Whitefish Legislator Dave Fern and Library Board Trustee Doug Adams to Face Off in State Senate Race

Longtime Democratic state legislator Dave Fern will face off against Republican businessman and library board trustee Doug Adams in a race to represent Whitefish, Columbia Falls and northern Flathead County in the Montana Senate. As Fern attempts to move to the Senate after seven years in the House and Adams makes his second bid for the Legislature, both candidates are vying for a redistricted seat that is set to be electorally competitive. In conversations with the Beacon, Fern leaned into his record working across the aisle on tax and healthcare policy, while Adams emphasized his desire to cut taxes and limit government regulations.

The lone Democrat from deep-red Flathead County, Fern has served four terms in the Montana House as the representative from Whitefish. Originally from Providence, R.I., Fern moved to Montana in 1988, where he and his wife raised their three children. Fern is the owner of Whitefish Chimney Solutions. The lawmaker cut his teeth in local government on the Whitefish School Board, where he served as a trustee for 25 years. He made an unsuccessful run for state Senate in 2012, losing to Coram Republican Dee Brown.

Fern won his first race for Montana House in 2016, beating Republican candidate Chet Billi by 13 percentage points. Fern that year flipped the district from red to blue after then-Rep. Keith Regier met his term limit in the House. Fern handily won reelection to the House in 2018, 2020 and 2022, outperforming his challengers by over 20 percentage points.

The lawmaker is knowledgeable about some of the state’s most intricate policy qualms, from property appraisals to tax increment financing districts. He was tapped by Republican leadership this legislative session to serve on the Governor’s Property Tax Task Force and the Behavioral Health Systems for Future Generations Commission. The latter is tasked with spending $300 million to fix Montana’s broken behavioral health infrastructure.

“[I’m] trying to relay to people that we can collaborate. We can work effectively,” Fern said of his campaign. “We, perhaps, can develop models of setting aside politics, and even use a consensus-based decision-making process.”

A policy wonk whose experience in Helena has been shaped by his tenure on the taxation, transportation and local government committees, Fern said hot-button social issues are “sucking the oxygen out” of the political conversation while allowing voters to abandon Montana’s most critical problems. In Fern’s eyes, tax policy, housing and mental and behavioral health services are at the top of the list.

Fern has worked closely with Rep. Bob Keenan, R-Bigfork, on the behavioral health commission, which has recommended a number of policy changes that seek to increase the number of mental health providers across the state, bring up reimbursement rates and streamline crisis intervention. Fern sees this work as critical across Montana and in the Flathead Valley, where mental health and substance abuse problems have weighed heavily on its communities.  

“Everybody knows somebody who has a mental illness issue,” he said.

Fern wants the state to reauthorize Medicaid expansion, which allows a greater number of individuals to be insured under the federal program. He believes adequately funding public schools is critical in addressing mental health issues at a young age.

The top of the candidate’s policy platform also includes increasing the valley’s supply of attainable and affordable housing and addressing ballooning property taxes.

While he believes in the power of the free market, Fern said it alone is not solving the profound crises in affordable housing and healthcare, requiring “government as a partner” in building solutions.

“We’re kind of unintentionally killing the middle class. Is that what we really want to do? And if we do it, what does that mean?” he said, discussing the lack of attainable housing in the valley.

Originally from Georgia, Adams lives outside of Whitefish, where he operates a landscaping business and lives with his wife. He has three sons. Adams served for four years (2002-2006) on the Whitefish City Council, two as deputy mayor, and last month was reappointed to serve a second five-year term on the Flathead County Libraries Board of Trustees.

Adams in 2014 ran unsuccessfully for the Montana House.

The candidate is perhaps best known for his role on the Flathead County Libraries — formerly ImagineIF Libraries — board, which in recent years has faced criticism from library staff and community members over perceived overreach and censorship of materials pertaining to LGBTQ+ identities. Since Adams’ appointment, the library board has experienced marked turnover, and the library system has gone through four directors, several of whom vacated the position due to disagreements with trustees about library policy.

Adams has pushed for the removal of books such as “Gender Queer,” a graphic novel centered around a transgender protagonist, and spearheaded the board’s withdrawal from the national American Library Association. Adams said the nonprofit has a “radical leftist agenda.”

On his tenure with the library board, Adams said, “I think that I have supporters and detractors.”

“If you look at the results of the changes that we’ve made at the library, most people that were saying, ‘The sky is falling,’ have changed their tune,” he added.

The Republican candidate has built his campaign around tax reform and government accountability, advocating for steep tax cuts and reductions to the state budget.

“I think that Montana has a spending problem, and I would love to vote against any spending increases,” Adams said.

He criticized the state for taking too much from taxpayers, saying the historic $2.5 billion budget surplus amassed in 2022 should not have been collected from Montanans. Rather than spend taxpayer dollars on social programs, Adams said individuals should be able to allocate their money to private causes.

“You can donate it to who you want to donate to, instead of Big Brother telling you how you have to have your money spent.”

Adams is a proponent of “promoting traditional values” in education and society at-large, which he describes as teaching children patriotism and protecting them from “efforts to indoctrinate” them in local schools. He said voters are unhappy with the “social agenda” in schools, citing the time his son attempted to create a chapter of Turning Point USA, a conservative political organization, at his high school, and was unable to find a teacher to sponsor it.

Adams’ experience serving on a private school board showed him that “kids can be educated cheaper than they are educated in the public school,” he said.

On policy priorities, Adams hopes to end Montana’s policy of taxing seniors on Social Security and crack down on undocumented immigration into the state.

Reflecting his small government stance, however, Adams said, “The fewer laws that I get passed, probably the better job I will have done.”

The newly drawn Senate District 2 will present a challenge for both candidates, as Fern introduces himself to constituents in and around Columbia Falls, a municipality he has never represented, and Adams attempts to secure votes in left-leaning Whitefish.

Senate District 2 includes Whitefish, Columbia Falls and the rural communities in northern Flathead County, including West Glacier, Polebridge, Olney and Essex.

The swing district leans Democratic by 3 percentage points, making it a likely toss-up come November. While Whitefish is a Democratic stronghold, Columbia Falls has a more politically conservative history.

Fern said Columbia Falls will be faced with a unique set of challenges going forward, including the proposed cleanup and redevelopment of the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company (CFAC) Superfund site and the shift from a resource-based to a tourism-based economy.     

He said the city has “tried to reinvent themselves in a pretty positive way, looking at the economic reality” of CFAC’s closure.

Though Fern has worked with Republicans on policy proposals, Adams said the Democrat’s voting record is “not moderate.” Adams acknowledged that it may be an “uphill battle” to secure the Senate seat.

“If people want me there, I’ll be elected,” he said.

The general election is on Nov. 5. Read more about the candidates running for Legislature in the Flathead and Tobacco valleys here, and find out what legislative district you live in here. Check your voter registration here.

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