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Democrat · Montana Senate, district 23

Serving since Jul 20, 2018MT 2025–26 session

Portrait of Emma Kerr-Carpenter, rendered as a two-tone print
Official portrait
81%
of State Senate Democrats score to the left of Kerr-Carpenter on the CSIP scale

CSIP score −0.43 (approximate range −0.46 to −0.40, which understates the uncertainty); negative is left of the scale’s centre, positive right. From 159 donors and 897 roll calls.

CSIP places every official on one left–right scale estimated from roll-call votes, campaign donations and the text of statements; 0 is the centre of the scale, not a definition of moderate. The share says where Kerr-Carpenter sits among State Senate Democrats, not how far from the centre.

At a glance

5 measures against State Senate Democrats. Kerr-Carpenter voted against the majority of Montana Senate Democrats 139 times; party unity 89%, in the bottom half of the Montana Senate (average 85%). 85% of Kerr-Carpenter’s itemized money in the 2026 cycle came from Montana, in the bottom half of State Senate Democrats.

The measures on which Kerr-Carpenter sits furthest from the middle of State Senate Democrats, each against the same group, with the CSIP score when there is one. Every number is explained in its own section below.

CSIP ideology

−0.43

More conservative than 81% of State Senate Democrats · ± 0.03

Party unity

89%

Montana Senate average 85% · ranks 36th of 50 · 139 votes against the majority of Montana Senate Democrats

From Montana, 2026

85%

Of itemized individual dollars · ranks 526th of 714 State Senate Democrats

Itemized, 2026

$21.7K

State Senate Democrats’ median $55.5K · ranks 526th of 746

Attendance

99.4%

Montana Senate average 98.9% · ranks 28th of 50 · 2,812 roll calls

Statements

No statements in this window

Peer group: State Senate Democrats. Rank 1 is the highest value in the group; the thick bar is Kerr-Carpenter, the thin grey bar the peer average. The headline is the measure on which Kerr-Carpenter is most unusual among peers (Methods, §08).

Back to topNext: What politicians say

What Kerr-Carpenter says

No statements for the MT 2025–26 session.No classified statements (posts, press releases, newsletters, floor speeches) in this time window.

Back to topNext: Policy

Policy

No policy statements for the MT 2025–26 session.No classified statements (posts, press releases, newsletters, floor speeches) in this time window.

Back to topNext: Ideology

Ideology

Kerr-Carpenter sits at −0.43 on the CSIP scale, left of 0, more conservative than 81% of State Senate Democrats. Approximate range −0.46 to −0.40, which understates the uncertainty; from 159 donors and 897 roll calls.

CSIP, the lab’s Common-Space Ideal Point, places every official, federal and state, on one left–right scale, estimated from roll-call votes, who gives money to whom, and the text of statements. Negative is left of 0, positive right of it; 0 is the centre of the scale, not a definition of “moderate”.

−0.43

CSIP ideal point

Approximate range −0.46 to −0.40. From 159 donors and 897 roll calls. Run 2026-10-25T215945. Blue is left of 0, red right of 0.

← More liberalMore conservative →0Kerr-Carpenter −0.4State Senate Democrats −0.7Montana Senate +0.2All State Senate +0.1

The outlined dot is Kerr-Carpenter, coloured by its side of 0 (blue left, red right, deeper further out); the bar through it is the approximate range (±1.96 standard errors), which understates the uncertainty; the grey ticks below are the medians of Kerr-Carpenter’s groups. 0 is the centre of the scale, not “moderate” by definition.

What this means, and what it doesn’t

The score summarises how an official votes, who funds them and how they talk, relative to everyone else. It does not grade positions as good or bad, and two officials with the same score can differ on any single issue. The ± range is 1.96 standard errors, which understates the uncertainty: scores whose ranges overlap may not differ at all, and even scores whose ranges do not overlap may not differ.

