New Year Offers Chance For New Direction

There's always something special about the early days of a new year. Optimism. Opportunity for change and making things better. It's how I felt growing up in Montana at the beginning of a new sports season. Whatever disappointments or mistakes might have happened the previous season, a new season was like starting a new chapter, where hard work, dedication, and teamwork can make anything possible.

2023 is like the previous season and much needs to be done to make things better. In 2023, our state and nation were filled with chaos. Here in Montana, increased property tax bills hit many Montanans hard. Inflation meant that, even with a pay raise, many folks were still sliding backwards after buying groceries and paying bills. Our national debt continued to soar unchecked, going from $31 trillion in January 2023 to nearing $34 trillion now. The US Border Patrol recorded more than 2.4 million encounters in fiscal year 2023 at the southern border, including 169 individuals who are on the terrorist watch list and were trying to enter the country illegally. Every few months Congress lurched from the brink of one government shutdown to the next, while also being without a Speaker of the House for three-weeks, paralyzing federal legislation, and this was just some of the chaos.

None of that 2023 chaos helped the people of Montana or our country, nor did it project an image of American strength to our adversaries abroad.

Now it's a new year, a new start, which means in 2024 'we the people' of Montana have an opportunity to make choices at the ballot box that can make better our state, our nation, and the lives of our families. Will we continue down the path of political dysfunction, chaos, gamesmanship, and unsustainable spending; leading America toward oblivion? Or, will we demand a new and better direction for the good of our state and country?

Will we squander this opportunity like an ill-conceived New Year's resolution? Or, will we resolutely force change for the better to happen?

My hope is that Montanans choose the latter route, to crush chaos and choose a positive future for all.

I'm running for Congress in Montana's eastern congressional district because to get needed change we desperately need a new generation of leadership in Washington. Only then can we make a course change from the dysfunctional path we're on. Fixing our country's problems won't happen overnight or be easy; I know that. But let us begin!

I am willing to be your agent for change for the better.  Montanans deserve a Representative who offers a chance to make that positive change in direction. On June 4, in the Republican primary for Congress, the people of eastern and central Montana can send a powerful message to Washington, DC - that in 2024, we are investing in a new generation of problem-solving leadership. Together we can begin the hard but necessary task of getting our country back on the right track. With your support, I'm ready to do the work!