Yellowstone County Democrats

08/31/2026

Billings was built by people who worked for a living.

The rail yard at Laurel has moved freight through this county for more than a century, run by engineers, conductors, and machinists working under union contracts. Three refineries operate here, Par Pacific and Phillips 66 in Billings and CHS in Laurel, and the United Steelworkers represent the people inside them.

Teachers in School District 2 bargain their contract through the Billings Education Association. Nurses at Billings Clinic bargain theirs through Montana Nurses Association Local Unit #2.

Zimmerman Trail was cut into the Rimrocks in 1939 by a crew of 100 to 150 workers on a public payroll. The job was budgeted for four months and took at least seven. That same stretch of years gave Billings its City Hall, the bridge out to Lockwood, the horse barns still standing at MetraPark, and the trails at Pictograph Cave.

Each of those places has a payroll behind it, and every name on it belonged to somebody's neighbor.

Labor Day is a week from Monday. We are spending the week on the people who built Yellowstone County and the ones keeping it running. Tell us who belongs in it. A grandfather in the yards. A shift at the refinery. A classroom, a hospital floor, a road crew, a kitchen.

08/30/2026

Genuine question, and we read every answer.

Volunteers start knocking doors across Yellowstone County next month. When they get to yours, what is the one thing you would want them to actually talk about? Property taxes, the jail measures, your power bill, healthcare, schools, something we are not thinking of.

Tell us in the comments. We would rather build the fall around what you are living with than what we assume.

08/30/2026

08/29/2026

We hope you'll join us for a home cooked meal and support democracy!

Steak off the grill. Potatoes, baked beans, deviled eggs, watermelon with basil and mint, garden salad, pasta salad, fresh rolls, dessert. Burgers for the kids. Vegan option available.

No caterer, no chafing dishes, no rubber chicken. Yellowstone County Democrats standing over a grill.

Sunday, September 13, ZooMontana. Food at 5:00, and your ticket gets you into the zoo all day!

https:// secure.actblue.com/donate/fallbbq2026

08/29/2026

One more thing about this Senate race, and then we will let it rest until the fall.

Alani Bankhead is the Democratic nominee because Montana Democrats voted for her. Not because a committee picked her, not because donors arranged it, and not because it was anybody's turn. She ran in a crowded primary in June, made her case in front of voters across this state, and won it.

That is the whole system working exactly the way it is supposed to. A party is built from the bottom up, by people who show up in county meetings and precinct seats and voting booths. When those people make a decision, the decision holds.

The Yellowstone County Democrats support the full Democratic ticket, top to bottom. Alani Bankhead earned her place on it. Full stop.

08/28/2026

Ten weeks out from Election Day, and the single most useful thing anybody can do is also the least complicated.

Talk to your neighbors. That is the program. You take a short list of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters on streets near your house, you knock on their doors when it suits your schedule, you say hello, you thank them for voting, and you make sure they know how and when.

No script. No debate. No convincing anybody of anything. We hand you the list, a map of your turf, the walk cards, and Kieran's phone number for when you have a question.

Research keeps finding the same thing: a neighbor is more persuasive than any ad anybody can buy. You already have the qualification.

Sign up on the Get Involved page, or email Kieran at [email protected]

08/28/2026

Montana has one of the highest shares of veterans of any state in the country. That is not a talking point here. It is the guy at the parts counter, the woman who runs your kid's scout troop, your neighbor two doors down.

What that population needs from Washington is unglamorous and specific: a VA funded well enough that an appointment in eastern Montana does not mean a five-hour drive, mental health care that exists in rural counties, real coverage for toxic exposure injuries, and no privatization of the veterans' health services that already work.

That is our platform, nearly word for word. Montana Democrats treat the obligation to care for people who served as one we do not get to renegotiate.

Alani Bankhead is an Air Force veteran. After her 21 years in service, she knows the veteran experience. She will be a genuine voice for Montana veterans, fighting for their care.

If you or someone you love is struggling, the Veterans Crisis Line is available 24/7. Dial 988, then press 1.

08/28/2026

Quick one. A U.S. Senator votes on federal land, farm policy, Medicare and Medicaid, VA funding, taxes, trade, and every federal judge who will hear Montana cases for the next thirty years.

Montana has two of them, for just over a million people. Wyoming has two. California has two. That math is the single biggest advantage this state has in Washington.

One of those two seats is open this November.

08/27/2026

If you want to know why rural hospitals close, follow the Medicaid money.

Montana expanded Medicaid and covered tens of thousands of working people who make too much for traditional Medicaid and not enough for insurance that costs anything reasonable. Those people are cooks, ranch hands, aides, cashiers, and the self-employed. When they have coverage, hospitals get paid. When they lose it, hospitals eat the cost of care that walks in anyway, and small hospitals cannot eat much before they cut services or close.

That is the chain. Coverage decisions made in Washington reach the emergency room in a Montana town of two thousand within about a year and a half.

The Montana Democratic Party platform supports continuing and improving Medicaid, funding rural health care, and treating emergency medical services as essential. Not as charity. As the infrastructure that keeps a community livable.

08/26/2026

Ever wanted to get involved in politics, but don't know where to start? Follow this chart and sign up at montanademocrats.org/volunteer 💙