Where Kerr-Carpenter sits

Every official in each group, on the CSIP scale

−2.0−1.00.0+1.0+2.0← More liberalMore conservative →State Senate Democratsmedian −0.7Kerr-Carpenter −0.4Montana Senatemedian +0.2All State Senatemedian +0.1
Show the data
Kerr-Carpenter's CSIP score of −0.43 placed against State Senate Democrats, Montana Senate, All State Senate.
GroupOfficialsMedianShare left of Kerr-Carpenter
State Senate Democrats825−0.780%
Montana Senate50+0.228%
All State Senate1909+0.135%
How to read the strips

Every small dot is one official on the same scale, coloured by its own score (blue left of 0, red right of 0, grey at 0, deeper further out) and spread up and down only to keep dots apart; where a group is crowded the dots overlap, and darker patches mean more officials. The large outlined dot is Kerr-Carpenter in every row; the rule is each group’s median. The table under the figure gives the share of each group to the left of Kerr-Carpenter.

Back to topNext: Money

Money

Kerr-Carpenter reported $21.7K in the 2026 cycle, 39% of the State Senate Democrats’ median of $55.5K. State filings report no small-donation total. 85% of itemized individual money came from Montana.

Campaign money from state campaign-finance filings, as aggregates only; the lab never shows an individual donor. Campaigns must report by name every person who gives them more than $200 in a cycle (“itemized”); smaller gifts are reported only as one total (“unitemized”), so donor counts, donor states, employers and occupations describe itemized donors only. State filings report no small-gift total, so these figures add up itemized contributions only.

Election cycle
$21.7K

itemized in the 2026 cycle

From 64 itemized donors. State Senate Democrats’ median $55.5K.

Where the money came from

Each square is one percent of itemized contributions in the 2026 cycle.

Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)Individuals (itemized): $16.0K (73.8%)PACs and other committees: $4,680 (21.6%)PACs and other committees: $4,680 (21.6%)PACs and other committees: $4,680 (21.6%)PACs and other committees: $4,680 (21.6%)PACs and other committees: $4,680 (21.6%)PACs and other committees: $4,680 (21.6%)PACs and other committees: $4,680 (21.6%)PACs and other committees: $4,680 (21.6%)PACs and other committees: $4,680 (21.6%)PACs and other committees: $4,680 (21.6%)PACs and other committees: $4,680 (21.6%)PACs and other committees: $4,680 (21.6%)PACs and other committees: $4,680 (21.6%)PACs and other committees: $4,680 (21.6%)PACs and other committees: $4,680 (21.6%)PACs and other committees: $4,680 (21.6%)PACs and other committees: $4,680 (21.6%)PACs and other committees: $4,680 (21.6%)PACs and other committees: $4,680 (21.6%)PACs and other committees: $4,680 (21.6%)PACs and other committees: $4,680 (21.6%)Party committees: $1,000 (4.6%)Party committees: $1,000 (4.6%)Party committees: $1,000 (4.6%)Party committees: $1,000 (4.6%)Party committees: $1,000 (4.6%)
  • Individuals (itemized)74 squares$16.0K
  • PACs and other committees21 squares$4,680
  • Party committees5 squares$1,000
Show the data
Sources of Kerr-Carpenter's money, 2026 cycle, one square per percent
SourceAmountShare
Individuals (itemized)$16.0K73.8%
PACs and other committees$4,68021.6%
Party committees$1,0004.6%
What this means, and what it doesn’t

Totals say how much a campaign took in, not how it was spent, and they rise sharply when a seat is up for election; compare cycles with that in mind.

Receipts by cycle

Itemized contributions, 2020 to 2026. The grey line is the State Senate Democrats’ median for 2026.

2020 cycle: $4,395$4,39520202022 cycle: $10.3K$10.3K20222024 cycle: $25.1K$25.1K20242026 cycle: $21.7K$21.7K2026State Senate Democrats median $55.5K
Show the data
Kerr-Carpenter's receipts by cycle against the 2026 State Senate Democrats median.
ItemValue
2020 cycle$4,395
2022 cycle$10.3K
2024 cycle$25.1K
2026 cycle$21.7K

Top donor states, 2026

Itemized contributions by donor state. 85% came from Montana.

  1. Montana$13.6K
  2. New York$990
  3. Florida$470
  4. Massachusetts$250
  5. California$250

Small donations

State filings report no total for small gifts.

Not reported in state filings.

