Last Best Voice

08/25/2026

Heartbreaking news out of Billings. Multiple members of a family, including children, lost their lives following a fire and shooting Sunday evening. There really aren’t words for a tragedy like this.

Montana is one big small town. When something devastating happens to one family, it ripples through neighbors, friends, schools, workplaces and an entire community.

Right now, there are surviving family members carrying an unimaginable loss. Please support them if you can, whether through a donation, sharing their fundraisers, or simply surrounding them with the kind of care Montanans know how to give.

Let’s be there for our neighbors. Let’s take care of each other.

08/22/2026

What a day to look up over Billings.

The Yellowstone International Air Show is back this weekend, with everything from vintage aircraft and aerobatics to the U.S. Navy Blue Angels filling the skies over Billings Logan International Airport. This year’s show also celebrates America’s 250th anniversary.

Had the good fortune to be invited into the volunteers’ tent today, where the view was great but the people were even better. I spent some time visiting with Chaplain Charlie, a Vietnam-era Navy veteran who went on to serve as a chaplain here in Billings. Those are the conversations I always seem to remember as much as the big spectacle overhead.

And then came the parachutes and those enormous flags floating over Montana. Watching somebody maneuver under a parachute always brings back a few memories. On my first jump, my chute streamed instead of opening properly at about 3,000 feet. I managed to get it open and had to learn how to fly the damn thing on the way down. Then, roughly a hundred feet off the ground, it collapsed again. I hit hard enough to break my back in two places and my pelvis in half.

So when I watch somebody dangling under a canopy with a giant flag creating all that drag, there’s a little more appreciation for the skill, courage and physics involved.

But maybe what I enjoyed most today was the same thing I keep finding all over Montana: people showing up. Veterans, volunteers, families, pilots, first responders and neighbors putting on something extraordinary for their community.

Pretty damn good day under the Big Sky.

08/22/2026

It was an honor to be in DC for this!

08/18/2026

What happens when two women from opposite sides of our political divide sit down and discover something more important than politics?

Staci Maione once called herself a “MAGA cheerleader.” Alani Bankhead is Montana’s Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate. But both have devoted years of their lives to protecting children from sexual exploitation and trafficking.

They didn’t agree on everything. They didn’t need to.

They found the place where labels stopped mattering and a shared responsibility began.

“I really do believe that the children will unite this country.”

This conversation is about protecting kids. But it’s also about something bigger: what might happen if the rest of us started with what matters more than our tribes.

Read the latest Last Best Voice.

***Who’s ready to have a conversation next?
Montana Republican Party Montana Democratic Party
Alani for MT Kurt Alme Seth Bodnar for Montana Austin4mt

What happens when we stop asking which side someone is on and start asking what we’re willing to stand together for?

08/14/2026

Sam Matt Steve & Ed & the story wars & the story tellers

08/13/2026

Montana was allocated nearly $43 million in federal funding to build EV fast-charging infrastructure across our state. Money intended to build infrastructure, support economic development and tourism, and create work right here under the Big Sky.

And I’m sitting here charging my EV, wondering why Montana has been so slow to put that opportunity to work.

This isn’t about whether you love electric cars. It’s about whether Montana takes advantage of resources available to us. MDT’s own plan envisioned chargers along I-15, I-90, I-94, US-2 and US-93, including rural communities where travelers stop, eat, shop and spend money. Montana even began pursuing its first seven charging locations before the federal program changed. Since then, roughly $12.5 million of Montana’s NEVI allocation has been repurposed for other highway infrastructure.

What frustrates me is watching another issue get swallowed by politics when there was an opportunity here for Montana workers, businesses, communities and travelers.

You don’t have to like EVs. You don’t have to like the president who created the program. You don’t even have to like the governor.

But when there’s an opportunity to strengthen Montana’s infrastructure and put money to work in Montana communities, our first question ought to be: Is this good for Montana?

Our power shouldn’t come from Washington or a political tribe.

It should belong to us.

Take care of Montana. Take care of each other.

08/11/2026

What if the fastest way to make people mad in politics today is to get along with someone they’ve decided you’re supposed to hate?

Montana’s four-way Senate race is bringing out the tribalism: rumors, fear, “electability,” and the idea that supporting one person requires despising the others.

But talking isn’t endorsing. Listening isn’t surrendering. And disagreement doesn’t require hatred. Maybe reaching across the aisle means we have to move our own feet, too.

Our latest Last Best Voice is about the Senate race, but really, it’s about all of us. We found a great way to make everybody mad: Get along with people.

Get along with people.

08/09/2026

There’s a Montana I grew up knowing that can sometimes feel harder to find these days. This weekend in Lewistown, I found plenty of it.

The 40th Montana Cowboy Poetry Gathering and Western Music Rendezvous brought together cowboy poets, musicians and folks who still know the value of a good story, a good laugh and getting up to dance when the music moves you. This year’s headliner was Dave Stamey⁠, a real cowboy, storyteller and one of Western music’s most celebrated performers. We got to visit and laugh together, as we should.

Hard to believe this was my first time at the Gathering, especially after our dear family friend Wally McRae was part of it for so many years. One of my favorite moments was hearing Kyle Shobe sing “The Montana Song” and watching couples spontaneously get up and dance. There was laughter, love of country and that familiar resilience of people who know life can be hard, so you’d better appreciate the good when it comes.

That’s the Montana I know. Not one defined by anger and hostility, but by people coming together, making the best of things and enjoying one another’s company. It was good to be reminded that Montana is still very much alive in the hearts of the people who call this Last Best Place home.

Thanks to Lewistown for the hospitality and the folks at the Calvert Hotel for taking such good care of me. Even the drive home through a quiet Sunday-morning Roundup, past the Montana Trail Drive sculpture at the Musselshell County Courthouse, felt like part of the story.

Take care of the traditions. Take care of each other.

08/07/2026

It was an honor to be among these folks last week representing Montanans in DC.