The Montana Democratic Party held three forums for its federal office candidates Sunday, April 12, at the Helena Avenue Theater in the state capital. Retired journalist (and Montana Free Press board member) Mike Dennison moderated the events, which involved Democratic candidates for the state’s two U.S. House districts and one U.S. Senate seat up for election in 2026.
What follows are candidate responses to three questions from each debate.
EASTERN MONTANA U.S. HOUSE DISTRICT MT-02 (INCLUDES BILLINGS, GREAT FALLS, HELENA AND ALL POINTS EAST)
Question: “Many people believe that President Trump has overstepped his authority as president in many ways. Do you agree, and if you’re elected, what can and would you do to rein in the president’s powers and actions?”
Sam Lux: “Congress needs to get aggressive about taking back the powers of the purse. The American people have suffered under illegal tariffs. They’re now suffering under illegal wars. And all of this is not the powers of the president. It is the power of Congress.”
Jonathan Windy Boy: “This president has overstepped his powers. Of course, the war in Iran is supposed to have been granted by the Congress. That’s what the Constitution says. The tariffs have gone too far, have hurt Montanans. It’s hurting everybody across the board here in the state of Montana, and if impeachment is on the floor of the Congress, more than likely I’ll support that.”
Brian Miller: “We’ve got to impeach him. The other thing we need to do, once he’s gone, is we’ve got to Trump-proof the presidency going forward. Because what this guy did was, anything that wasn’t tied down, he took it. The level of corruption is insane, the abuse of power, the attacks on universities. I mean, heck, he’s basically even creating, like, a Soviet style economy, where he goes around and threatens CEOs, who they’re going to hire. So, it’s ironic that the Republicans are basically bringing Soviet-style communist economies to the United States of America.”
Question: “We have a huge growing disparity in this country between the haves and the have-nots, a massive wealth gap, so to speak. What do you think Congress should do about that?”
Jonathan Windy Boy: “We need to repeal this big, beautiful bill that increased the federal deficit by $4.8 trillion and the top 1% of the people who are getting the benefits and tax breaks. That’s not fair to the average Montanan. Our competitor on the Republican side voted for that $4.8 trillion. Can you imagine what 12 zeros behind the number is? That’s insane. That’s ludicrous. It should be against the law.”
Brian Miller: “We have deep structural problems. One thing that we must do is we have to have corporations taxed at a fair rate. Right now, corporate tax receipts only account for 10% of our federal revenue. I want to see that increase to 20, 25%. And these trickle-down people that always say you’re going to kill the economy, they’re lying to you.”
Sam Lux: “We have to repeal the big beautiful bill today. We have to make sure that we are increasing the tax rate on corporations. I’m a little more aggressive. I’d like to see between 25 and 30% of our GDP. I also agree that we need to create a higher tax rate on ultra-high-net-worth individuals, because there’s no reason that the top 1% are able to hoard so much of this country’s wealth.”
Question: “If you could choose one thing that would help improve the economy and job prospects in the state, what would it be?”
Sam Lux: “We hear two things all the time: There’s no jobs, and we can’t find anybody to work. And how the hell do these two things go together? I want to see aggressive new funding being added to one: increasing broadband access to rural communities. Two: increasing access to tele-appointments and satellite in-person locations. And three: I want to see that same Job Corps program have the funding to reach out to our small family-owned farms.”
Jonathan Windy Boy: “Why should we have to bring in meat from other countries and out of state when we have three million cows and one million people? That’s three cows to one person, and we need to take hold of, keep our grass-fed and our grain-fed cattle, and stay and put it in our freezers locally. That’s providing opportunities, and that’s what I’m doing.”
Brian Miller: “There’s a proper role in which government sometimes needs to come in and make sure that the gap between what we want to see in the free enterprise system — because we are a free enterprise society — and what we need to see as a society itself, is met. And so we do need to drastically expand our agricultural infrastructure. The farm bill is for the farmer, not the corporation, because Big Ag is running the table on everybody.”
WESTERN MONTANA U.S. HOUSE DISTRICT MT-01(INCLUDES BOZEMAN, BUTTE, MISSOULA AND KALISPELL)
Question: “What’s your opinion on outside spending on the Western District primary?” The question was asked after Ryan Busse accused Sam Forstag of soliciting dark money donations.