Where itemized donors live

Individuals who gave more than $200, by donor state

Alaska: no dataAKMaine: no dataMEVermont: no dataVTNew Hampshire: no dataNHWashington: $150WAIdaho: no dataIDMontana: $13.6KMTNorth Dakota: no dataNDMinnesota: no dataMNIllinois: $100ILWisconsin: no dataWIMichigan: $50MINew York: $990NYRhode Island: no dataRIMassachusetts: $250MAOregon: no dataORNevada: no dataNVWyoming: no dataWYSouth Dakota: no dataSDIowa: no dataIAIndiana: no dataINOhio: $150OHPennsylvania: no dataPANew Jersey: no dataNJConnecticut: no dataCTCalifornia: $250CAUtah: no dataUTColorado: no dataCONebraska: no dataNEMissouri: no dataMOKentucky: no dataKYWest Virginia: no dataWVVirginia: $50VAMaryland: no dataMDDelaware: no dataDEArizona: no dataAZNew Mexico: no dataNMKansas: no dataKSArkansas: no dataARTennessee: no dataTNNorth Carolina: no dataNCSouth Carolina: no dataSCDistrict of Columbia: no dataDCOklahoma: no dataOKLouisiana: no dataLAMississippi: no dataMSAlabama: no dataALGeorgia: no dataGAHawaii: no dataHITexas: no dataTXFlorida: $470FL
Show the data
Kerr-Carpenter's itemized individual contributions by donor state, 2026 cycle
StateValue
Montana$13.6K
New York$990
Florida$470
Massachusetts$250
California$250
Washington$150
Ohio$150
Illinois$100
Michigan$50
Virginia$50
AlaskaNo data
MaineNo data
VermontNo data
New HampshireNo data
IdahoNo data
North DakotaNo data
MinnesotaNo data
WisconsinNo data
Rhode IslandNo data
OregonNo data
NevadaNo data
WyomingNo data
South DakotaNo data
IowaNo data
IndianaNo data
PennsylvaniaNo data
New JerseyNo data
ConnecticutNo data
UtahNo data
ColoradoNo data
NebraskaNo data
MissouriNo data
KentuckyNo data
West VirginiaNo data
MarylandNo data
DelawareNo data
ArizonaNo data
New MexicoNo data
KansasNo data
ArkansasNo data
TennesseeNo data
North CarolinaNo data
South CarolinaNo data
District of ColumbiaNo data
OklahomaNo data
LouisianaNo data
MississippiNo data
AlabamaNo data
GeorgiaNo data
HawaiiNo data
TexasNo data
64

itemized donors

People who gave more than $200

85%

from Montana

Of itemized individual dollars

How to read the map

Every state the same size. Darker states gave more itemized money; hatched states had no itemized donors; the outlined state is Montana. Gifts of $200 or less carry no address and are left out.

Top donor occupations

Itemized, 2026 cycle.

  1. NOT CURRENTLY EMPLOYED$2,290 13 donors
  2. RETIRED$2,140 13 donors
  3. UNEMPLOYED$1,800 4 donors
  4. MANAGER$1,350 3 donors
  5. N A$1,340 4 donors

Top committees

PAC and committee contributions, 2026 cycle.

  1. YELLOWSTONE DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL COMMITTEE$1,000
  2. CAROL'S LIST$470
  3. MISSOULA FIRE FIGHTERS PAC$470
  4. MONTANA ELECTRIC COOPERATIVES' ASSOCIATION PAC$470
  5. WAY BACK PAC$470

Top employers

Itemized, 2026 cycle.

  1. NOT CURRENTLY EMPLOYED$5,105 22 donors
  2. TOWN PUMP$1,350 3 donors

Aggregates only. Individual donors are never named.

Back to topNext: Votes

Votes

Kerr-Carpenter voted with the majority of Montana Senate Democrats on 89% of party-line votes and missed 0.6% of 2,812 roll calls. Montana Senate on average: 85% party unity, 98.9% attendance. Across all roll calls, Kerr-Carpenter voted against the majority of Montana Senate Democrats 139 times.

