Montana’s Democratic Congressional hopeful Kathleen Williams is accusing her opponent of misrepresenting her on a number of issues in his campaign materials.
Williams stumped in Whitefish on a campaign swing through the greater Flathead Valley Tuesday, where she said Republican incumbent Greg Gianforte had misrepresented her position on a strong border, her support of the Second Amendment and her opposition to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
In July, Williams released an ad announcing she wouldn’t support Pelosi if elected.
"My opponent took a piece of that ad, put it in one of his ads that said exactly the opposite," Williams says. "If that is not a lie, I don't know what is."
In August, an ad for Gianforte used viewpoints of Wiliams’ supporters to link her to Pelosi. Several news outlets, including MTPR’s Campaign Beat, fact-checked Gianforte’s ad and found it misleading.
Williams used this anecdote to question Gianforte’s honesty as a candidate and congressman.
"After the assault, he lied to law enforcement and that seems to be a recurring pattern for him," Williams says.
About 50 people showed up for Williams’ 40-minute speech and question-and-answer, where she talked up her five campaign points, including her proposal to allow people age 55 and older to buy into Medicare as a way of building support for a future single-payer health care system and bringing civility back to the halls of Congress.
"We can lead by example," Williams says. "We can put people over partisanship and policy over politics."
In last year’s special election for Montana’s House seat, Gianforte beat Democrat Rob Quist in Flathead County by 18-percentage points.
The midterm election is on November 6. Absentee ballots should be turned in by hand to county election offices to be counted.