HELENA – Democrat Jack Ballard announced Tuesday a run for the U.S. House, in the hopes of unseating Republican Rep. Matt Rosendale.
Ballard, 58, is a writer who resides in Red Lodge and covers hunting, fishing, wildlife and conservation.
Ballard is the first Democrat to announce a run against Montana’s only sitting U.S. House member. Three other Democrats announced earlier this year their intention to run for Montana’s new U.S. House seat.
Montana was awarded the second House seat starting in 2023 based on the state’s growing population in the recent census results. The election is scheduled for November 2022. The districts’ boundaries have not been set, but candidates do not have to live in the district they are running to represent.
In his announcement, Ballard said he supports increasing the federal minimum wage.
“The American dream is increasingly out of reach for many Montanans. Wages aren’t increasing much, but the costs of housing and health care are skyrocketing,” he said in a statement.
He also said there is need for a federal response to climate change to support Montana’s agriculture and outdoor recreation industries.
“The stress of drought and wildfire is crippling two of our state’s most important industries,” he said. “We desperately need innovation and investment at the federal level to reduce the devastation of an increasingly hot and dry climate.”
Ballard previously ran for U.S. Senate in an effort to unseat Republican Sen. Steve Daines in 2020, but withdrew from the race in 2019 after saying he was diagnosed with symptoms of a heart condition.
Republicans have held the state’s at-large U.S. House seat for nearly a quarter of a century.
Ballard said his experience as a problem solver on the faculty of Montana State University Billings — where he taught for 12 years before becoming a full-time writer — and on the board of the Outdoor Writers Association of America, has prepared him for the position.
“It’s like fixing farm machinery with adapted parts and a little creativity. It’s easy to sit in your corner tossing insults and tweets, but more challenging to find workable solutions,” he said.