On the steps of the Montana State Capitol, Governor Greg Gianforte was officially sworn in Monday for his second term as the 25th Governor of Montana. Accompanied by his wife, First Lady Susan Gianforte, the ceremony marked a historic milestone, as Gianforte became the first Republican governor to secure a second term since 1996. Chief Read More…
U.S. Senator Steve Daines has announced his committee assignments for the 119th Congress, taking on influential roles in the Senate Committees on Finance, Foreign Relations, Energy and Natural Resources, and Indian Affairs. These assignments place Daines at the center of critical policy discussions affecting Montana and the nation. “It’s an honor to serve Montanans in Read More…
Kenneth Britton “Britt” Cotter, 48, who was recently elected District Court Judge for Lake and Sanders counties, has been charged with one count of solicitation to commit criminal distribution of dangerous drugs and two counts of attempted criminal possession of dangerous drugs. The Montana Attorney General’s Office announced the charges following a months-long investigation led Read More…
Congressman Ryan Zinke announced that the Senate has passed the Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experiences (EXPLORE) Act. The EXPLORE Act is a comprehensive, bicameral legislation package that includes Zinke’s bipartisan Gateway Communities and Recreation Enhancement Act introduced with Alaska Congresswoman Mary Peltola in May 2023. The bill passed the House in April and will Read More…
On Thursday, Montana Governor Steve Bullock issued a statewide stay-at-home order to all Montanans to prevent COVID-19 from spreading. According to County Attorney Kirsten Pabst, “all systems are go” at the Missoula County Attorney’s Office. She said there are four essential components to this new Directive. “The first is stay home,” Pabst said. “The second Read More…
GRAND FORKS — North Dakotans can breathe a sigh of relief: this year’s campaign almost certainly won’t be the political storm that brought a tsunami of spending to the state in 2018, when GOP Sen. Kevin Cramer ousted Democrat Heidi Heitkamp from a nationally coveted seat. But the stakes are still high for legislative Read More…
Montana U.S. House candidate Kathleen Williams and members of her campaign staff are self-quarantining after learning an attendee at a campaign event tested positive for COVID-19. Williams’ campaign manager, Jeff Allen, said in a Thursday news release that neither the Bozeman Democrat nor her campaign staff have experienced symptoms and are self-quarantining “out of an Read More…
(CNN) – Outside groups aligned with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have launched a three-pronged attack on Republican Rep. Doug Collins’ professional record, attempting to portray him as weak on crime in order to doom his Senate campaign in Georgia against a GOP incumbent. The Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) and One Nation spent nearly Read More…
Who will lead the revolution? With Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign just about Berned out, some are looking to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her friends to pick up where the 78-year-old socialist left off. “There is definitely an opportunity for her and other members of the squad,” Jabari Brisport, a Democratic Socialist-endorsed candidate running for state Senate in Read More…
The federal government could soon be paying for the early manufacturing of potential coronavirus drugs while those drugs are still being researched, under a $10 billion proposal by U.S. Sen. Steve Daines. The proposal, which received mention on the Sunday news program “Face The Nation” and in the Wall Street Journal, would have the federal Read More…
Republican Greg Gianforte is continuing his prodigious fundraising in Montana’s 2020 gubernatorial race, blowing past $2 million for the campaign during the first two-and-a-half months this year – including a $500,000 loan he made to the campaign in February. In his report filed Friday, Gianforte said he raised another $390,000 from donors during the first Read More…
Vice President Pence is hiring a former George W. Bush administration official to serve as his office’s legal counsel. Pence’s office confirmed Monday that Gregory Jacob will take over the role being vacated by Matt Morgan, who is joining the Trump reelection campaign as director of litigation and legislation. “Greg is a man of deep professional experience, but also one Read More…
Don’t get AOC started on bailing out corporate America over coronavirus. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Queens) fired a political shot across the bow of the airline industry and others hoping for multi-billion dollar taxpayer bailouts as the crisis worsens. “If there is so much as a DIME of corporate bailout money in the next relief package, Read More…
(The Center Square) – U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii announced Thursday that she is ending her Democratic presidential campaign and endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden. “I know Vice President Biden and his wife and am grateful to have called his son Beau, who also served in the National Guard, a friend,” Gabbard said Read More…