2,812 roll calls Kerr-Carpenter could vote on in the MT 2025–26 session, compared with Montana Senate. Attendance is the share with a vote recorded. Party unity counts only party-line roll calls, where most Democrats and most Republicans voted on opposite sides, and is the share of those where Kerr-Carpenter voted with the majority of Montana Senate Democrats. The count of votes against that majority covers every roll call where the majority took a side.

139

votes against the majority of Montana Senate Democrats

Party unity 89%, Montana Senate average 85%, ranks 36th of 50. 2,812 roll calls in the MT 2025–26 session.

Attendance and party unity

The thick bar is Kerr-Carpenter, the thin grey bar the Montana Senate average. The scale runs from 80% to 100% to show the gap.

80%100%
Kerr-Carpenter
Peers
Rank
Attendance
99.4%
98.9%
28th of 50
Party unity
89%
85%
36th of 50
Show the data
Kerr-Carpenter's attendance and party unity against Montana Senate.
RowKerr-CarpenterPeers
Attendance99.4%98.9%
Party unity89%85%
What this means, and what it doesn’t

A missed roll call has many causes, from illness to campaigning, so attendance says how often, not why. A vote against the majority can be on procedure as well as substance, and many fall on roll calls where both parties split; the key votes below show the ones that decided something.

Key votes

Roll calls the lab flags as key

No votes in this window met the key-vote rules.

How key votes are chosen

Automatically: a final-passage or override vote where the measure became law, the margin was under 10%, at least 10% of either party voted against its majority, or the bill was among the 25 most mentioned in officials’ own statements. Up to 25 per window, most recent first; five are shown. Bars show yea on the left, nay on the right, per party.

Votes most often with

The colleagues who voted the same way as Kerr-Carpenter most often

  1. Sara NovakD2,786 shared votes94%
  2. Derek HarveyD2,780 shared votes94%
  3. Ellie BoldmanD2,778 shared votes93%
  4. Pat FlowersD2,743 shared votes93%
  5. Chris PopeD2,794 shared votes93%

Votes least often with

The colleagues who voted the same way as Kerr-Carpenter least often

  1. Daniel EmrichR2,775 shared votes51%
  2. Carl GlimmR2,783 shared votes56%
  3. Jeremy TrebasR2,783 shared votes56%
  4. Mark NolandR2,788 shared votes59%
  5. Barry UsherR2,660 shared votes60%
How to read the agreement lists

The share of roll calls both members voted on where they voted the same way, among colleagues sharing at least 50 such votes. High agreement with members of the other party is common on routine votes.

Full voting record

MT 2025–26 session, loads in batches

Back to topNext: Legislation

Legislation

No bills for the MT 2025–26 session.No sponsored or cosponsored bills are recorded for this official in this time window.

Back to topNext: Online

Online

A site that has not changed in 90 days. Kerr-Carpenter’s official site had 1 page when last crawled on Oct 1, 2026.

The lab crawls Kerr-Carpenter’s official and campaign websites (weekly for Congress, monthly for the states) and keeps every page’s text, so changes can be read later; it also records social accounts and describes the images Kerr-Carpenter posts with a vision model.

Websites

How to read the counts

“Pages crawled” is the size of the site at the last crawl; “changes in 90 days” counts pages whose text differed from the previous crawl. Sites change for many routine reasons, such as new press releases, so a high count is not by itself notable.

Images Kerr-Carpenter posted

No images from Kerr-Carpenter’s posts have been described.

About the descriptions

Written by a vision model and may be wrong. Open the post to see the original. Five are shown; the toggle shows the rest.

State floor speeches

2 turns, Apr 1, 2025 to Apr 23, 2025

Floor speeches

Transcribed from chamber video or captions by the lab. They are not classified for kinds of statement.

Back to topNext: Methods and sources

Methods and sources

How this page was made. Profile built Oct 28, 2026; site last built Oct 28, 2026. Every number on the page is computed from the sources listed here, by the same rules for every official; nothing is written by hand.

The headline

The headline is the measure on which Kerr-Carpenter is most unusual among State Senate Democrats, chosen by one rule for every official of every party. The candidates are the rate of each kind of statement and of extreme labels, party unity, attendance, the small-donor share, the in-state share and total receipts of the latest cycle, the share of sponsored bills that got out of committee, talk-to-bills agreement, and the CSIP score’s place within the party group.

