U.S. Forest Service Northern Region
Rob Quist performing in Great Falls, Montana in 2014 in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act.
“If you’re pissed, vote for Quist.”
—Handmade sign at a rally for Montana Democrat, Rob Quist
Editor's note: On May 24th, the day before the election, Republican candidate Greg Gianforte was charged with misdemeanor assault after slamming a Guardian reporter to the floor, breaking his glasses and shouting: “Get the hell out of here.” The reporter, Ben Jones, had been asking questions about the Republican healthcare bill.
It takes twelve hours at freeway speed to cross Montana, not counting pit stops. That expanse has only as many people as greater San Francisco. Voters here are usually out of sight, out of mind.
But not this year.
The year 2017 in Big Sky Country perhaps feels a bit like it did in 1923 when Jack Dempsey took on Tommy Gibbons in a heavyweight title bout in tiny Shelby, Montana. That fight put Montana on the map..
This year, President Trump tapped Montana’s one–and-only Congressman, Ryan Zinke, to be Interior Secretary. Zinke’s seat is up in a special election on Thursday, May 25, that has blown the lid off state spending records, with $12 million spent. The number seems astronomical, considering fewer than 400,000 people typically vote in Montana in an off-year election and the campaign is only three months long.
Nationally, the race has Democrats wondering if they can deliver a major blow to the Trump Phenomenon. Republicans, meanwhile, are pouring millions into the state.
Montana is a red state, but not in the same way as its ruby-red neighbors Idaho and Wyoming. Montana has been growing more conservative, but echoes of its labor past remain. The history of Montana is a history of being screwed by rich and powerful outsiders. The ghosts of the Montana Copper Kings—wealthy industrialists who controlled the state’s copper mines in the late 1800s and bought Senate seats with envelopes of cash —still haunt the Montana electorate, as the pollution from their mines still taints the Clark Fork River.
Montana is a red state, but not in the same way as its ruby-red neighbors Idaho and Wyoming.
Recent history favors Republicans. Montana has not sent a Democrat to the House of Representatives since Pat Williams retired in 1997. One of Montana’s U.S. Senators, Jon Tester, is a Democrat, but he has never won a majority in his two Senate races and Republicans believe he only serves today because of votes taken from the right-hand margin by Libertarian candidates.
Still, the Democratic Party does have a pulse here. Senator Max Baucus enjoyed a long career. The last two Montana governors, the sitting Steve Bullock and his predecessor Brian Schweitzer, both Democrats, handily won the two terms they are allowed by the state law.
But after the 2016 election rewrote the playbook, who knows who might hit the canvas when the final bell rings?
This year’s bout features two highly flawed, rank amateur candidates, both proud of the fact they’ve never held elected office.
In the right-hand corner is tech-industry billionaire Greg Gianforte of Bozeman. In his only prior race, in 2016, the Republican businessman failed to unseat Governor Steve Bullock. Montana voters overwhelmingly supported Trump. But 40,000 of those same voters turned their backs on Gianforte, giving Bullock the down-ticket win.
In 2016, Gianforte kept candidate Trump at arm’s length. No more. Now, Gianforte promises to “drain the swamp,” without a trace of irony. Gianforte’s campaign is an extension of Trump’s promises to champion gun rights and bring back jobs in timber, oil, and coal.
Donald Trump Jr. has campaigned twice with Gianforte, casting for trout and shooting prairie dogs. (Don’t ask. It’s a Montana thing.) Vice President Mike Pence, who shares Gianforte’s social conservatism, has visited Montana to help, riding horseback on prairies they would like to see turned over for the coal underneath.
Gianforte’s Achilles’ heel is his difficulty connecting with rank-and-file Montanans from his estate along the Gallatin River. This blew up in his face in 2016, when bloggers revealed that he had once sued the state of Montana to keep people from using a popular, public boat ramp adjacent to his land. He took a drubbing for that suit and it’s possible it cost him the governor’s office.
Gianforte’s Achilles’ heel is his difficulty connecting with rank-and-file Montanans from his estate along the Gallatin River.
Gianforte’s opponent in the current congressional race is cowboy singer Rob Quist of northwestern Montana, well known from decades on the rodeo grounds and county-fair circuit.
Quist makes no bones about his leftward leanings, even as he campaigns under an omnipresent Stetson. He has recruited Bernie Sanders to campaign with him and staking out positions in favor of single-payer healthcare and decriminalizing marijuana.
Quist is banking on the anti-Trump backlash, which is substantial even in Montana. In January, when icy Montana roads are at their most treacherous, some 10,000 people converged in Helena for the women’s march, said to be the largest political rally in the state’s history.
Quist is banking on the anti-Trump backlash, which is substantial even in Montana.
But the question remains: Can Democrats turn that energy into votes, especially in a state that has largely been neglected by the national party for decades?
Quist’s campaign has been a baptism by fire, with a steady stream of unfavorable news coverage and a torrent of attack ads. Most of these have focused on Quist’s disorderly personal finances, which include tax liens, legal woes, and debt. Quist has tried turning this misfortune into opportunity, saying his financial woes were the result of bills accrued during bouts of poor health, something the mega-rich don’t understand.
In addition, the Republican Party has given the Quist campaign a couple of gift-wrapped news narratives. One, Congress botched its efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Montanans may not be in love with Obamacare, but they, like other Americans, don’t want to see America’s health care system made worse.
Again, Gianforte’s past came back to bite him when news emerged that he had settled a lawsuit charging that his tech firm had fired an employee who had been diagnosed with a chronic illness.
And Gianforte seemed to be talking out of both sides of his mouth on the Affordable Care Act repeal. He told Montana voters he was still reviewing the Republican health care bill. Meanwhile, though, a recording emerged of him telling his out-of-state funders that he was “relieved” that the House had repealed Obamacare.
This health narrative gave Quist a chance to counter: Who would you rather have rewriting America’s health care law—a hard-working, bootstraps Montana craftsman whose family has suffered a budget-breaking medical crisis, or a two-faced billionaire who throws aside his own employees when they become gravely ill?
Montana Democrats have been on the ropes for years. This year, they are pissed and punching back. Are they pissed enough? We’ll see on Thursday.
Ben Long is an author, father, and conservationist in Kalispell, Montana.