Washington (CNN)Idaho’s Republican-controlled Legislature has sent a bill to the governor’s desk that would effectively block transgender people in the state from changing the listed sex on their birth certificates to match their gender identity, despite a federal judge having before struck down a similar state ban. HB 509, which was approved on Tuesday by the state’s Read More…
North Dakota generates tax revenue in three main ways: sales tax, income tax, and property tax. The state also has a Legacy Fund that is worth nearly $7 billion dollars to draw from. One law maker wants North Dakotans to vote to abolish property taxes, and make up the revenue-gap from mostly the oil tax Read More…
Gov. Mark Gordon announced the creation of five task forces designed to tackle the effects of the spreading coronavirus in a press conference in which he chastised Wyomingites who rushed to hoard supplies in recent days. “Think about actions and exercise common sense,” the governor said Monday in his fourth coronavirus news conference in the Read More…
HELENA – Secretary of State Corey Stapleton said earlier this week he was taking a “deliberate pause” before giving direction on the June 2 primary election as concerns increase about the coronavirus. “There’s been a lot of interest, a lot of questions about how the newly touched-down coronavirus could affect our elections,” he said in a Read More…
Kentucky delayed its primary election on Monday, becoming the latest state to take the step to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The state will move its nominating contest to June 23 from the originally planned May 19, Secretary of State Michael Adams announced. He said he made the decision with Gov. Andy Beshear during Read More…
Montana governor Steve Bullock has spent his entire political career saying he wants to remove dark money from politics. Now running for the U.S. Senate, Bullock is receiving help from one of the largest liberal dark money networks in America. Protect Our Care, a shadowy group that attacks Republicans on health care issues, announced Thursday Read More…
Even the leader of the Squad is conceding a big defeat for Bernie Sanders. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Queens) conceded a major setback for her progressive hero after Joe Biden crushed Sanders in Michigan and several other states. “There’s no sugarcoating it. (It’s) a tough night,” Ocasio-Cortez told supporters on an Instagram video. Ocasio-Cortez sought to Read More…
MISSOULA, Mont. — Montana Gov. Steve Bullock raised $1.2 million in campaign donations in the 24 hours after he filed to run against Montana Senator Steve Daines. According to a press release from Bullock’s campaign, more than 1,250 contributions from Montanans were made in the first day of the campaign. READ FULL STORY
Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) on Monday unveiled a handful of proposals that he said Congress and the administration should enact amid growing concerns about the coronavirus’s impact on the economy. “I will be working with the Trump administration, Congressional Leadership, and Republicans and Democrats in both chambers to ensure these priorities are addressed and put forward to help Read More…
BOISE, Idaho — A bill allowing only biological women to play women’s high school and college sports in Idaho is now one step closer to becoming law. On Monday, House Bill 500 was sent out of committee to the Senate floor for amendments. Critics of the bill say it is trans-phobic to prevent Read More…
The Wyoming Senate on Monday gave initial approval to a bill that could eventually lead to doing away with the twice-a-year time changes in the state. But House Bill 44 was also significantly changed from its original form. Senators adopted an amendment proposed by Sen. Ogden Driskill [R-Devils Tower] that would change the requirement in the House Bill that Wyoming would Read More…
Ending days of speculation, Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock entered Montana’s U.S. Senate race Monday, immediately vaulting the contest into the top tier of Senate battles nationwide. Bullock, 53, who spent seven months running for president last year and had repeatedly rejected the idea of challenging Republican incumbent Steve Daines, announced his change of plans with Read More…
In the final days of filing for the 2020 elections, a flurry of candidates have announced bids for state legislative seats. The local race with the most candidates is House District 64, which will see both a Republican and Democratic primary in June. Rep. Kerry White, a four-term Republican, can’t seek reelection for the seat Read More…
Mar. 9 marked the filing deadline for public office in Montana. Three seats are up for reelection on the Republican-dominated Public Service Commission. The commission sets customer rates and approves new power, water and legacy telecommunications projects. In southeast Montana, two Republicans are challenging Commissioner Tony O’Donnell’s incumbency. State representative Daniel Zolnikov and former PSC Read More…
WASHINGTON – There is more at stake in the race between former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders than simply who will top the Democratic Party’s ticket in November. It’s a battle to control the direction the party will take over the next decade, and to define and shape the party’s core message. Read More…
Democrats are doing everything they can to position themselves to win back the U.S. Senate. It still might not be enough. Monday, term-limited Montana governor and former 2020 presidential candidate Steve Bullock announced he’s running for Senate there, putting up Democrats’ strongest candidate to take this seat from Republicans. The same happened in Colorado when Read More…
