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Montana politics, elections and legislative news

John Mues 2020 Candidate Questionnaire

John Mues
Courtesy

Montana Public Radio is gathering information on all statewide primary candidates to publish as a resource for our audience. We asked all the statewide candidates to respond to the following questions via email, limiting their answers to 300 words per question. These are their unedited responses.

U.S. Senate candidate John Mues:

What is your full name as it will appear on ballots?

John Mues

What is your age?

46

Where do you live?

Loma, MT

What is your education background?

U.S. Naval Academy (B.S. of English, honors)

Naval Nuclear Power Program (U.S. Department of Energy-certified Nuclear Engineer)

Montana State University (Teaching Certificate)

London Business School (Master of Business Administration)

What is your current occupation?

Senior Engineer in Business Sector

Why are you running for this particular public office?

I’m running for the U.S. Senate because the issues we are facing as a state, nation, and planet – from climate change to a health care crisis to unprecedented economic inequality to a variety of national security challenges from North Korea to the Middle East – require new thinking, energy, and integrity.

What makes you qualified to hold this position?

The United States Senate is lacking or has too few senators with experience in National Security, Education, Energy, especially Renewable Energy, Engineering, Tribal Nation Affairs, International Business, and Economics. And too few who have grown up particularly humbly and can appreciate the struggles of everyday Americans and Montanans. I uniquely bring each of those skill sets and experiences to the table.

What are three policy issues that distinguish you from your opponent(s)?

- I am committed to accelerating the transition to a clean energy economy tackling climate change.

- I support progressive taxation on multinational corporate and ultra-wealthy individual income and investments in order to address entrenched anti-democratic power imbalances in our nation.

- I support legalization of marijuana in Montana that would add value in three major ways: fill budgetary holes created by loss of Colstrip plants; support criminal justice reform; and contribute an additional crop (alongside hemp) that may be more durable to climate change impacts.

- I believe that health care is a human right and support universal health care.

- I have worked on critical classified national security issues.

What are the greatest issues facing Montana that have gone unsolved by elected officials and how would you address them?

- Our suicide rate in Montana remains epidemically high. I would customize solutions per each high risk group.

- Climate change threatens our recreational and agricultural industries and economic tax base, and thus many fundamental state services. Montana must become a national leader, beginning with clean propulsion and power energy, clean energy storage, opportunities for clean de-centralized power, and ubiquitous distribution for utility-scale propulsion and power energy.

- Anti-trust review and regulation concerning monopolies and monopsonies in America. For example, out-of-state meat packing plants. We need, on behalf of Montana’s agricultural producers to other small businesses, to redefine and apply anti-trust review to marketplace failures that go beyond consumer price gouging. Supporting C.O.O.L. is part of that.

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