MTPR is airing interviews with candidates running for federal office in 2026. MTPR's Victoria Traxler speaks with Russ Cleveland, a Democrat running for Montana's western U.S. House seat.
Victoria Traxler: What makes you the most qualified candidate for the job?
Russ Cleveland: Yeah, great question. So a combination of life and lived experience for me, I've grew up here in western Montana, have agricultural roots, live on a ranch now, but also in leaving Montana, have time in military service, have an education, not only a bachelor's in nutrition, but an MBA as well, worked in high finance managing multi-hundred million dollar budgets, which I think is important in this day and age, just being able to. Actually start managing the financial situation that we're in as at the federal government. We're spending in the wrong areas. If you're investing in your people, in your country, debt can be a good thing when there's a return on that investment. When we're investing and forever wars, right now it's $2 billion a day in Iran. What is the return on investment in that effort? To me, it's not worth it when people here can't afford housing, can't affordable health care. Can't afford child care, have not seen any significant wage increases in decades, and so here we are when the time comes to actually spend the money. We have no problem spending it in another forever war, but we are hesitant to spend it on American taxpayers, and that's a big issue.
Victoria Traxler: What previous experience would you bring to Congress?
Russ Cleveland: My previous experience lies in managing major budgets, understanding military spending with having served myself, and really understanding the most important for me, not just small business, but on the personal side, seeing what tragedy looks like from a healthcare perspective. My wife and I lost our oldest daughter to leukemia in 2020. And seeing not only what that looks like from a patient perspective of having to fight a nasty disease, but then having this parallel battle against big insurance who, for us, sent us a bill for over $300,000 for just one month of treatment after insurance. And then just years later, seeing it again with a youngest daughter who was diagnosed with a different rare disease, and the only medication that could cure her continually was denied by Insurance and so that experience for me is both professional and lived experience that I'm bringing to Congress to represent Montanans, which is something we haven't had in a long time
Victoria Traxler: The federal government shut down over an impasse between Republicans and Democrats over subsidies for the Affordable Care Act. How would you have approached that vote?
Russ Cleveland: Yeah, if we would have actually passed legislation that embraced a universal health care system, we wouldn't have to be arguing over crumbs with the Affordable Care Act. We needed that pushback in that session because people can't afford to go from $500 to $2,900 a month for health care. That just isn't possible. You're kicking people off the plan by way of financial crisis. That was an important stand to take. But the real solution is putting in a universal health care system that gives you quality care regardless of whether you make $10 an hour or $100 an hour.
Victoria Traxler: What is a top priority for constituents in your district?
Russ Cleveland:You know, one of the biggest things I've heard is housing here in Montana. We've seen an incredible growth in the cost of housing in the last five years especially, because we have both a combination of limited supply that is ultimately at a very high amount. And so if we really wanna attack that issue, we have to attack this wage disparity, which pushes productivity and profit all the way to the top of these major corporations. It doesn't actually pay the people who are doing the work and creating that. Productivity. If we want people to afford housing, we have to increase the supply of affordable housing, not just standalone homes that cost a million dollars, but also actually give people the means to pay for that, which is wages, and that is ultimately the root of most of the issues in the affordability crisis.
Victoria Traxler: The Trump Administration made a huge push to downsize the federal government. Are you happy with the results of that effort?
Russ Cleveland: While we need to address this $40 trillion debt that we're approaching as a country, I don't believe that cuts like that are the right way to do it. We need to look at things like a $280 billion budget on ICE, a $1 trillion budget on our uniformed military, and start looking at actually cutting back some of these areas where we spend in excess, while supporting things like veterans, education, and healthcare, some of these areas that we really could benefit from as a public by spending more of our money there.
Victoria Traxler: Thanks for your time.
Russ Cleveland: Yeah, thanks for having me.
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