A growing field of Democrats is lining up to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke in Montana’s western U.S. House district, as the party looks to mount a competitive bid in a seat national analysts still rate as safely Republican. On Thursday, Ryan Busse, an author, climate activist and gun control advocate from Kansas, announced Read More…
House Speaker Johnson spoke yesterday at the kickoff of the House Republican policy summit, delivering a wide-ranging address that touched on the party’s legislative agenda, U.S. military action in Venezuela, Democratic opposition, and the sudden passing of Congressman Doug LaMalfa. Republicans Leading on Tax Policy, Speaker Says Speaker Johnson emphasized Republican achievements on tax policy, Read More…
Montana State Auditor and Commissioner of Securities and Insurance James Brown issued a statement following the Montana Supreme Court’s dismissal of a complaint filed against Attorney General Austin Knudsen, calling the decision a reaffirmation of constitutional principles and the separation of powers. In his statement, Brown said the court’s ruling confirmed that the complaint was Read More…
(The Center Square) – Democratic lawmakers criticized President Donald Trump’s announcement of land strikes against Venezuela and leader Nicolas Maduro’s capture. In a post to social media, Trump announced the U.S. carried out a “large scale strike” against Venezuela, capturing Maduro and his wife. The two are in U.S. custody and charged with “narco-terrorism conspiracy, Read More…
CHEYENNE — With Wyoming approaching one of the most crucial legislative sessions in its history, state lawmakers held initial discussions Wednesday afternoon on what COVID-19 precautions will need to be taken to kick off the session in January. While members of the Legislature’s Management Council didn’t finalize a format during their meeting Wednesday, one thing Read More…
BILLINGS, Mont. – President Donald Trump has made several visits to Montana in recent years – in 2016 as a candidate for president, as well as in 2018 in an effort to flip Senator Jon Tester’s seat in the mid-term elections. Now, three weeks shy of Election Day, the president has not set foot in Montana Read More…
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) raised $26.8 million in the third quarter of the year for his bid to unseat Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), making him the latest Democratic Senate candidate to set a fundraising record in his state. Bullock’s third quarter fundraising haul is more than three times the roughly $7.8 million he raised in the second quarter, and Read More…
BOZEMAN – Montana State University on Wednesday released the results of its Treasure State poll weighing Montana attitudes for the 2020 general election set for Nov 3. The poll, one of the most extensive publicly available polls on the state’s voter preferences for the upcoming election, is administered by members of the MSU Department of Read More…
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced endorsements for more than 150 Democrats running in local races across the country. Sanders said the 172 contenders he endorsed Friday would be strong advocates for the progressive movement and that victories at the local level will help lay the foundation for a “political revolution.” READ FULL STORY
A new poll of the Montana Senate race, conducted October 5–7 by Emerson, shows Republican incumbent Steve Daines leading his Democratic challenger Steve Bullock by 9 points: Republicans have been worried about the Montana Senate race because the state has a robust recent history of ticket-splitting. Bullock, the sitting Democratic governor, won reelection in 2016 even as Read More…
Black Lives Matter leaders, organized labor, progressive groups and members of the House Democratic “Squad” are unveiling a 2021 agenda Thursday, laying down markers for how big a Joe Biden administration could go on coronavirus aid, economic relief and more next year. Known as the Working Families Party’s “People’s Charter,” the 1,000-word proposal calls for Read More…
The two men running to become Lewis and Clark County’s second justice of the peace are both first-time candidates, but each has long experience serving the public. In November 2018, the Lewis and Clark County Commission voted to create a second justice of the peace position, to help address a growing workload for the court. Read More…
Republican Roosevelt County Attorney and former Speaker of the House Austin Knudsen faces Governor’s Counsel Raph Graybill, a Democrat, in the general election for attorney general. “(I want to be attorney general) because I think Montana oughta have a top law enforcement official who has actually dealt with law enforcement who has actually prosecuted criminals,” Read More…
HELENA- Just days after Montana’s Democratic candidates started a tour around the state, their Republican counterparts are doing the same thing. But with a different twist, their message is something any candidate would get behind. “Get out the vote.” This election is expected to have extremely high voter turnout and these men and women plan Read More…
WASHINGTON — President Trump still plans to debate Democratic nominee Joe Biden at the second presidential debate in Miami later this month after his three-day stay in the hospital with the coronavirus, his campaign said. “It is the president’s intention to debate,” Trump 2020 communications director Tim Murtaugh told CNN on Monday after the commander-in-chief announced he was checking Read More…
