Free Republic

For the past 25 years, I have been a registered Independent. I have been unable to blindly ‘fall in line’ with either political party. I’ve voted for both Democrats and Republicans and conduct my due diligence before voting for the candidate or issue that best supports America and Montana. In the upcoming Montana Senate race, the choice is stark. We have Sen. Tester, a career politician, and Tim Sheehy, a fresh face with a new perspective. Their worldviews, backgrounds, and political directions couldn't be more different. As a Vietnam-era veteran and a 30-plus-year law enforcement veteran, I am casting my...

Joe Biden survived the second round of Democratic presidential debates, but it became more apparent that over half the 22-person field is irrelevant and should get out, the sooner the better. The former vice president was repeatedly under attack on health care, criminal justice, immigration and abortion. He stumbled sometimes, but overall was sharper than his mediocre performance in the first debate a month ago. This won't assuage fears of mainstream Democrats that the 76-year-old Biden may not be up to the challenge of a protracted primary fight and bitter battle against Donald Trump. Still he was sufficiently engaged to...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Various reports indicate President Donald Trump will return to West Virginia before the Nov. 6 General Election to stump for state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey in his run for U.S. Senate. According to a Reuters report, Trump will go on an 8-state blitz beginning next Wednesday including campaign stops in West Virginia, Florida, Missouri, Indiana, Montana, Ohio, Georgia and Tennessee. Morrisey, who has trailed U.S. Senator Joe Manchin in most of the major polls, predicted during an appearance on MetroNews “Talkline” earlier this week that Trump would return. Trump visited Wheeling Sept. 29. “A vote for Patrick...

MISSOULA, Mont. – Supporters of President Donald Trump lined up early this morning for a chance to catch the president’s rally for candidate Matt Rosendale in Missoula. We’ll have coverage of tonight’s rally throughout the day and evening. Tune in at 5:30 and 10 p.m. for the latest updates and coverage. (VIDEOS-AT-LINK)

<p>HELENA, Mont. (AP) — President Donald Trump is planning a three-state campaign swing in the West in the final weeks before the Nov. 6 election.</p> <p>Trump campaign officials say the president will use the rallies next Thursday, Friday and Saturday to urge people to get out and vote in Montana, Arizona and Nevada.</p>

<p>Sen. Steve Daines says he'll return to Washington D.C. by private jet on his daughter's wedding day if his vote is needed to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.</p> <p>The Montana Republican said in a statement to The Associated Press that his Republican colleague, Montana congressman Greg Gianforte, "has come to save the day" by offering him use of his private jet.</p>

Democratic leaders need a unified caucus to put maximum pressure on a handful of holdout Republicans. Democrats have all the cover they need to vote in lockstep against Brett Kavanaugh. But a half-dozen of them have refused to go there, even after the pair of sexual assault allegations against the Supreme Court nominee. Democratic insiders are feeling more bullish than ever that the party’s 49 caucus members ultimately will oppose Kavanaugh. Yet the undeclared bloc of Democratic senators could be a problem for Democratic leaders, who want to put the weight of the nomination entirely on a handful of holdout...

I was called a Nazi. This laughable political arrow was flung at me, my wife and kids, by a man driving in a minivan with anti-Trump posters taped to its many windows. “Your opinion means a lot to me,” yelled a lady standing next to me. We all chuckled. Yes, my family and I were some of the thousands of Montanans who made the pilgrimage to Great Falls to listen to the president speak. We didn’t get out of the house early enough (the disadvantage of living in a house full of girls) so we were part of the thousands...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) slammed President Trump over his comments about Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) during a rally on Thursday night. Trump at the campaign-style rally in Montana called Waters a “low-IQ individual,” a claim that he has repeated many times. He speculated her IQ is “somewhere in the mid-60s.” The average IQ is 85-114, and a mid-60s IQ indicates mental challenges....

BOZEMAN, Mont. — The ending was shocking, but the result was no surprise. Despite a bizarre election eve altercation with a reporter that led to a citation for misdemeanor assault, Republican Greg Gianforte kept a red-state House seat in Republican hands in Thursday’s Montana special election. Yet his closer-than-expected victory against Democrat Rob Quist for the at-large congressional seat proved revealing, exposing GOP weaknesses that could threaten the party’s House majority in 2018 but reminding Democrats of the uphill climb ahead against President Donald Trump. Here are POLITICO’s five takeaways after the messy two-month brawl and wild final 24 hours:...

