MTPR is airing interviews with candidates running for federal office in 2026. MTPR's Austin Amestoy speaks with Reilly Neill, a Democrat running for U.S. Senate.
Austin Amestoy: Tell us why you feel you are the best person for this job.
Reilly Neill: Well, in 2024, I ran a write-in campaign for the Eastern Congressional District, and I went to 40 counties in two months with no budget, no staff. And after that campaign of being on the ground and talking to people, 1,500 people wrote me and took the time to write me in on the ballot. And that was a petition to tell the rest of the state that Eastern Montanans wanted to be heard. And I heard it loud and clear. So the day after that election in 2024, November 6th, 7th, 2024, I decided to put my hat in the ring for U.S. Senate as a proud Democrat.
Austin Amestoy: Can you tell me about the prior experience that you would bring to the U.S. Senate if elected?
Reilly Neill: For 10 years I had a newspaper in Livingston, Montana, right at the corner of Lewis and Main streets, and my door was always open. It was a weekly newspaper, so we had folks coming in every day to talk to us about community issues. And I feel like I'm bringing that spirit to the job of U.S. Senator. I also served in the Montana statehouse. And while I was in the statehouse, I did work on reproductive rights issues and women's issues, but I also worked on food security and our agricultural system security going into the future that's looking a little uncertain with climate variability. So what I bring to this candidacy and what I will bring in the U.S. Senate is the ability to listen to our community and make policy based on what we have heard.
Austin Amestoy: And let's talk about some of the policies that people are talking about right now. One of the biggest right now, of course, is the issue of healthcare. It's very expensive. Congress shut down last fall over the issue. How do you feel Congress should address the cost of healthcare in the United States?
Reilly Neill: We first started looking at this policy with the folks on the ground we were talking to. We've had dozens of roundtables all across the state. And people have mentioned everything from single-payer systems to universal healthcare. So initially we came up with one line of code. We called it the Family Insurance Act that would extend the age that you can stay on your family's coverage to 35 years old rather than 26, which would avoid some of the cliff that you might fall off of at 26. It would lessen the strain on Medicaid, and overall, it would be one line of code. It would be something easy that could be accomplished in Congress. After we developed this first initial policy language, we realized people wanted to see more. They wanted us to ask for what we really need. And from what we hear, across the board and nearly every community in Montana, that's universal healthcare.
Austin Amestoy: Let's pivot to another very topical issue right now, which is immigration. Where do you stand on the Trump administration's approach to immigration enforcement in this second term? And what role do you think Congress should have in immigration enforcement?
Reilly Neill: Well, first of all, Congress needs to be holding the Oval Office accountable for due process, for our rule of law. And what we're seeing across the nation is the undermining of due process and rule of law. When it comes to immigration reform, I think that right now we've seen that people wanted something different than what we were living with. So how are we going to address this going forward? It's going to take Congress working together, but most of all, it's going to take Congress holding the Oval Office accountable for unlawful acts.
Austin Amestoy: You've talked a lot about listening to constituents across Montana as a tenant of your campaign. What is a top policy priority that you have heard from them?
Reilly Neill: We were conducting these round tables — so we've been doing this over a year and a half. But as we continue to do this, the issue shifted from cost of living, which is always still very important; and public education, which are, you know, our public schools are the heartbeats of our small communities and all of our communities across Montana; healthcare, which we've chatted about a little here today; main street, making sure that we have the economic strength to carry forward in the future. But now, at almost exclusively at every event, people are concerned with holding the administration accountable in D.C.
