Ryan Zinke

I was shocked that we're talking about Montana in any one of those districts at stake.

Ryan Zinke, the Republican incumbent retiring.

Sam Forstag, the Democrat against Aaron Flint.

Trump has now moved, excuse me, Cook has now moved this into the toss-up category.

But...

And then I've had on Secretary Zinke.

I've had on Alaska's governor.

I mean, I don't remember all of the politicians I've had.

She got an email on Valentine's Day two years ago saying that she'd lost her job, that she was going to be locked out of her government device by the end of the day, not for cause or for performance, but because Kara just happened to have taken a lateral transfer.

in the last year so she could do more remote work while she went through chemotherapy um and there are stories like kara's all over montana certainly i think all over this country that it didn't feel like anyone was listening to certainly not the person who was representing us in congress whom i called three four times ryan zinke and i got crickets so you know i i wouldn't say it's a particular moment i would say it was a building of hearing stories like kara's of people like perk and ennis who got a text in the airport on the way to his mom's funeral saying that he was losing his job and perk was making 16 bucks an hour in the first place and i used to have a lot more time for reading before this campaign and the greatest montana author ever his name's ivan dowick he's got a line in one of his books where he says the word is never quite the deed how can i write what you can read and it felt like we had a lot of people talking and not actually acting on it and it felt like we had a lot of people talking in a way that just did not resonate with normal working people when like we just want to hear from somebody who knows what it's like to be the you know person working three jobs and paying rent on a credit card We want to hear from somebody who actually knows what it's like to do the math of I need a thousand hours of overtime to make it through the winter.

And what does that mean for the next year of my life? And I know what that's like.

Very few people in Congress where the last number I saw is 2% of Congress's working class actually know what that's like.

This is a guy who spent the last several years, what, making like $19 an hour parachuting into wildfires as part of the Forest Service, and he got into the race because he was pissed off.

That Trump and his his representative, Ryan Zinke, were using Doge to come after the Forest Service and his buddies who work to protect their community.

So he's motivated by all the right reasons.

He's up against a Republican who's a talk radio host who used to be the state director for the existing Republican.

And just because we have a wildly successful Tuesday after next will not automatically produce that.

We will win the opportunity to produce that.

But it's going to require us showing back up, not just to get out the vote, but to demand more of our representatives and senators.

So what you can expect from Indivisible is within a week or so after the dust settles from this election, you will be seeing a new Indivisible guide with a new strategic orientation for this new Congress, because we do need to shift our strategies and tactics after we are out of the first two years of this Trump regime, because we'll have new tools available to us.

One that I didn't think we'd be talking about is Montana's first district.

Ryan Zinke vacating the seat.

Cook moved this one to a pure toss-up.

Sam Forstag, the Democrat, versus Aaron Flint.

And it did not feel like there was anybody listening to these.

I mean, quite literally, when I reached out to Ryan Zinke, who was sitting in this seat three or four times, I got crickets.

So it was personal for me.

And I decided if he's going to come take my members' jobs, I'm going to come take his.

And what I'll tell you, too, like all the ideas, there's no monopoly on good ideas in one party.

A river runs through it.

Ryan Zinke, after nearly a decade in Congress, he finally stepped up and sponsored that legislation in the last month.

That is a great bill.

and marketed himself quite successfully to foreign governments and foreign regimes and foreign businesses as one of the few guys who could get the attention of this small circle of folks around Trump who were setting policy.

And as you mentioned, he throws this party to try to demonstrate that he can bring these types of folks, these types of folks being Trump insiders, to the Congolese, but invited a lot of high-profile people who were the actual official parts of the Trump administration, including John Bolton, Ryan Zinke, who was the Interior Secretary.

And if those folks had come, it would have sent a signal that hey, the Congolese, they may have had terrible relationships with Washington under administration's pass, but we're turning over a new leaf under Trump's administration, turning the page, and we have the potential to have good relationships.

So their absence was quite notable.