Vice President Mike Pence will be in the Flathead Valley on Nov. 5 campaigning for U.S. Senate candidate Matt Rosendale on the eve of the midterm election.
Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry said his office was meeting with the U.S. Secret Service on Thursday and that the rally will be held at Glacier Park International Airport. The time of the rally has not been announced.
The visit will mark Pence’s third trip to Montana this year to stump for Rosendale in his run against incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester in one of the closest watched Senate races in the country. President Donald Trump has made three visits to Montana in just four months, most recently in Missoula, and was scheduled for a fourth trip on Nov. 3 in Belgrade. The upcoming visit means Trump will have visited Montana more than any other sitting president.
The president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., recently visited Kalispell while campaigning for Rosendale and Rep. Greg Gianforte.
Trump has taken a keen interest in unseating Tester. During his visit to Missoula on Oct. 18, the president revealed that he was campaigning against Tester because of his role in torpedoing the nomination of former White House doctor Adm. Ronny Jackson for Veterans Affairs secretary. Jackson withdrew his name from consideration earlier this year after facing questions about his ethics and preparedness for the job.
“I can never forget what Jon Tester did to a man that is of the highest quality,” Trump said. “What he did was unfair. It was vicious.”
For his part, Tester noted that Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Johnny Isakson, a Georgia Republican, co-signed a letter with the senior Senator calling for an investigation into Jackson. When asked to respond to questions regarding the allegations, Jackson was silent, Tester said, forcing the committee to release the reports.
Pence’s visit Monday will mark the first time a sitting vice president has ventured to Northwest Montana in more than a decade. In 2006, Vice President Dick Chaney campaigned in Whitefish for Sen. Conrad Burns. Prior to that, in 1997, Vice President Al Gore visited Glacier National Park — and even hiked to Grinnell Glacier — to raise awareness about climate change.