When the Montana Districting and Apportionment Commission adopted criteria and goals for dividing Montana into two Congressional Districts it included a goal of considering competitiveness in its decision-making. That made sense, for history is very clear: Montana, over the years, has been competitive between the two major parties.

It is easy to look at the most recent election results of 2020 and declare that Montana is not a competitive state politically. But a landslide of sorts in one election does not define the state permanently. Our history is replete with cases where the result...