DNC isn’t even throwing any money his way.
Fresh from special election defeats in Kansas and Georgia, Democratic professionals and activists alike are focusing on the election to fill Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s Montana congressional seat as one more chance to chip away at the Republican majority in the House. Their candidate in Montana is a 69-year-old country singer enamored of Bernie Sanders and the left wing of the new Democratic Party who would, if elected, be welcomed with open arms by the Sanders-Elizabeth Warren wing of the party as another foot soldier in the quasi-socialist resistance.
To get to Washington, however, Rob Quist faces the formidable task of convincing Treasure State voters that he’s more Montanan than socialist; that wearing a cowboy hat and riding the anti-Trump anger of fellow Democrats will get them to ignore his personal, professional and political record. Whether that will work remains to be seen, but even as he’s worked to moderate his public statements on hot button issues, Bernie Sanders‘ “resistance” has dumped some $2 million into his campaign, and “progressive” contributors who helped raise $8 million in an attempt to win a special election in Georgia are doubling down in Montana. Mr. Quist will have all the money he’ll need if he can get voters to buy what he’s selling or, ignore what he’s said in the past.
He’s running against Greg Gianforte, a successful businessman who last year lost a close race for governor because, while living in Montana for 24 years, he must live with the misfortune of having been born in New Jersey. Mr. Gianforte is a decent man and as conservative as the typical Montana voter, but doesn’t sport a Stetson or look like the sort of mustachioed guitar-strumming socialist one might find at a Bernie Sanders rally. On the other hand, Mr. Gianforte is personable, articulate, a strong gun rights supporter, opposes liberal abortion laws and wants, like most Montanans, to repeal and replace Obamacare as soon as possible.
Mr. Trump carried Montana by 20 points last November even as incumbent Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock edged out Mr. Gianforte to win re-election. Gun rights are always an issue in Montana, and Mr. Bullock managed to defuse the positions he had taken by simply lying about what he’d said and done. He falsely claimed credit for the state legislature’s passage of pro-gun legislation and ducked and dodged when Mr. Gianforte drew attention to his veto of half a dozen other pro-Second Amendment measures that ended up on his desk. The issue hurt him, but it wasn’t enough to derail his re-election.