Different Dems? At Butte debate, candidates make pitch to challenge GOP

BUTTE — Montana Democrats gathered in the Motherlode Theater in Butte on Tuesday night for the first debate among the party’s four primary contenders for the state’s western district congressional seat.

More than 100 people attended Tuesday’s debate, which came on the heels of a Monday event in Whitefish. The four candidates seeking to replace Rep. Ryan Zinke — Ryan Busse, Russell Cleveland, Sam Forstag and Matt Rains — were asked questions for more than an hour, some coming from moderators and others from the audience.

The four candidates agreed more than they disagreed, and one audience question even asked them to quickly define how they differed from one another — a difficult task in a Democratic primary for a Republican-leaning sea.  The Daily Montanan attended Tuesday’s debate and distilled down the candidate’s takes on some key issues.

Housing affordability

Between 2017 and 2025 most housing prices in Montana doubled, according to the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana.

Home prices and, in the same vein, rising rents, have been toward the top of mind for Montana politicians for more than a decade. Driven by an influx of new arrivals, a rapidly expanding tech industry, massive corporate investment and rising material prices, it’s become one of the biggest issues the state faces in some locations.

Forstag, a union representative and a renter in Missoula, called it a “crisis” and said America had been in this situation before, after World War II.

”The federal government stepped in on a bipartisan basis and invested billions of dollars in building housing,” Forstag said.

Rains, a rancher and former Chief of Staff with the Montana Farmers Union, said “Pandora’s Box” had been opened and people are going to keep moving to the state, adding Wall Street needs to be out of the housing industry and pushed for more low- and middle-income housing.

“We have to make sure our contractors don’t just cherry pick the mansions for the billionaires,” Rains said.

Busse, a former firearms executive, said he would push for more low-income and first-time home buyer assistance, more rental programs and “occupational priority” for some professions, like teachers and firefighters.

Cleveland, who has worked in finance, also attacked corporate ownership of residential properties, but said fixing affordability starts with wages (or starts with addressing wealth inequality, or something).

“I would propose a 50-to-1 ratio on executive to frontline worker wages, to close that wage disparity and start attacking that without necessarily raising the federal minimum wage and hurting small businesses,” Cleveland said.

Data Centers and Artificial intelligence

Like many areas around the country, Montana has been seen as a potential location for large data centers, the need for which is in part being driven by massive tech industry investment into artificial intelligence tools.

It’s an important issue in Butte, specifically, with organizations demanding transparency from NorthWestern Energy.

Concerns about power and water usage are high among advocacy organizations, and the candidates differed slightly in their approaches. 

Busse said that “we should be very, very suspicious” of quick-moving data center projects, saying if it’s not going to increase electricity rates and water usage, “put it in law.”,

Rains supports the development of artificial intelligence “with guardrails,” and said there isn’t enough research on the impacts of data centers out there before he’d be comfortable bringing them to Montana.

If data centers do come to Montana, Forstag said they should use union labor and called data centers a “symptom” of a larger issue, which he said was that tech companies are “running roughshod” with zero regulation.

Cleveland said he was concerned with privacy issues and states losing the ability to regulate AI.

Healthcare

Multiple candidates called for increased access to healthcare during the debate, addressing a question about rural hospitals and clinics.

It’s one of the central tenets of Cleveland’s campaign — his oldest daughter died of leukemia and he has another child who suffered a serious medical issue as well. The first month of cancer treatments cost approximately $300,000, he said on Tuesday, calling it “disgusting.”

“Medicare for All includes your eyes, your ears and your teeth, mental health and rural access,” Cleveland said.

Forstag, whose mother is an intensive care nurse, noted his experience with the private insurance market, after losing his government health insurance when he left the Forest Service to run for Congress. 

“Let’s look at the programs that work here, which are Medicare, and let’s plug up the holes,” Forstag said.

Busse, who attacked national Republican decisions throughout the night, said cuts to Medicare were going to drastically impact rural hospitals. He also said part of the problem was establishment Democrats with ties to the insurance industry.

“We need to put an elbow in them and get them out of the way, and I’ll do it,” Busse said.

Rains also pointed at President Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful” reconciliation bill which he called an “attack” on rural healthcare.

“We have to find funding to come into Montana and increase our rural hospitals,” Rains said. “Where I live in Simms, I’m 45 minutes to an hour from an emergency room. That is unacceptable.”

Audience questions

Following an intermission, candidates took questions from audience members. Question topics differed greatly — candidates were asked about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies in the military, stock trading and how the candidates differed.

Forstag noted his experience working with the ACLU, saying he’d fought for people’s, “basic right to dignity.” Rains added DEI needs to “be installed back in our nation.”

All of the candidates said they would be supportive of legislation that limited congressional stock trading.

Additionally, they were all asked to define how they differed from one another, and all leaned into their personal backgrounds.

Forstag said his union experience, being raised by a single mother and his organizing work set him apart.

Rains pointed to his time working in war zones — both as a soldier and a photographer — as offering a unique perspective.

As a candidate during the 2024 Governor’s race, Busse said he’d already been vetted by voters and he intended to use that campaign experience to win the House seat.

Cleveland tied together his  diverse work experience, including as a rancher, financial executive and small business owners, as well as his work to fight and speak out against injustice.