from 268 donors and 300 roll calls. Negative is left of 0, positive right of it, on one scale for every official. 70% of State House Democrats score lower.

## Votes (MT 2025–26 session)

2,755 roll calls. Attendance 100% (Montana House 99.2%). Party unity 92.0% (89%). 110 votes against the party majority.

## Legislation (MT 2025–26 session)

Sponsored 1 bills: 1 reached committee, 0 passed one chamber, 0 passed both, 0 became law. Cosponsored 0.

Recent sponsored bills:

- HJ 38: Interim study on bolstering public participation in the session/legislature (in committee, 2025-05-22) https://openstates.org/mt/bills/2025/HJ38/
- HJ 41: Study resolution on the landlord tenant act and mobile home lot rental act (in committee, 2025-05-20) https://openstates.org/mt/bills/2025/HJ41/
- HB 264: Generally revise wildlife location data subject to public information requests (became law, 2025-05-08) https://openstates.org/mt/bills/2025/HB264/
- HB 422: Allow covenants that provide housing affordability (in committee, 2025-05-20) https://openstates.org/mt/bills/2025/HB422/
- HB 335: Revise laws related to professional licensing board appointments and reporting requirements (became law, 2025-04-07) https://openstates.org/mt/bills/2025/HB335/
- HB 457: Revise best beginnings eligibility (in committee, 2025-05-20) https://openstates.org/mt/bills/2025/HB457/
- HB 304: Revise security deposit laws to provide tenants more information and time (in committee, 2025-05-20) https://openstates.org/mt/bills/2025/HB304/
- HB 305: Establish the mobile home park dispute resolution program (in committee, 2025-05-20) https://openstates.org/mt/bills/2025/HB305/
- HB 399: Revise prior authorization laws (became law, 2025-04-17) https://openstates.org/mt/bills/2025/HB399/
- HB 456: Provide best beginnings scholarships to child care workers (passed both chambers, 2025-06-19) https://openstates.org/mt/bills/2025/HB456/

## Campaign money (2026 cycle)

Itemized receipts $6,556 (State House Democrats median $40.4K). 100% of itemized individual money came from in state. Aggregates only; no individual donors.

## Recent statements

Newest first. Posts on X are listed by date and link only.

- 2025-10-30 · Post on X · labels: policy discussion, credit claiming · https://x.com/KarlenforHD98/status/1983973801718378648
- 2025-10-30 · Post on X · labels: policy discussion, credit claiming · https://x.com/KarlenforHD98/status/1983973804104937574
- 2025-08-05 · Post on X · labels: policy discussion · https://x.com/KarlenforHD98/status/1952846688030474659
- 2025-08-05 · Post on X · labels: policy discussion, credit claiming · https://x.com/KarlenforHD98/status/1952846689892794500
- 2025-07-31 · Post on X · labels: bipartisanship, credit claiming · https://x.com/KarlenforHD98/status/1950986281778872760
- 2025-06-30 · Post on X · labels: policy criticism, policy discussion · https://x.com/KarlenforHD98/status/1939812795853263311
- 2025-06-30 · Post on X · labels: policy discussion, credit claiming · https://x.com/KarlenforHD98/status/1939812797925232902
- 2025-06-30 · Post on X · labels: policy discussion, credit claiming · https://x.com/KarlenforHD98/status/1939812800173674882
- 2025-06-23 · Post on X · labels: policy criticism, policy discussion, credit claiming · https://x.com/KarlenforHD98/status/1937195838372970708
- 2025-06-23 · Post on X · labels: bipartisanship · https://x.com/KarlenforHD98/status/1937195840617218222

## Links

- Official site: https://leg.mt.gov/legislator-information/roster/individual/7631
- X: https://x.com/KarlenforHD98
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.karlen.5
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KarlenForHD96/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rep.karlen/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-karlen/

Full profile, with every chart and the methods: https://americaspoliticalpulse.com/p/5692ad8b-7258-409d-bbf3-63d6748e8b68