Western House district Democrats begin making case to voters

It’s a packed week for Democrat-aligned candidates and potential voters in Western Montana as campaign events have begun to ramp up. 

While all of Montana’s Democratic candidates for statewide and federal office took to the stage at the annual Mansfield Metcalf Dinner in Helena on Saturday to give brief stump speeches, the event was almost exclusively for party insiders and donors — not voters. 

But the four men running for the western congressional district are taking part in back-to-back events for voters to get their first look at what differentiates them from each other. 

On Monday night, Ryan Busse, Russ Cleveland, Matt Rains and Sam Forstag participated in a roundtable in Whitefish hosted by the “Beer, Buds and the Big Sky” podcast — a left-leaning political show hosted by Ed Docter and former Democratic state Rep. Mike Jopek.

Tuesday evening, the four candidates will be in Butte for a primary debate at the Mother Lode Theater at 6 p.m. hosted by Mullen Newspapers and moderated by Seeley-Swan Pathfinder editor Kai Williams and social media influencer Leigh Larson. 

In Whitefish, around 300 people filled the Whitefish Performing Arts Center auditorium to get an introduction to the candidates hoping to succeed Whitefish-raised two-term incumbent Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke, who last week announced he will not seek another term. Montana’s western district tilts Republican, but is considered a competitive district by national analysts.

For four candidates who made opposition to Zinke’s stances in Congress a pillar of their early campaigning, this week’s events provided the first look at how their messaging is pivoting to show why they’re each the best option to take on the eventual Republican nominee. 

Busse is the best-known of the four candidates after the former firearms executive ran for governor in 2024, losing to Gov. Greg Gianforte by 20 points. He said he is running for Congress to ensure his kids have the same opportunities in Montana that he has had, including being able to afford to live in the state where they were born and raised. 

Cleveland grew up in the Bitterroot and currently lives on a ranch outside St. Regis. The Navy veteran worked in finance, started a childcare business in Colorado, and though that work helped launch universal pre-K in the state. One of his primary motivations for seeking office was the loss of his oldest daughter to leukemia and the struggle to navigate what he described as a broken healthcare system. 

Matt Rains has roots that run “damn deep” in the state with a family ranch near Simms that stretches back to the 1860s. He went to West Point and served in the Army as a Black Hawk helicopter pilot in Iraq. He has spent the last years working with the Montana Farmers Union and positioned himself as someone who understands rural communities in the state. 

The youngest candidate, Forstag, was raised in Missoula by a single mom and has spent the last eight years working seasonally as a wildland firefighter, the last four as an elite smokejumper. He is a union leader in Missoula and cited the gutting of public land agency workforces and the struggles seen by fellow seasonal workers and union members as the reason he’s in the race. 

Throughout the roundtable discussion, candidates were asked for their stances on the Epstein files, money in politics, the war in Iran, affordability issues at home and how they will stand up to their own party’s leaders. 

Jopek kicked things off by asking the candidates about the effect of money in politics, noting that the 2024 U.S. Senate race between former Sen. Jon Tester and now-Sen.Tim Sheehy was the most expensive race per-capita in the country, and the trend of outside money flowing into Montana politics is unlikely to slow. 

Three of the candidates — Busse, Cleveland and Forstag — made strong arguments against taking so-called “dark money” from corporations or outside Political Action Committees that can funnel millions into campaigns or campaign-adjacent activities such as ads. 

“I am individual contributions only, have been from the time I started,” said Cleveland, who launched his campaign almost a year ago. “My goal in this is to show you can run a strong campaign with only individual contributions. We don’t need dark money, we don’t need PAC money, we don’t need influence of any kind outside of the people who are voting for us.”

Rains took a different approach in his answer, agreeing with the opposition to PAC-spending and outside money, but reminding voters that Republicans are playing by the current rules in place. 

“I care about one thing right now. Everything we’re saying up here is going to be great and brilliant, but if we don’t win, it means jack,” Rains said. “We have to use the rules on the table.”

