Happy Wednesday, Beacon readers! Mariah Thomas here, amid a busy few weeks.
We are fully in the throes of election season, and I’ve long been chipping away at stories on the federal races. We’ve got comprehensive previews on our site this week for both the Democratic and Republican primaries for the western U.S. House seat — and I was really appreciative to every candidate for making the time to speak with me about their biographies and campaigns.
And it’s all-hands on deck looking at local primaries for the state legislature, so be sure to keep an eye out for candidate Q&As in those matchups rolling out in the coming weeks.
But I wanted to take a moment to backtrack today, to the Glacier Country Pachyderm Club’s Monday federal candidate forum, which I had the opportunity to attend. Five of seven Republican candidates running for federal office made appearances. (Absent were Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen, who is running in the four-way primary for the western House seat; and Kurt Alme, the former U.S. attorney for Montana running for Senate.)
The candidates for the House and Senate fielded questions about affordability, whether they’d support a federal abortion ban, their thoughts on the president’s military action in Iran, immigration, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE, Act and more. My story on the House race touches on some of those candidates’ answers to those questions (you can read it at the bottom of this newsletter); but I wanted to make sure to give a rundown of the Senate candidates’ answers as well.
Charles Walking Child, an Anishinaabe tribal member with Blackfeet heritage who owns an environmental contracting business and lives in Helena; and Lee Calhoun, a mechanical engineer from Whitefish, are both running for the Republican nomination to the U.S. Senate. Both were in attendance at the forum Monday.
They’re both running against Alme — the presumptive frontrunner who has clinched endorsements from most statewide officials and from President Donald Trump — who entered the Senate race after incumbent U.S. Sen. Steve Daines dropped out less than 10 minutes before the candidate filing window closed. Alme was not present at Monday’s forum, though his specter hung over the event, with both Walking Child and Calhoun taking shots at him. Walking Child at one point said he didn’t attend because he “didn’t have a plan,” and Calhoun called him the “Bozeman cabal’s anointed candidate.”
Walking Child is something of a perennial candidate, and his campaign’s tagline is “Montana First, Montana United, Montana Strong.”
Calhoun, for his part, is running a pragmatic campaign, promising to be a single-term senator should he win election. He’s running on a platform that consists of promoting universal healthcare, returning tax rates to 2000 levels, implementing term limits and promoting a “free market energy” approach.
Throughout the forum, Walking Child poked fun at Calhoun for his age, allowing him to answer questions first because in his culture, “we respect our elders.”
The two candidates in attendance had split views on several of the questions.
For instance, Walking Child (pictured above) described himself as “pro-life,” but said if other “incidents are involved,” he believed it should be addressed at a local level rather than a national level. He did, however, make clear his view that abortion shouldn’t be paid for by the federal government. That has been outlawed by the Hyde Amendment since 1977, though the amendment does make exceptions for terminating pregnancies that endanger the life of the pregnant person, and for pregnancies resulting from rape and incest.
Calhoun said he did not support a federal abortion ban.
“I’ve known a few people who’ve told me about having to make the choice,” he said. “I know people who have gone one way, and I know people who have gone the other way, and at the end of the day, I don’t think the government should be involved in a lot of our businesses, especially in the business we have in our bedroom.”
Calhoun (pictured above) also drew some frustration from the audience for suggesting the SAVE Act, which would require documentation of U.S. citizenship to vote, might not be the best way to address election security. Walking Child quipped Calhoun was “having a senior moment.” He proceeded to say Montanans all carry a driver’s license and that “we need the technology that tracks our vote, and the amount of people [that] voted.”
On the issue of the military action in Iran, Calhoun said he didn’t support it, citing an aversion to forever wars.
Walking Child called it a “spiritual war,” and said, “We, here in America, we have no business over there.”
“George Washington himself stated, ‘do not become entangled in foreign affairs,’” Walking Child said. “And what are we doing? We had the opportunity, as in the American government, to change the world, to make it a beautiful place, to work with other countries so that we could travel to other countries and feel safe and everybody would be happy. Can we attain that?”
Primary ballots begin to be mailed out later this week, with the election taking place June 2. We’ll find out then who voters select to represent their parties on each side of the aisle for both the House and Senate races.
And with that, onto the rest of the Daily Roundup.
Republican Reckonings and a Referendum on Trump Define Montana’s Western Congressional Primary
Four candidates are vying to keep the seat in GOP control after a last-minute shake-up. But as one candidate distinguishes himself with high-profile endorsements, the Republican primary is shaping up to be a referendum on whether that establishment support carries weight with voters.
The levy failures reflect ongoing rebukes from taxpayers amid a trend of declining passage rates in the state. For the four districts with general fund or operating levies on the ballot, the election results mean they’ll have to cut staffing and programming ahead of the next school year.
Columbia Falls Finalizing Future Land Use Map Ahead of Public Hearing
The city council got its second look at the map, which will help guide growth and development over the next 20 years, ahead of the first public hearing at the planning commission next week
Attorney Argues Self-Defense in Fatal Cornfield Hit-and-Run in Evergreen
Jeffrey Scott Serio is charged with a felony count of deliberate homicide in the death of 67-year-old Raymond Maurice Grigg after allegedly driving over him in the Fritz Corn Maze in August 2025
With Abortion on the Ballot in Montana, “Pro-Life” Groups are Striking a Different Tone
Facing a public that is increasingly favorable towards abortion access — and a well-funded abortion rights movement — anti-abortion groups are turning to grassroots mobilization and a more targeted message this election cycle.
Whether you’ve been here for decades, or you’re new to the Flathead Valley, our reporting is here to help you feel smarter and in the loop about the issues most important to Northwest Montana. With your support, we can build a more engaged, informed community.
