James Brown (born 1971)^[1] is an American politician who is currently serving as the 18thMontana State Auditor since 2025.^[2][3][4] As a Republican he served as a member of the Montana Public Service Commission.^[5]

Brown is from Beaverhead County, where his family homesteaded in the late 1800's. Brown graduated from Beaverhead County High School in 1989. He earned a degree in political science and history from the University of Montana at Missoula, a J.D from Seattle University School of Law in 2004, and a master's degree in tax law from the University of Washington at Seattle in 2005. His career experience includes working as a policy aide, a legislative director, and owning and operating the James Brown Law Office. He has been a leading conservative voice in Montana spanning decades representing the Republican Party of Montana as legal council and the Trump campaign in Montana.

In 2020, James Brown was elected as the Public Service Commissioner for District 3. He won this election by nearly 9 points. Following his election to the Public Service Commission, he was elected the President of the Public Service Commission.^[6]

In 2022, Brown ran and lost a race forMontana Supreme Court to the incumbent justiceIngrid Gustafson. While the office is considered non-partisan, Montana Republican leaders supported Brown early in his campaign, setting the stage for an election with partisanship overtones.^[7] The race was named as the most expensive in Montana history for the office, and Brown attributed his loss on the "millions of dollars in liberal money" that had flooded the state in the final weeks of the race.^[8][9]

In 2024, Brown was elected to be the Montana state Auditor defeating Democratic candidate John Repke with over 61% of the vote.^[10]

• 1970s births
• Living people
• Montana politicians

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Date of birth not in Wikidata
• Place of birth missing (living people)
• Year of birth missing (living people)