Before absentee ballots were sent out, MTPR’s Shaylee Ragar took a road trip to talk with Montanans about their choices in candidates, what issues are top of mind and how they plan to vote. Here’s her dispatch from the road.
At the diner counter at Bob n’ Kelli’s Cafe in White Sulphur Springs, Dannie Morgan finishes breakfast. He was the first person who agreed to talk with me on my four-day road trip. I wanted to take voters’ political temperature, and see how they feel about the upcoming election.
Originally from West Virginia, Morgan’s called Montana home since 2010. He works remotely for Toyota and travels often for the job. But he’s always anxious to get home.
"I like the little town feel. Good people, nice place."
Morgan says he plans to vote, he always does. But he’s not confident about his options for president.
"At 74 years of age, I think this is the worst situation that I personally have ever seen," Morgan says.
He wants tighter restrictions to prevent illegal immigration, and prices at the grocery store to come down. He says he identifies as an independent, but feels compelled to vote for former President Donald Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris.
"A lot of people say, well, I don’t like Trump. Well, I don’t either, as a person. He’s a New Yorker. He’s got a harsh mentality. But he at least presents some policies that try to make some sense.”
Morgan says he’s in a quandary over Montana’s competitive U.S. Senate race. He says Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Tester votes with his party too often. However, he says Republican Tim Sheehy, a political newcomer, hasn’t proven he’s trustworthy.
“I’m still fence-sitting on that one,” Morgan says.
Tester is counting on those kinds of split-ticket voters. An Emerson College poll in March found that 14% of voters who planned to vote for Trump also planned to vote for Tester. In more recent polls, Sheehy has taken the lead outside the margin of error.
There’s no fence-sitting for Todd Williams, who’s 68 and lives in Bozeman.
I met Williams, a former college football coach, outside of Mark’s In & Out Beefburgers in Livingston. He’s skeptical of candidates and says there’s too much polarization on both sides. But, he says democracy is on the line and there’s a clear choice to protect it.
"You’re voting against extremism. You’re voting against dictatorships like in Hungary. You’re voting against the disruption in Venezuela. You’re voting against some of these things — all you have to do is look at world news and you can see it’s going on in other places. Why not the United States of America? Because we’re so special? We’re not so special.”
Williams didn’t want to name names, but he says the right has gone too far in pursuit of power, especially after Republicans lost the 2020 presidential election. Williams knows who he’ll vote for this cycle, but hopes for better options next time.
“Now we go on to another issue, which is the two party system. The two-party system creates an us vs. them, red vs. blue, you know, my team vs. your team.”
That was a common sentiment among voters I talked to. People feel like they have to choose between the lesser of two evils up and down the ballot.
While 21-year-old Camden Erickson paid for his tab at Yesterday’s Soda Fountain and Cafe in Ennis, he told me he plans to vote third-party in November. He and a buddy were clad in camo after scouting for elk in the area.
"The average person doesn’t really have much of a say in the election. I feel like it’s driven by money, and people who have a lot of money have a big sway in the election,” Erickson says.
Erickson likes what he sees from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., an independent candidate who ended his presidential campaign and endorsed Trump. But Erickson says he plans to vote for Kennedy anyway.
“Realistically, he’s probably not going to win, but if that third party or another party gains enough momentum, they’re going to do something about ‘em and put them on the ballot.”
For others, that kind of long-game planning doesn’t fit into everyday life. Ryan Shortman is a busy mom of a one-year-old living in Deer Lodge. She was on a Saturday morning walk with a friend when I stopped her to chat.
The 29-year-old says she usually leans conservative. She wants a candidate who will address the high cost of housing. But she says it’s time-consuming and sometimes nearly impossible to get the information she needs to feel confident in her vote.
"Yeah, I don’t know that the 18,000 fliers that I get in the mail are doing a lot for me," Shortman says. "Like, we get so many and we throw them away, right? We don’t read them.”
Even though Shortman plans to vote for Trump, she’s undecided in the Senate race.
"I mean, we don’t love that Tim Sheehy is from out-of-state. I think that Tester has a lot of good pull in Washington because he’s been there for a long time. But I also don’t always agree with the decisions he makes. So I don’t know. I might not vote in that race. I don’t know.”
I met Pete Liazza while he walked his dog in Ennis.
He moved to the area 14 years ago after retiring from the Boston Fire Department.
68-year-old Liazza said he looks forward to voting for Sheehy. He doesn’t like the flack Sheehy gets for being from outside of Montana. Liazza said he moved here in-part because he wanted to live in a conservative place.
“You get along with people out here, but I says, you’ll find out who your real friends are if you ran for office. Because they’re doing this with Sheehy – ‘Oh he’s a rich out-of-stater.’ Like, if I ever ran for office, ‘oh, he’s just a Boston guy trying to put his liberal values.’ And as you can tell, I’m not liberal, but that would be the stereotype for me.”
When I asked Liazza what he liked about Sheehy, he focused on what he doesn’t like about Tester.
"He’s become like whatever Biden and the Democrats want, he’s a reliable vote,” Liazza says.
Liazza said he’s stunned polls are showing tight races.
"I think half the people are brainwashed, they watch like CNN and MSNBC, which they just lie all day long.”
Liazza turns to conservative outlets Newsmax and Fox News. According to a recent poll from YouGov, his distrust is not unique. Researchers found that Republicans are far less likely than Democrats to trust established news sources in general. There’s also very little overlap in the sources that Democrats and Republicans agree are trustworthy.
Patricia Old Person Devereaux visited Helena from Browning earlier this month for the Last Chance Community Pow Wow. She was accompanied by her 7-year-old godson.
“He was actually named by the chief of our tribe. His name’s Treaty, but in Blackfeet you say Inistsi.”
Deveraux is talking about the late-Chief Earl Old Person, who was also her father-in-law and Treaty’s great-grandpa. Deveraux says she likes Tester because she knows him. He came to the Blackfeet Reservation to meet with Old Person and other tribal members.
"He broke bread with us, Tester has. And so, in politics you’ve got to, you've got to give and take in politics. You’ve gotta give in order to get in politics,”Deveraux says.
58-year-old Deveraux says she feels strongly about voting, even when it requires compromise.
For example, her strong Christian faith informs her stance against abortion. However, she says that belief doesn’t necessarily need to govern others. And her Christian faith also tells her people in power should help those less fortunate.
"If they’re not for the people, then I ain’t going to vote for them. If they’re against certain groups, I’m not going to vote for them. My heart and my soul won’t let me. Because I have to go for what is right and just and beautiful,” Deveraux says.
I heard from Montanans that they have a wide-range of reasons to vote in this election. Some are worried about national issues with immediate concerns they want fixed. Others plan to vote with hopes of changing the future. Many are fed-up with the tenor of political discourse and the options they have.
Absentee voting is underway. The polls will open at 8 a.m. November 5.
