This story is excerpted from Capitolized, a weekly newsletter featuring expert reporting, analysis and insight from the reporters and editors of Montana Free Press. Want to see Capitolized in your inbox every Thursday? Sign up here.
At least two Republican candidates for state and federal offices have had their ticket purchases refunded and been told they cannot attend a high-profile GOP campaign event this weekend.
Donald Trump Jr., son and frequent campaign surrogate of the former and would-be future president, and conservative social media influencer Alex Bruesewitz are scheduled to appear at an event in Missoula on Sunday to boost the campaigns of Donald Trump, U.S. Senate hopeful Tim Sheehy, incumbent U.S. House Representative Ryan Zinke and incumbent Gov. Greg Gianforte. Tickets to the gathering, hosted by the Montana Association of Conservatives PAC, cost $75.
But competitors of Sheehy and Gianforte were notified this week that they are not welcome at the Missoula event. Charles Walking Child, a candidate in the Republican U.S. Senate primary, and Tanner Smith, a Republican candidate for governor, shared their disinvitations with Montana Free Press and on social media.
“Unfortunately, we have been notified by the people directly working with our keynote speakers that Tanner Smith is not allowed at this event,” a picture of a MAC PAC email to the Smith campaign reads. “The ticket purchased for Tanner has been refunded completely and Tanner should not attend.”
A spokesperson for MAC PAC, Cameo Flood, declined to provide additional comment about why the two candidates’ tickets were refunded. She said no other current Republican candidates have been disinvited from the event.
Flood, a former vice chair of the Missoula County Republican Central Committee who resigned alongside the rest of the committee’s executive board last year amid internal conflict, launched MAC PAC with a small group of associates in February, she told MTFP. She said she established a PAC because it provides more flexibility to support conservative candidates than an official party organization.
Walking Child and Smith criticized the decision on social media, blasting what Smith called the “uniparty” for disallowing the attendance of candidates challenging party frontrunners.
“The uniparty swamp is trying to stop me from becoming Governor of Montana!” Smith wrote on Facebook. “Thankfully, Montanans know better than to let the swamp dictate who they vote for.”
In an emailed statement, Gianforte campaign spokesperson Anna Marian Block did not directly respond to a question about whether her team was involved with the decision to disinvite Smith.
“The governor did not organize this event,” Block said. “Instead, the governor was invited to and is attending Sunday’s Protecting Freedom Event with Donald Trump, Jr., though I’m sure Donald Trump Jr. would be surprised to learn he’s the ‘uniparty swamp.’”
Brad Johnson, another Republican challenging Sheehy in the Senate primary, told Capitolized he has not been disinvited from the Sunday event — and that he never bothered to purchase a ticket after not being allowed to speak at a Yellowstone Republicans event last week where Sheehy also appeared.
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“I’ve never seen it like this,” Johnson said of the apparent party favoritism toward certain candidates, adding that he and other contenders seem to be treated as “insurgents” in races with clear frontrunners.
“It’s just absurd,” Johnson said of the favoritism, adding that the uneven footing will rub voters the wrong way. “Montanans don’t like being told what to do,” he said.
This weekend won’t be the first time division within the state GOP has manifested at a campaign event this election cycle. Earlier this year, Bruesewitz was invited to the Montana Republican Party’s winter kickoff event, a decision that immediately generated backlash from conservative Montana hardliners who accused the party of favoritism, since Bruesewitz had previously leveled public criticism at Montana Congressman Matt Rosendale, who was then gearing up for a since-abandoned primary challenge against Sheehy. The influencer was subsequently disinvited from the event.
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