On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Jon Tester and Governor Steve Bullock invited the multi-billion dollar company PayPal to open up business in Montana.
Tester and Bullock’s letter to PayPal’s president and CEO comes after the company backed out of a plan to open a new global operations center in North Carolina.
PayPal representatives say they canceled the company’s plans in North Carolina because of a new state law there that restricts protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
“Montana is a great place to do business, a great tax climate and quite frankly we have people who like one another, and are accepting of one another," Tester said. "And I think that is critically important if we are going to have a business like PayPal.”
The invitation by the Democratic Governor and Senator also plays into their party’s campaign to defeat Republican Gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte.
Gianforte has had to fend off questions over his past philanthropic support for organizations that oppose local gay rights measures. The software entrepreneur has also made recruiting high tech workers to Montana a signature of his campaign.
On his campaign trail, Gianforte has repeatedly said that discrimination is wrong.