\n When President Donald Trump concludes a western campaign swing in scenic northwest Montana on Wednesday, he\u2019s likely to make the same pitch he has in red states across the country: \u201cPretend I\u2019m on the ballot.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Whether that\u2019s helpful to Republican candidates here is open for debate.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI don\u2019t expect much of an effect from it, and frankly, I think a lot of people are hurting across Montana from this administration\u2019s policies,\u201d said Sam Forstag, the Democratic House candidate in a district Trump won about by 11 points in 2024.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI think there are a lot of people who don\u2019t seem all too excited about it,\u201d Forstag told CNN ahead of Trump\u2019s visit. \u201cI don\u2019t see it being helpful.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Unlike most of the states Trump has visited on his October campaign blitz, the Senate contest in Montana \u2014 where two candidates could fracture the liberal vote \u2014 is not his main focus.\n <\/p>\n
\n Instead, it\u2019s this House race in the Western district that is garnering national attention. The race pits Aaron Flint, a conservative radio host, against Forstag, a 32-year-old union leader and former Forest Service firefighter.\n <\/p>\n
\n Once expected to be an easy GOP win in a reliably red district, the race has grown more competitive, mirroring national trends that have forced Republicans into defense across the country.\n <\/p>\n
\n Flint has adopted a Trump-like \u201cMake Montana Affordable Again\u201d slogan and was encouraging supporters to attend Wednesday\u2019s event.\n <\/p>\n
\n But he\u2019s also called for an end to the Iran war, which many voters blame for higher gas and fertilizer prices.\n <\/p>\n
\n This part of Montana has also seen housing prices soar amid an influx of wealthy out-of-staters. Democrats have tried to seize on the anger, but skepticism of the party\u2019s brand runs deep in this conservative enclave.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI quite frankly understand why people are pissed at the Democratic Party,\u201d Forstag said Wednesday. \u201cThey had four years in power, two years of unified control of all three branches of government, and they did not take the steps with the kind of urgency that was needed to actually improve our lives.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When President Donald Trump concludes a western campaign swing in scenic northwest Montana on Wednesday, he\u2019s likely to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-466156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}