(AP) – The Supreme Court refused on Monday to take up an appeal from South Dakota’s only death row inmate, who was sentenced to death after he pleaded guilty to taking part in a torture killing 20 years ago. The court did not comment in leaving in place the death sentence for Briley Piper, an Read More…
BISMARCK — A Republican candidate for the North Dakota House of Representatives died Monday, Oct. 5, a month out from Election Day and with no way to replace his name on the November ballot. Multiple representatives from the North Dakota Republican Party confirmed the death of David Andahl, a candidate in the high-profile District 8 Read More…
Jim Murry, a longtime leader of organized labor in Montana who helped usher in a progressive era of politics in Montana in the 1960s and 1970s, died Monday in Helena. He was 85. Murry, who grew up in Laurel and worked at its oil refinery, became head of the Montana AFL-CIO in 1968 at age Read More…
Democratic U.S. House candidate Kathleen Williams reported Monday that she raised $2.3 million in campaign funds for three past three months – nearly doubling her total for the entire campaign. Williams, a former state legislator from Bozeman, is in a close race with Republican state Auditor Matt Rosendale for Montana’s only U.S. House seat. A Read More…
A committee of South Dakota lawmakers this week is expected to send recommendations to the governor’s office and the Legislature about how $1.3 billion in federal coronavirus relief funds should be used. But a meeting Wednesday to finalize formal suggestions could be a preview of what’s to come at next week’s special session. Legislators have been meeting for weeks with various Read More…
CASPER, Wyo. — Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon’s office said on Thursday, Oct. 1 that Gordon supports President Donald Trump’s decision to issue an executive order which aims to protect domestic mining in the United States. “Yesterday, September 30, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order and declared a National Emergency to expand the domestic mining Read More…
A group opposed to the legalization of marijuana in Montana, voiced its opposition Saturday to two ballot initiatives up for vote in November. “Wrong For Montana” is against Initiative 190 which would legalize marijuana in the state. Wind forced the group indoors at South 24th Street West & King Avenue West, after its demonstration in Read More…
In what’s likely their final debate before ballots are mailed out, U.S. House candidates Matt Rosendale and Kathleen Williams faced off Saturday night, with Williams, a Democrat, casting herself as an independent who can work with both sides of the political aisle and Rosendale, a Republican, calling her someone allied with the “radical far leftists.” Read More…
With five weeks left until the Nov. 3 election, many voters are eager to cast their ballots absentee and early. A growing number of registered voters in Brooklyn, however, received ballots on Monday with an incorrect return address. Such voters include Anders Kapur, who has voted absentee in the past without any problems. By his Read More…
If you missed Wednesday’s debate between Republican US House candidate Matt Rosendale and Democrat Kathleen Williams, don’t worry, you can watch the full debate right here at the bottom of this post. Plus, there’s a couple of other big Montana PBS debates still left to air in the coming days. Republican Congressman Greg Gianforte and Read More…
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in a new interview she’s confident that Democratic socialists like herself can push Joe Biden “in a more progressive direction” once he’s elected to the White House. Speaking to Just the News in an interview Tuesday, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said she shares Sen. Bernie Sanders’ view that Mr. Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, should focus his message on Read More…
A recent American Statistical Association report revealed that Montana is one of two states that could lose a potential seat in the House of Representatives as a result of the Sept. 30 enumeration deadline. The American Statistical Association is a professional association that supports the development of statistical science through publications, advocacy and education. After temporarily halting Read More…
At a Thursday meeting that Democrats decried as an illegal attempt by GOP lawmakers to rein in Gov. Steve Bullock’s emergency powers during the coronavirus pandemic, Republicans recommended several legislative rule changes – but denied it was any sort of a “partisan power grab.” The Joint Rules Committee meeting, instigated and attended only by Republicans, Read More…
CASPER, Wyo. — Casper attorney and former Chief Justice of the Wyoming Supreme Court Michael Golden was presented with the Wyoming State Bar’s Gerald R. Mason Professionalism Award on Tuesday, Sept. 15. Golden’s award was presented Tuesday “during a small awards luncheon held in conjunction with the Bar’s Virtual Annual Meeting.” Wyoming State Bar President Read More…
BELGRADE — Vice President Mike Pence touted the work President Donald Trump has done over the last four years at a rally here on Monday and portrayed the November election as a battle between Republicans who are working to uphold Montana values and Democrats who back destructive liberal policies. Pence spoke at the Big Yellow Read More…
