House candidate Christi Jacobsen touts successes, says Trump got 'swamp' advice on Flint

Christi Jacobsen blames “the swamp” for her not receiving President Donald Trump’s endorsement for the state’s 1st Congressional District seat recently.

Jacobsen, Montana’s Secretary of State, found herself without two key seals of approval after Trump and current Rep. Ryan Zinke tabbed conservative talk show radio host Aaron Flint as heir apparent.

Zinke announced his retirement March 2 and quickly endorsed Flint. Trump endorsed Flint within 24 hours of Zinke’s reveal.

“Trump got bad advice from the swamp,” Jacobsen said over chicken Caesar wraps at the Revelry restaurant in Bozeman on Thursday. “He didn’t know I was in the race. I’m looking for endorsements from the voters of Montana, and I’m 1,000% solid.”

Days after Zinke’s retirement declaration, Sen. Steve Daines also sent shockwaves across Washington, D.C., and Montana by announcing he also isn’t seeking re-election.

“I’ve been very surprised at all the recent changes and retirements,” Jacobsen said. “It gives an opportunity for fresh leadership to step up.”

Jacobsen is leveraging her status as a race-winning candidate from two primary and general elections as voters’ safest Republican bet. The three other 1st District Republican candidates lack public office experience.

“It’s an opportunity for new leadership and I’m the best Montanan to send to (D.C.),” Jacobsen said. “I have an entire career delivering results.”

Jacobsen faces a crowded June 2 Republican primary in challengers Ray Curtis, Albert Olszewski and Flint. The winner goes against either Ryan Busse, Russell Cleveland, Sam Forstag or Matt Rains after the Democratic primary.

A Helena resident, Jacobsen does not view herself as a political insider.

She served in the State Auditor’s office and was a Montana Department of Justice administrator until becoming former Secretary of State Corey Stapleton’s chief of staff in 2016.

When Stapleton made no re-election bid, Jacobsen defeated Forrest Mandeville, Scott Sales and Brad Johnson in the 2020 Republican primary election before beating Democratic nominee Bryce Bennett in the general election for Stapleton’s seat.

Jacobsen sought re-election in 2023, handily defeating her only other contender, Democrat Jesse Mullen, 61.4% to 35.5%.

“When I ran in 2020, I promised we were going to have secure elections in the state,” Jacobsen said. “Partnering with the business community, getting government out of the way so businesses could thrive, and delivering customer service, I definitely have done that.”

Jacobsen said her favorite accomplishments are consecutively waiving annual business report filing fees in 2024, 2025 and 2026 for approximately 300,000 in-state entities, enabling 24/7 online filing, and cutting new business registration charges and her office’s staff in half.

“If you compare that to the rest of state (and) federal government, I’ve held the line with spending in our office like no other agency,” she said. “I’ve done that and the results speak for themselves. To be able to cut (my) staff in half, we are delivering more with less.”

Montana has achieved five consecutive years of record-breaking business growth, with more than 76,000 new registrations in 2025, surpassing the previous record of nearly 64,000 in 2024. The upward trend generated high economic activity and record filings, per the Montana Secretary of State website.

“Montana is the gold standard,” Jacobsen said. “Protecting our public lands, our smaller efficient government, (being) business-friendly, reducing taxes, trying to get affordability for people to live here, taking all of that and translating it (to) the national level.

With a cost-of-living index of 95.5, Montana is ranked 27th on the list of least-affordable states, according to the World Population Review, an independent digital population data, demographics and projections organization.

“How we manage public lands, that is something that’s very important to Montanans that live in the western part of the state,” Jacobsen said.

While on the State Board of Land Commissioners, Jacobsen supported more than $1 million in western Montana timber projects.

IranTrump green-lighting the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei via a joint Feb. 28 U.S.-Israeli strike on Tehran didn’t start a war, but is ending pre-existing issues, according to Flint.

Although Trump has Flint’s support for now, the Iraq-Afghanistan Army combat veteran railed against any ‘forever war’. Flint refused to rule out Republican-led congressional intervention to limit Trump’s war power.

“I think we all want an end to the forever wars,” Flint said. “A lot of Americans are just sick and tired of hearing about the Middle East. We are just ready to be done with that whole part of the world.”

The U.S. could deploy thousands of additional troops to the Middle East amid the bourgeoning conflict, per military officials from Friday.

“When I talk to Montanans, they are supportive and very proud (the U.S. is) a superpower,” Jacobsen, the mother of a National Guard service member, said. “Everyone’s looking forward to being done with (Iran) hopefully sooner than later.

“I think we’re looking for an end very quickly. When we went into this it was promised (the Iran conflict) was going to be (over) soon.”

Jacobsen balked at limiting Trump’s war authority. The Republican-controlled Congress narrowly voted against constraining the president March 5.

“(The) recent vote supported the president’s current position, and I support (the Republicans),” Jacobsen said.