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.

Don’t let the headlines fool you. Even without the direct land sales, the Big Bad Bill still poses serious threats to Montana’s public lands.

Glacier and Yellowstone are symbols of Montana’s natural beauty and engines for the economy of our state. Every year, millions of people travel from around the world to see our landscapes, fish our rivers, hike our trails, and support our local businesses. In 2023 alone, visitors to Glacier and Yellowstone contributed nearly $1.3 billion to Montana’s economy and supported over 13,000 jobs.

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.

In Montana, we made it clear. The State Legislature passed Medicaid expansion. When it comes to Trump’s "Big Beautiful Bill," will our delegation in D.C. be cowards or will they stand up for the people? As of 2025, more than 250,000 Montanans rely on Medicaid or related programs, including more than 120,000 children enrolled through Healthy Montana Kids and about 70,000 adults covered under Medicaid expansion.

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.

I'm standing up for Montana’s public lands, for our economy and our future. I was in Yellowstone National Park today. On my way south on Highway 89 to Gardiner, I talked with folks in gateway communities about the economic importance of Yellowstone and the surrounding national forest land to the economic health of the region. Yellowstone isn’t just beautiful. It’s alive. It moves. It breathes history. It also fuels local economies across rural Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.

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.”

This week, President Trump signed a series of executive orders that, taken together, mark one of the most alarming federal expansions of power in recent U.S. history. These directives don’t just touch immigration or law enforcement, they strike at the very heart of constitutional governance and the principle that has long separated American democracy from authoritarian rule: the line between military power and civilian life.

Montanans are raising alarms about the instability and loss they feel in their daily lives, truths our leaders must hear in order to defend democracy and rebuild trust.

In a healthy democracy, the executive branch respects the independence of the courts. Judges do not face arrest for insisting on due process. Law enforcement agents do not circumvent warrants and constitutional protections. Citizens do not fear retaliation for demanding accountability. In Donald Trump’s America, with the cowardly silence of enablers like Senator Steve Daines, these basic tenets of democracy are under direct attack.

Staff cuts, event cancellations, and fading stewardship threaten the bond between land, memory, and people.

Where people are standing up for democracy, economic fairness, and accountability—here’s one thing to remember: The rally is not the end. It’s the spark.Showing up is powerful. Real change comes from joining together to show numbers and support. Lasting change comes from what we do next.

In Montana, we don't take kindly to power grabs. We believe in checks and balances, in local control, in keeping our institutions accountable to us, not to parties or strongmen. The escalating attacks on our judiciary, both nationally and here at home, should set off alarm bells for every Montanan who believes in the Constitution. Trump has made it clear. If given the chance, he will refuse to abide by court decisions he disagrees with. Not since Andrew Jackson has a president openly threatened to defy the courts in this way.