When U.S. Senate candidate Amanda Curtis pulled out her guitar and started singing old gospel songs with her husband on the banjo, I quickly noted that this was no ordinary stateswoman. Curtis and her husband shared an old-style single microphone and frankly sounded good.
Curtis is a 35-year-old high school math teacher from Butte, which has a deep history of folk music. Butte was the epicenter of music when the National Folk Festival chose the town as its host city. Some of the best folk singers have played in Butte, and uptown is a perfect venue for a national event.
Last week, Curtis was in Whitefish and Kalispell stumping about the huge disconnect between Montana values and Washington, D.C. In Whitefish, Curtis stood in front of a backdrop of thousands of acres of public lands.
Curtis said that she, like the rest of us, won’t be able to take a vacation without our public lands. Later, Curtis released her public lands platform, which included support of the North Fork Watershed Protection Act but opposed attempts to turn over federal lands to state management that would lead to privatization, access losses, and massive costs to state taxpayers.
Curtis wrote, “Our state is full of the best places to hunt, fish, ski, boat, bike and camp.” She continued, “I’m running because Montanans pride themselves on our great outdoors, and they deserve a candidate who will fight to protect those places for future generations.”
Whitefish leaders have done a terrific job at conserving public lands around town. Thousands of acres have been permanently protected and many more are proposed to be conserved for traditional uses like timber, hunting and recreation.
But it was a ragtag team of mountain bikers who originally stood up to former Gov. Judy Martz’s administration as it proposed to trade-off Spencer Mountain to developers. Today, thanks to those bikers and other leaders, the public lands of Spencer Mountain remain a public place that bikers, equestrians, hunters and outdoor enthusiast enjoy.
I had never met Curtis prior to last week, but it was fitting to hear Curtis sing the 60-year-old songs of the Carter Family and Doc Watson days, later popularized by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. That’s not how traditional politicians behave.
Curtis offers the prospect of fresh leadership and watching her mingle with Flathead residents was good to see. Curtis is smart; she embraces people and is genuine.
In many ways Curtis reminds me of a younger Sen. Jon Tester, whom I met for the first time a decade ago as he blared a trumpet in the State Capitol to the tune, “When the Saints Go Marching In.”
Curtis has the type of grassroots excitement that money cannot buy, though her contributions are approaching a half million dollars.
Recently, Curtis was also endorsed by Emily’s List, a progressive national organization that promotes pro-choice women leaders. And judging at what is going on nationally, the good-old-boys club of Congress needs all the help they can get.
Too often some in Congress seek to only promote the politics of division. Congress routinely forgets that workers have paid a lifetime of work into Social Security.
Maybe Congress should try a month on minimum wage to fully appreciate the struggles of the many living from paycheck to paycheck. But asking Congress to accept a minimum wage job is ludicrous given that members are paid over $3,300 per week, regardless if members are working or not.
With early voting starting next week, many expect to see Curtis back in the Flathead. Hopefully she will bring along her instruments, single microphone and many songs of faith. People are hungry for leadership, craving a fresh and better direction for our nation.