Speaker Nancy Pelosi faces growing calls from within her own ranks — including from some of her most vulnerable members — to take quick action on a coronavirus relief bill even if there’s no agreement with Republicans or the White House over the issue. But Pelosi, supported by her leadership team and most committee chairs, Read More…
Sen. Ted Cruz walked back any expression of interest in being on the Supreme Court after being included on President Trump’s shortlist to be nominated to the nation’s highest bench. Speaking to Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Cruz was blunt when asked by host Maria Bartiromo if he would want the job. “You know, I don’t. It Read More…
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jabari Brisport, the Democratic socialist running to represent part of Brooklyn in the state Senate, see themselves as moles “on the inside” for the progressive, anti-capitalism movement, they said in an interview. Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Brisport, who won the Democratic primary for the state Senate’s 25th district with AOC’s endorsement, made Read More…
One man died Saturday night in a pedestrian-vehicle crash west of Highmore. A 2011 Ford Taurus was westbound on U.S. Highway 14. The driver, 44-year-old Jason Ravnsborg of Pierre, told the Hyde County Sheriff’s Office that he had been involved in a car-deer crash. The driver was not injured. The pedestrian’s body was discovered Sunday Read More…
HELENA — U.S. Sen. Steve Daines leads his Democratic challenger, Gov. Steve Bullock, by three percentage points and President Trump leads Democratic nominee Joe Biden by seven points in Montana, according to a poll released Friday by AARP-Montana. The poll, which surveyed 800 people by telephone from Aug. 30-Sept. 5, said Daines led Bullock 50 Read More…
The Wyoming Public Service Commission moved to delay finalizing its investigation into the state’s largest utility on Tuesday, after an energy company made an eleventh-hour request to include additional evidence in the case. Commissioners had initially scheduled public deliberations on its investigation into PacifiCorp for Tuesday afternoon but ultimately delayed the proceeding. The commission determined it Read More…
The Montana Contractors Association on Wednesday endorsed Republican Greg Gianforte for governor, citing his opposition to a 2020 ballot measure that would legalize recreational marijuana in Montana. “The recreational marijuana initiative is a very, very troubling initiative,” said Bob Warren, president of the contractors’ group. “The MCA board voted to fight this with all our Read More…
Vice President Mike Pence is coming back to Montana for a rally with Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) in Belgrade on Monday. Congressman Greg Gianforte (R-MT) and Republican US House candidate Matt Rosendale will also be prominently featured. According to an eventbrite page created by the Montana Republican Party, the event will take place at the Big Yellow Read More…
Bozeman Mayor Chris Mehl resigned Wednesday, a day after all four city commissioners asked him to step down over allegations that he bullied city staff and interfered with city administration. “It’s been an honor to serve Bozeman for more than 10 years, and I thank the voters for that repeated opportunity,” Mehl said in an Read More…
MISSOULA, Mont. — Montana’s top politicians are responding to a new lawsuit Gov. Steve Bullock filed Tuesday against the USPS and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy calling on a judge to undo new changes with the Postal Service. In the suit, Bullock cites DeJoy’s “unlawful actions that have directly harmed Montanans by impeding the flow of mail.” Read More…
A Biden administration-in-waiting is slowly taking shape. On the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, the Biden transition team announced a long list of new hires, advisers and co-chairs to lead the effort to staff up a potential administration. “This is a transition like no other, and the team being assembled will help Joe Biden meet Read More…
PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — The final field appears set for the South Dakota Legislature’s seats that are being contested in the November general election. All 70 representatives and 35 senators will hold 2-year terms, but many of the races have already been settled in Republicans’ favor because they are running unopposed. The latest list includes a handful Read More…
NEW YORK — Top state Democrats joined Gov. Andrew Cuomo in ridiculing President Donald Trump after he threatened to kill federal funding for New York and other cities that “permit anarchy, violence, and destruction.” Trump has ordered a review of cities’ treatment of law enforcement, threatening to ax funding for any jurisdictions that are defunding or disempowering Read More…
North Dakota’s Democratic-NPL Party on Friday endorsed a new candidate for state insurance commissioner, days after the state Supreme Court ordered the party’s nominee removed from the ballot. The party’s Executive Committee endorsed Mutual of Omaha insurance agent Jason Anderson, of Fargo, to replace Bismarck critical care respiratory specialist Travisia Martin, whom the court Read More…