The Trump resistance couldn't take a GOP seat in Montana last night, even after the Republican candidate was charged with assaulting a journalist. A day after he was charged with misdemeanor assault for body-slamming a reporter, Republican candidate Greg Gianforte won the special election on Thursday for Montana’s at-large seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. According to early returns, Gianforte, a millionaire businessman, defeated Democratic folk singer Rob Quist for the House seat formerly held by Ryan Zinke, who left Congress to serve as President Donald Trump’s interior secretary. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence both recorded robo-calls on...

Simple.....Every voter in Montana...turn out to vote Republican and help to politically destroy the Democrat Party!!!

The divisive presidential campaign between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton is putting political rifts between parties and genders on display across the country. There’s some agreement in Montana though, where according to the 30th annual Montana Poll conducted by students and faculty at Montana State University, both men and women prefer Donald Trump. “Trump is ahead of Clinton by 16 points,” said MSU Polling Director Dr. Nisha Bellinger said. “We have Trump at 43 percent and Clinton 27 percent. 37 percent of the females favor Trump as compared to 33 percent of females who favor Clinton. So Trump, as far...

HELENA - Montana voters headed to the polls Tuesday to decide presidential and gubernatorial primaries – although local legislative races are the ones with the most political impact in the state. More than two-dozen Republican legislative primaries in all corners in the state feature contests between candidates from the party’s moderate and conservative wings, as each faction looks to control the 2017 Legislature. As of Tuesday morning, nearly 180,000 Montanans had already voted, via absentee ballots. Political observers say the absentee count indicates a relatively high voter turnout for a primary election, probably in the 40 percent to 50 percent...

In 2008, with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton nearly deadlocked in their race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Montana voters headed to the polls on June 3 not knowing who the party’s nominee would be. It was an exciting time for Montana Democrats because the state’s June primary election is usually too late in the nominating process to have an impact on the outcome. The presidential nominees are usually decided long before voters here get a chance to cast their ballots....

Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign is trying to knock opponent John Kasich off Montana’s primary by questioning signatures the Ohio governor’s campaign submitted to qualify for the ballot – another subplot in the unfolding political drama to derail Donald Trump’s presidential bid. Emails obtained by The Associated Press show Cruz campaign officials have raised questions about the 622 signatures submitted by the Kasich campaign. A minimum of 500 valid signatures is required for a presidential candidate to qualify for the Montana ballot....

SALT LAKE CITY — Donald Trump continues to be the front-runner in the GOP presidential nomination race, but he's languishing in fourth place in a new poll of Utah voters. The new UtahPolicy.com poll by Dan Jones & Associates comes as former Utah governor and 2012 presidential candidate Jon Huntsman Jr. is suggesting Trump has a shot at winning the White House. "People really are hungry for change. They were last time, but it hadn't reached the 212-degree boiling point. This time it has," Huntsman told USA Today's weekly "Capital Download" video series. Huntsman said that's why he thinks Trump,...

BILLINGS, Mont. -- Dan Hutchings was ecstatic — after only six weeks, the official Team Trump 2016 Montana Facebook page had 398 likes. Donald Trump, the surprise national front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, was doing twice as well as Hutchings’ was led to expect after contacting the “The Donald’s” campaign in September and volunteering to be the first Montana contact for the billionaire celebrity turned dark horse political candidate. “We’re relatively new on the scene. We’re just starting to grow, and we’re getting 398 supporters?” Hutchings said. “We’re going real fast right now and we’re starting to get overwhelmed.”...

Freshman Rep. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) easily clinched victory in the Montana Senate race Tuesday, scoring another pickup for Republicans. Daines was seen as the favorite throughout the year, and any hope of Democrats retaining the seat fell away when interim Sen. John Walsh (D-Mont.) bowed out of the race in August amid revelations that he plagiarized large portions of his master's thesis at the Army War College in 2007. The Associated Press and other outlets called the race shortly after polls closed there. Democrats scrambled to replace Walsh on the ballot, picking Amanda Curtis, a freshman state representative. But she...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)There are 65 prominent people who might run for president in 2016. The Democratic and Republican fields contrast sharply. Hillary Clinton is the clear front-runner, while there is no front-runner on the Republican side. Twenty-three Democrats have been mentioned as a candidate or are eyeing a bid, according to an analysis by The Hill. The GOP side has 42. Most of the people on this list won’t run, and some have adamantly claimed that they’re not interested. But many politicians have changed their minds on seeking the White House. Before mounting his 2008 bid, then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said he...