# Dave Fern

Dave Fern is a Democratic member of the Montana Senate for district 2.

- Party: Democrat
- Seat: Montana Senate, district 2
- Serving since: 2017-01-02
- Current term: MT 2025–26 session
- Open States ID: ocd-person/9c542cad-1c8f-4dfd-b41f-12468fd2d806

Source: https://americaspoliticalpulse.com/p/9c542cad-1c8f-4dfd-b41f-12468fd2d806 (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

Fern sits at −0.29 on the CSIP scale, more conservative than 92% of State Senate Democrats.

## Ideology (CSIP)

CSIP score −0.29 (standard error 0.01), from 233 donors and 895 roll calls. Negative is left of 0, positive right of it, on one scale for every official. 92% of State Senate Democrats score lower.

## Votes (MT 2025–26 session)

2,812 roll calls. Attendance 99.7% (Montana Senate 98.9%). Party unity 79% (85%). 217 votes against the party majority.

## Legislation (MT 2025–26 session)

Sponsored 5 bills: 5 reached committee, 1 passed one chamber, 1 passed both, 1 became law. Cosponsored 0. 100.0% of sponsored bills got out of committee (Montana Senate 96.6%; rank 5 of 10).

Recent sponsored bills:

- SB 173: Provide income tax relief for property taxes paid (in committee, 2025-05-23) https://openstates.org/mt/bills/2025/SB173/
- SB 172: Revise resort tax eligibility and allow use for workforce housing (became law, 2025-04-04) https://openstates.org/mt/bills/2025/SB172/
- SB 171: Transfer a portion of ending fund balance into the coal trust fund (in committee, 2025-05-23) https://openstates.org/mt/bills/2025/SB171/
- SB 267: Provide a tax credit for charitable gifts to public infrastructure (in committee, 2025-05-23) https://openstates.org/mt/bills/2025/SB267/
- SB 405: Provide additional funding for the housing Montana fund (in committee, 2025-05-23) https://openstates.org/mt/bills/2025/SB405/
- SB 550: Revise taxation of of certain telecommunications property (became law, 2025-05-16) https://openstates.org/mt/bills/2025/SB550/
- SB 404: Require reporting of building permits for appraisal information (became law, 2025-05-08) https://openstates.org/mt/bills/2025/SB404/
- SB 237: Require revenue interim committee to make a recommendation about property tax rates (became law, 2025-05-13) https://openstates.org/mt/bills/2025/SB237/
- SB 152: Constitutional amendment to revise investment restrictions of coal trust fund (in committee, 2025-05-23) https://openstates.org/mt/bills/2025/SB152/
- SB 471: Generally revise vehicular traffic laws related to pedestrian crossings (became law, 2025-05-13) https://openstates.org/mt/bills/2025/SB471/

## Campaign money (2024 cycle)

Itemized receipts $38.3K (State Senate Democrats median $16.2K). 85% of itemized individual money came from in state. Aggregates only; no individual donors.

## Links

- Official site: https://leg.mt.gov/legislator-information/roster/individual/5063
- Campaign site: https://davefernforhd5.net
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fern4house
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-fern-9032284b/

Full profile, with every chart and the methods: https://americaspoliticalpulse.com/p/9c542cad-1c8f-4dfd-b41f-12468fd2d806