The builder ranks every measure within the same peer group the page compares it with, and writes each official’s percentile: the share of the group below the value, ties counting half, so 0.5 is the median and a value shared by many never ranks first. A measure’s score is how far that percentile sits from the median (0 in the middle, 0.5 at either end), and the highest score leads if it is above 0.25, outside the middle half of the group. Scores within 0.03 of each other are a tie, broken in this order: votes against the party majority, kinds of statement, ideology, roll calls missed, small donations, in-state money, legislation, agreement, extreme labels, receipts.

A measure counts only with at least 200 statements, 100 roll calls or 5 sponsored bills behind it and a peer group of at least 10. Two things never lead: high party unity or attendance, where most members sit, and a high rate of a kind of statement backed by fewer than 10 statements. When nothing qualifies, the headline is a neutral fact instead: statements classified, or years in office. The wording always names the direction (“in the bottom 5% of …”, “votes against the majority of …”).

Identifiers

Profile id
86031b2b-034f-4791-8c0e-b0dd4d776eb6
Open States
ocd-person/86031b2b-034f-4791-8c0e-b0dd4d776eb6

Bulk files with the same data for every official:

Freshness of this profile’s data

  • What politicians sayOct 27, 20261 days agoMembers of Congress: tweets since 2017; press releases, newsletters and floor speeches since 2022. State legislators: tweets since May 2024. Governors: tweets since January 2025. Labels from an LLM classifier.
  • Roll calls (state)Oct 21, 20267 days agoOpen States floor roll calls, 2019 on (none for AK and MO).
  • Bills (state)Oct 28, 2026todayOpen States bills and sponsors, 2019 on; stages from roll calls.
  • Campaign money (state)no dateState campaign-finance agencies, 2019 on; aggregates only.
  • Ideology (CSIP)Oct 25, 20263 days agoCommon-Space Ideal Points (CSIP), current validated run.
  • WebsitesOct 25, 20263 days agoWeekly crawls of federal sites since April 2026; monthly state crawls since June 2026.
  • State floor speechesOct 21, 20267 days agoState floor speech turns (published transcripts and captions), 2020 on; not LLM-classified.

How the measures work

What politicians say
Every post, press release, newsletter and congressional floor speech is read by a language model and marked for personal attacks, policy criticism, policy discussion, bipartisanship and credit claiming. A statement can be in several. Rates are shares of statements in the window. The methods paper.
Extreme labels
A statement has an extreme label when it calls a politician, party or policy “far left”, “far right”, “MAGA”, “extreme”, “radical”, “woke”, “fascist” or “communist”. The target is who the label is aimed at.
Policy areas and agreement
Statements and bills share 25 Congressional Research Service policy areas (state bills are assigned by a language model). Agreement is 1 − Jensen–Shannon distance between the two distributions, shown with at least 20 policy statements and 5 bills.
Ideology (CSIP)
Common-Space Ideal Points place federal and state officials on one left–right scale, estimated jointly from roll calls, campaign contributions and the text of statements, with standard errors. Only a validated run is shown. The methods paper.
Campaign money
Campaigns report by name only donors who give more than $200 in a cycle; smaller gifts are reported as one total. Federal totals and the small-donor share come from the FEC’s financial summaries of each campaign committee. Donor counts, donor states, employers and occupations cover itemized donors only. State filings report no small-gift totals, so state figures are itemized only. The lab never publishes donor names.
Votes and key votes
Attendance, party unity and the count of votes against the majority of an official’s own party come from roll calls (Voteview for Congress, chamber records for the states). Key votes are final-passage or override votes that became law, were decided by under 10%, saw at least 10% of a party vote against its majority, or concerned one of the 25 bills most mentioned in officials’ statements.
Peers and ranks
Comparisons are with the same party, chamber and level (for example House Democrats); state legislators are compared within their state and chamber for votes. Every comparison names its group. Rank 1 is the highest value in the group; tied values share the average of their ranks, and the percentile is the share of the group below the value, ties counting half.

America’s Political Pulse · Polarization Research Lab

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