Sam Forstag: “I’m not accepting a dime of corporate PAC money. I am not accepting a dime of dark money. And I think it is a damn shame that we have Democrats on this stage trying to villainize labor and the AFL-CIO, because I’m proud to have the endorsement of the AFL-CIO, SEIU, home care workers across the state, firefighters unions, my own union of federal employees, that is the kind of coalition we need.”
Matt Rains: “I left my job at Montana Farmers Union to win this thing in November, and that’s going to take a crap-load of money. It’s going to take $5-$6 million, and as much as I love to know that the grassroots movement is there, and split four ways, it’s not going to get us across the finish line.”
Russell Cleveland: “I’m individual contributions only, and I will continue to run a clean campaign that’s for Montanans by Montanans.”
Ryan Busse: “You can’t say you’re for the Montana plan and then put a literal instruction booklet on your website about how to pour dark money into this race. It says for the primary. I just looked at it. This is not a general election thing. This is the instruction for big DC dark money to pour as much money into this race to usurp the work that Russ is doing, or Matt’s doing, or I’m doing. Why are we okay with saying one thing and doing another?”
Question: “Do you support President Trump’s decision to attack Iran or not? What’s the next step to resolve the conflict, and what role should Congress play?”
Matt Rains: “Article One, Section Eight of the Constitution says the right to declare war is reserved for Congress to prevent an autocratic president that just wants to take and use the military like a play toy. They kicked the hornet’s nest, and then are trying to run away, and those hornets are pissed. We are talking about a military of 600,000. There is no easy solution. They are going to keep the pedal to the metal. And if we do pull out, there are terrorist organizations salivating to backfill that government. We have put the Middle East in a very, very dangerous situation.”
Russell Cleveland: “We should not even be in Iran. That’s why we should not allow one man to decide the fate of thousands of Americans and put the economy in this country at risk. We’ve seen a higher increase in the last month in the price of fuel than we have in the last 59 years in this country. That’s Trumpism. And everyone who supports him supports that.”
Ryan Busse: “Congress is supposed to be a coequal branch of government. Right now, it’s a sycophancy for one man. It’s gotten us in a lot of problems, and it’s going to get us in a lot more. We gotta win this seat back in November.”
Sam Forstag: “Too many of the folks representing us do not have skin in the game when it comes to big decisions like whether you’re going to ask people to risk their lives, whether that is risking your life overseas or risking your life at home.”
Question: “Does Congress have a role in bridging the child care affordability gap?”
Russell Cleveland: “We’ve seen a dissolution of our Department of Education over the last year, and my plan includes changing that to a Department of Youth Development, which connects birth to workforce. It shows that childcare does help the economy. Every dollar invested in childcare is a $4 to $9 return in the local economy. Universal pre-K raises those learning outcomes, not just in first, second and third grade, but all the way into junior high and high school.”
Ryan Busse: “We’re spending $33 million a day on this debacle in Venezuela. We’re spending $1.6 billion a day on this thing we’re doing in Iran, we have just approved a budget for $191 billion for ICE. That’s more than all but 14 militaries on the face of the earth. It’s more than the U.S. Marine Corps here at home. And yet we tell young parents trying to make a living, trying to pay the rent, paying for exploding grocery prices, that we can’t help with child care. We’re making the wrong decisions in this country.”
Sam Forstag: “Absolutely we should have universal child care and pre-K in this country. We can afford to do all of that. We can have universal pre-K by expanding programs like Head Start and Best Beginnings. I was one of those kids who had somewhere to go, thanks to Head Start.”
Matt Rains: “We want to get out there. We want to make a living for ourselves. Child care should not be a limiting factor that it doesn’t make sense to go out and work. We need to make sure that our wages make it available to where you can go and make a better life for your family. We need to make sure that federally, we support the state with funding, that they can help minimize the cost and the drain on child care for our individual families.”
U.S. SENATE
Question: “We have a huge, growing economic disparity in this country between the haves and have-nots, massive wealth gap? What, if anything, can Congress do about it?”
