Montana Free Press | By Tom Lutey
2026 Elections – Ryan Busse, Russell Cleveland, Matt Rains and Sam Forstag make their first joint appearance since Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke announced he won’t seek reelection.
Read Ryan’s highlight section below, and about the rest of the Democratic candidates and full article RIGHT HERE.
Ryan Busse Highlight:
Busse, of Kalispell, emphasized his 31 years living in Flathead Valley with his wife, Sarah, and two boys, Badge and Lander, who were plaintiffs in a landmark climate lawsuit affirming that state government must weigh climate impacts when permitting projects. A former firearms industry executive who ran for governor as a Democrat in 2024, Busse told the audience it has been years since Montana’s federal delegation represented the public.
“The billionaires and the private jet class and the Yellowstone Club folks, they got plenty of representation, but we don’t have any,” Busse said.
On political spending: “If I had it my way, we’d have public financing of all campaigns. We’d get, everybody would get the same amount of money. Clearly there would be no outside spending. I hope we can get to that point. I will fight for that. But the real problem is the outside spending and the corporate PAC money.”
On the Epstein files: “It’s disgusting, and we ought to be disgusted by it. And we ought to have a Congress that stands up and says ‘hell no.’”
On whether Congress should play a role in authorizing military actions: “All you have are the myriad reasons that we have been given for this war in Iran. And it’s lie upon lie upon lie upon lie there. There was no immediate risk from nuclear weapons. There was no immediate risk from Iran attacking the United States. Those are contrived reasons.”
Busse and other candidates characterized the costs of military action in Iran as draining funds that could be spent on health care.
How to make Montana more affordable: “We have made thousands and thousands of choices that have increased the wealth disparity in this state, in this country, and it’s about time we have a representative that starts making decisions to reduce every single one of those. My promise to all of you, to my kids, to your kids, is that I will not vote for, I will not advocate for, I will not speak on behalf of a single bill that increases the wealth disparity, only reduces it, period.” Busse said universal health care needs to be a congressional priority.
On data centers: “The reason data centers are rushing here is because they believe we have cheap power … open land … insufficient regulation to stop them from moving fast. We need to be very careful.”
On regulating artificial intelligence: “A major part of the product of the data centers, AI, is to put human labor out of work. We should be honest about that.”