Unseating a longtime congressman in a primary is hard. It’s especially hard to do in a district where the family of the incumbent holds a handful of other elected offices, where there are schools named after the guy you’re trying to defeat. In Texas’s Twenty-eighth Congressional District, 26-year-old immigration lawyer Jessica Cisneros came close, though. Read More…
(AP) — Moderate Democrats are continuing to coalesce around Joe Biden following his strong performance in Super Tuesday primaries, which reset the 2020 Democratic race as a two-man contest between Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Biden’s campaign announced Friday he had secured backing from Maggie Hassan, a first-term New Hampshire senator and former governor, who did not Read More…
Democrat Tom Winter filed Thursday night to run for Montana’s sole U.S. House seat, becoming the second Democrat and seventh candidate overall in the crowded race. And, another candidate for the U.S. House – Republican Secretary of State Corey Stapleton – also is expected to file before the Monday deadline. Winter filed online from his Read More…
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar ended her Democratic presidential campaign on Monday and endorse rival Joe Biden in an effort to unify moderate voters behind the former vice president’s White House bid. She is flying to Dallas and plans to join Biden at his rally Monday night. Klobuchar outlasted several better-known and better-funded Democrats, thanks to Read More…
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Elizabeth Warren can win debates, but not states: There’s a chance she will walk away from Super Tuesday having not carried any of the first 18 contests, including her home state of Massachusetts. Yet she, her campaign and their close allies say she’s in the race all the way to the convention, despite her Read More…
HELENA – Businesswoman Whitney Williams announced Buzz Mattelin as her Lieutenant Governor candidate. Buzz is a farmer and President of the National Barley Growers Association. He is from Culbertson. Williams is the last to announce her running mate. On Friday, Democrat Mike Cooney announced Casey Schreiner as his running mate. Schreiner is a former school Read More…
Congressman Greg Gianforte (R-MT) announced his much-anticipated running mate in the race for Montana governor and lieutenant governor on Sunday night in Billings. Gianforte selected Great Falls lawyer and former Montana Supreme Court candidate Kristen Juras to serve as his running mate. Juras told the crowd that she is excited to be Gianforte’s running mate, Read More…
A bill to prevent transgender people from changing their sex on their birth certificates is advancing in the Idaho State Legislature, flouncing a federal court order implemented two years ago that prevents such restrictions. H.B.509 argues that maintaining birth records with the sex a child was assigned at birth will provide more accurate documentation and maintain statistics that can Read More…
MANDAN, ND – Sgt. Wade Kadrmas with the North Dakota Highway Patrol says a tooper pulled over Kirsten Baesler on I-94 after observing erratic driving around 9: 45 p.m. Wednesday night. The trooper smelled alcohol and observed behavior consistent with alcohol consumption while talking to Baesler during the stop. Baesler was arrested for driving under the Read More…
President Donald Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale briefed Republican senators on Wednesday about the campaign’s effort to expand the electoral map and assure Trump’s path to reelection. “They are more than ready for 2020,” said Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), a close Trump ally. “They’re going to be expanding the map.” “They’ve been working hard, whereas Read More…
The latest crop of local candidates filing for political office has set up a Democratic primary battle in one district and guaranteed a general-election contest in two other districts. Garrett Henson of Columbia Falls filed to run in House District 3 against fellow Democrat Debo Powers. Powers was appointed to represent the district – which Read More…
A second Republican has filed to run for the state House seat that covers south Bozeman, including Montana State University. Jason Zeng, a Ph.D. student at MSU in chemical engineering, will face Bryan Haysom in the primary June 2. Zeng, 28, has also worked as a research assistant at MSU and a potato inspector in Read More…
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Monday unveiled a $640 billion housing plan that includes tax credits for first-time homebuyers and low-income renters, as well as more federal assistance for the country’s poorest renters. The former vice president’s team sees his proposals as especially important in aiding African Americans and Latinos, two advisers said on the condition Read More…
More than 500 social-media campaigners in California are being offered $2,500 a month to spread Mike Bloomberg’s message as “deputy field operatives.” However, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times, the small slice of the candidate’s vast personal fortune has not ensured the operatives’ dedication or loyalty. The newly formed social-media army has been Read More…