Alani Bankhead: “Everybody should pay their fair share of taxes, and we should be bringing a lot of that economy down to Main Street. So the simple impetus of this campaign is to bring more resources to Main Street. Because when we do that, when our economy is doing better, everybody does better overall. We all create better results together.”
Michael Hummert: “When we spend more money than we take in as a nation, who does that benefit? It doesn’t benefit anybody in this room. It benefits billionaires, it benefits corporations, it benefits other countries. So by getting a balanced budget, we can greatly restrict how much money is being spent on war and other countries. And I think that’s probably the best defense we have against our billionaires and millionaires.”
Reilly Neill: “We need to raise Montana’s minimum wage to the federal level. And when I’m in D.C., we need to raise the federal minimum wage. We need industry in Montana, but we need to invite industry that’s going to pay workers fairly so that they can keep up with the cost of living and the cost of housing, which right now is the highest in the nation.”
Michael Black Wolf: “Support our unions. We need to ensure that our made-in-Montana gets pushed forward. We need to really step up and really start looking at what we need to do here, raising the minimum wage, balancing budgets, and making sure this common sense is used when it comes to our nation’s dollars.”
Michael Hummert: “I think that it’s a state’s problem, and the state has the solution, and so does the city. Cutting these draconian requirements for building houses could be the first step.”
Question: “As a member of Congress, what can or will you do to attack the [affordable housing] problem?”
Reilly Neill: “We need federal infrastructure dollars to go to housing incentives for our veterans, for low-income families, for renters, and we need these incentives to work for people on the ground now. We’re already in a housing crisis. We need to help every Montanan compete in this market, and the Montana Legislature needs to provide some property tax relief for our seniors.”
Michael Black Wolf: “As your senator, I will fight to limit large-scale investor purchases and to support community investment into our own state, our own backyards. And it’s true, it’s a state issue. However, because it’s such a large housing crisis, any help from anywhere, including the federal government, I think would be greatly welcome.”
Alani Bankhead: “Number one, we have this amazing law and capital gains, and currently the limit’s $250,000, if we raise that limit to 500,000 we know that people are going to start selling houses, and that’s going to open up additional inventory, which is going to lower the cost of housing … I’m offering tax breaks to companies that are in construction and other tangential businesses to get tax breaks if 30% or more of their portfolio consists of affordable housing, which I define as $350,000 or below.”
Question: “What would your priority be as a U.S. senator to improve the lives of Montana’s Native Americans?”
Reilly Neill: “I will uphold all treaties with our Native neighbors, and I will respect our sovereign nations in this climate. I will protect the 14th Amendment, which gives our tribal neighbors the right to citizenship and to participate in our democracy.”
Michael Black Wolf: “We cannot forget and overlook the gross underfunding of Indian Health Services, just direct funding to tribes. And we also need to realize and understand that there is a unique trust responsibility between the federal government and tribal nations, and that trust responsibility needs to be honored.”
Alani Bankhead: “I’ve been working with Native American, Native Hawaiian tribes for almost two decades and protecting them from child exploitation and sex trafficking, and I will continue to do that. I know that for many of them, especially as a retired federal agent, or federal agencies, have done a piss poor job of protecting them from the most basic crimes, and I intend to do something about that at the federal level, with the relationships I have with survivors myself.”
Michael Hummert: “So it’s not about the money, it’s about actually some oversight, I think, and that’s what Congress’s job is supposed to be. Is oversight when you spend your money.”
latest stories
Union and governor’s office sign agreement to reduce state employees’ healthcare rate hike
Healthcare insurance costs for state employees will go up in January, though a bargaining agreement between the Montana Federation of Public Employees and the office of Gov. Greg Gianforte has mitigated some of the spikes that the Montana Department of Administration announced at the end of August.
Grand Teton National Ballpark? Visitors call it a field of nightmares.
Park visitors greet news of a potential MLB game in front of the Tetons with disbelief.
Confusion and angst follow state’s early rollout of Medicaid work rules
Medicaid advocates worry that the expedited timeline in some states will lead to thousands of people losing coverage because they’re confused about the new rules, even if they are eligible for the program — and that Montana may offer a troubling preview of what will happen nationwide next year. State health department officials maintain they are well prepared and told state lawmakers they plan to process roughly 5,000 enrollees monthly.