Rains also make the distinction that all money from Political Action Committees is not bad — unions have PACs, he said, many great organizations have PAC funds — but emphasized that “dark money,” out-of-state millions is the real problem. 

While he lauded the firm stances by the other candidates, “the GOP is sure as hell not going to play by those rules. They have been winning and winning and winning and we need to stop and reverse that,” Rains said. 

Once in office, he said, he would do whatever it takes to get money out of politics, including ending Citizens United, a position all four candidates have backed. 

On Iran

Candidates were asked about the war in Iran, just more than a week old at this point, and how they understood the need to balance supporting service members while holding an administration accountable for military actions. 

“Congress is the only authority to approve war,” Rains said. “Congress is the representation of the people. The people have their sons and daughters involved over there, putting their life on the line.”

Cleveland, the other veteran on stage, agreed that for decades, presidents have abused the powers given to the Commander-in-Chief and declared military actions without Congressional authority. 

“You want to know why we have such massive national debt?” Cleveland asked. “We are a military industrial complex that has been in war for 92% of our country’s history. Think about that. 8% of our history has been peacetime. The rest of it we have been at war. That’s all we know.”

Cleveland said Congress should set a cap on the amount of money and number of troops that could be committed to a conflict by the president as a way to balance the need to swiftly execute necessary military actions, but prevent the country from being drawn into forever wars. 

Busse focused on the contrast between the amount of money the U.S. is willing to spend to kill foreign individuals, that the county won’t spend on aiding citizens.

“I go around and I listen to people and what they need and what they hope for, and I can tell you one thing I’ve never heard,” Busse said. “Gosh, I hope my government starts an unneeded war in Iran so I can’t have health care.”

The first days of U.S. strikes in Iran have cost just under $1 billion per day, according to several news outlets, and Busse said that’s unacceptable if the country is simultaneously telling people it cannot afford universal healthcare. 

Party disagreements

All of the candidates were asked where they might disagree with the stances of the Democratic Party, leaning into Montana’s history of independent elected leaders. 

Forstag told the audience that he is running to truly represent working-class Montanans, and said that national leaders in the Democratic Party had too often “held the doors of change closed” to people who actually reflect working people and the next generation. 

“I think people of all ages are looking at what’s happening in our government and the fundamental lack of representation that has led to them not treating whatever the issue is, be it affordability, be it actually addressing government efficiency … those are issues of representation,” Forstag said. “The way we solve that is by sending people to Congress who are reflective of Montana and reflective of our values.” 

Forstag has earned endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Cleveland said his biggest divergence from mainstream Democrats is that he is “super pro Second Amendment,” and believes that especially in the current political climate, “maintaining the right to bear arms is more important than ever.”

In a similar vein, Rains agreed with protecting the Second Amendment and added that he is a big proponent of law enforcement, ensuring they are well-funded and able to keep deputies on staff and Montanans safe at night. 

Busse said his biggest disagreement with national Democrats is the need for universal healthcare, a stance he said he has come around to in recent years. 

“There’s $74 billion made every year by health insurance companies in this country,” Busse said. “They’re making your health care worse, not better. And yet, we have Democrats who don’t have the fortitude to buck that system, because they’re probably eating thick steaks and drinking super fancy whiskey with these lobbyists.”

The Daily Montanan spoke to more than a dozen individuals who attended Monday’s event. 

Among those who came in with little to no knowledge of the candidates, Cleveland seemed to make the strongest impression due to his background and ability to articulate strong policy stances, but attendees were largely impressed with all four candidates. 

“I’m just so impressed and optimistic that we have a slate of enthusiastic people ready to fix what’s wrong with this country,” Whitefish resident Ruth Harrison said. “I’m thankful that it’s not time to vote yet.”

The Democratic primary candidates will meet up again Tuesday evening in Butte. The Daily Montanan will provide coverage of the event. 

A recording of the full candidate roundtable can be viewed online. 

Republican primary candidate Aaron Flint has called for multiple debates with the other three GOP candidates to showcase their differences, but no official debates or forums have been scheduled yet.

Montana’s primary elections will be held on June 2.