Montanans know that when politicians try to game systems for quick wins, it's the people on the ground who pay the price.

In July 2025, the Environmental Protection Agency eliminated more than 3,700 staff positions nationwide. Entire divisions were dissolved.

Reduction in park staff across the state has led to limited emergency response, longer wait times, and postponed infrastructure projects such as water, sewer, and trail repairs.

Since January 2025, the Department of Government Efficiency has indiscriminately eliminated nearly 25 percent of the permanent workforce within the National Park Service.

Voters across Montana are not waiting for permission to speak. They're telling the truth about their lives. People I talk to on the ground in Anaconda, Malta, Polson, Libby, Sidney, Great Falls and between and beyond are all saying the same thing: elected leaders have stopped listening.

We're building a movement from the ground up in Montana. Daines votes against the will of Montana every chance he gets when it comes to abortion. I told my fellow Montanan on the parade route that I wouldn't be running for U.S. Senate if Daines was doing his job upholding the will of the people.

In the Senate, I intend to use every available lever: legislation, budget tools, hearings, legal support, and public pressure to undo the damage of the unpopular Republican budget bill.

Montana is an extraordinary place. We truly are the Treasure State. Beneath the beauty, people are hurting. Jobs have disappeared. Housing prices have climbed far beyond wages.

My job as a candidate for Senate is to listen to Montanans, hear what’s keeping you up at night, and fight for fairness wherever I can.

Across Montana, the damage is piling up. From the Rocky Mountains to the rolling plains of the Hi-Line, federal funding is the backbone of our communities with basic services that keep small towns running. Montana depends on federal tax dollars for nearly half of our state’s revenue, over $14.1 billion annually in federal support.

Montanans are resilient. Our communities are strong. I know this because I'm a Montanan. I will never stop fighting for our schools, our farmers, our public lands, our elders, our Veterans, and the next generation. As of May 2025, hundreds of federal programs have been frozen, gutted, or eliminated in Montana. This is crippling our economy and exposing our people.

Montana cannot afford another year of delays. The clock is ticking, not just on the Farm Bill, but on our entire democracy.

This bill doesn’t fix the government's spending problem. It hands our taxpayer dollars to profiteers and corporations instead of our hospitals, schools and veterans.

I ran, got elected and served as a Democrat in the Montana State House. The Montana Democratic Party has deep roots in the rugged soil of our state, a history shaped by Montanans who believed in fairness, opportunity, and community. From the copper mines of Butte to the wheat fields of the Hi-Line, Democrats have fought for better wages, safer conditions, strong public schools, and access to healthcare for all.

Democrats won’t win again until we earn back the public’s trust on the economy. I’m on the ground in Montana proving it can be done. Trust isn’t built with slogans or think tank proposals. It’s earned, face to face, in the conversations happening around kitchen tables, at union halls, in farm supply stores, and on Tribal lands where federal promises have too often gone unfulfilled. We cannot earn trust beyond the party faithful without engaging directly on the ground to learn about economic issues facing Montanans today.

Montana is grappling with a severe housing affordability crisis. The state has been labeled the least affordable housing market in the U.S., with the median home price soaring to approximately $505,000, a 90% increase since 2018. Median household income has risen by only 28% in the same period.

Many Montanans and Americans across the country are losing trust in government, especially as essential federal services are dismantled under the current administration. Last night in Lewistown, I witnessed something that restored my faith in our republic. At a packed public meeting, U.S. Air Force and Army Corps of Engineers officials briefed community members on the rollout of the Sentinel Program, a once-in-a-generation modernization of the land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system that forms a critical pillar of America’s nuclear deterrent.

Last week, Senator Steve Daines bragged that he was “kicking Biden’s woke policies to the curb. ”I read that line and had to laugh. Here in Montana, we’re not asking about someone’s definition of “woke.” We’re asking where the fire crews are. We’re asking why our hospitals can’t keep their doors open. We’re asking how our grain is supposed to move when Trump’s trade war shut down half our markets.

In eastern Montana, towns are often separated by hundreds of miles of open land. For people living in these rural areas, air travel is more than a convenience. For many Montanans, Essential Air Service is a necessity. For more than a decade, Cape Air has helped keep Montana communities connected to global air travel through the federal Essential Air Service (EAS) program. After airline deregulation in 1978, many major airlines stopped flying to small towns. The government created the EAS program to make sure rural areas were included in the national air system. EAS provides funding to help airlines keep flying in places where it would otherwise be too expensive to run flights.

Last night in Great Falls, we hosted a community roundtable to hear directly from local residents about the challenges they face accessing healthcare and essential services. One story in particular stood out for its urgency and clarity. A man spoke about being recently prescribed the medication Eliquis. He explained: “How am I going to come up with $400 for my Eliquis that I have to have? I went to the doctor yesterday, and my heart has AFib. And they have to stop my heart and restart it, because it’s that bad. But in order to do that, I have to be on Eliquis for six weeks. That’s expensive. And it’s, well, it’s $398. I don’t have that money. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”