by Guest Writer | Feb 15, 2026 | Birthright Citizenship, Democrats, Indigenous People, Native Americans
Many of us remember Tim Sheehy’s racist comments during a fund raiser for his campaign for US Senate last fall. He told his audience about a trip to the Crow Reservation for a cattle branding event when he said, “Great way to bond with all the Indians out there while they’re drunk at 8 a.m.”
Despite repeated requests for an apology to Indian people Sheehy’s response was, “I come from the military, as many of our tribal members do. You know, we make insensitive jokes and probably off-color jokes sometimes,”
Now US Senate candidate, Michael Black Wolf, who is running in the Democratic Primary to challenge Steve Daines, has issued a statement challenging Sheehy’s decision to sign on to an amicus brief before the US Supreme Court challenging birth right citizenship in the United States. It is a major priority for the Trump Administration
Black Wolf is an enrolled member of the Aaniiihnen (Gros Ventre) Tribe. He has been the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer on the Fort Belknap Reservation since January 2014. He works closely with tribal historic preservation offices from the Great Plains States and surrounding regions. He is also running for US Senate in the Democratic Primary.
In his statement on the birthright citizenship challenge, which we are reprinting in full at the end of this post, Black Wolf said this about Sheehy, “He wants to replace our birth right with a litmus test of earning your citizenship through “singular allegiance”. Senator Sheehy is reviving the logic that being ‘too Indian’ makes you “less American”. Sheehy’s gross attempt to turn back the clock to a pre-1924 era is a sick attempt to use the supreme court to erase the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act.
Here is the full text of his statement:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
MICHAEL BLACK WOLF for U.S. SENATE
Michael Black Wolf for United States Senate
PO Box 210 Hays, MT 59527
Media Contact: info@blackwolfformontana.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Feb. 3, 2026
Montana Democratic Candidate for U.S. Senate Michael Black Wolf Issues Statement Regarding Senator Tim Sheehy Amici Curiae Brief Signing
HAYS – Senator Tim Sheehy signed a Supreme Court amici curiae brief with several other United States Senators and Representatives to challenge birthright citizenship. The brief explicitly utilizes Supreme Court legal precedents, specifically Elk v. Wilkens (1884), that were historically used to deny citizenship to Native Americans. This brief is a direct threat to Tribal sovereignty by weaponizing these supreme court decisions.
Sheehy is attempting to validate antiquated mind frames and legal interpretation from the 19th century which said that Indigenous People were “aliens” in our own lands, lands which my ancestors continuously occupied for thousands of years. Sheehy’s gross attempt to turn back the clock to a pre-1924 era is a sick attempt to use the supreme court to erase the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act.
Sheehy’s thinly veiled concealment of his attempt at taking away the long standing 14th Amendment Right of Citizenship millions of Americans rightfully have is revealed under the light of truth. It is a longstanding fact, if you are born in the United States of America, you are a citizen, no question. Sheehy’s brief attempts to frame that only those with “exclusive” loyalty are within U.S. jurisdiction. In fact, all people on this soil are subject to its laws and protections. He wants to replace our birth right with a litmus test of earning your citizenship through “singular allegiance”.
Senator Sheehy is reviving the logic that being “too Indian” makes you “less American”. This is a 19th-century prejudice being used as 21st-century law. All of Montana’s Tribal Nations, all Federally Recognized Tribal Nations and true Americans throughout the Country should be vehemently opposing this outrageous attempt at culling our fellow Americans from their birthright. For all Native Peoples in this country, this brief challenges the very foundation of dual citizenship and Tribal Sovereignty.
Even though there are many non-Natives who enjoy dual citizenship here in the United States and other countries throughout the world, Sheehy would have all of us believe the ridiculous notion that birthright citizenship is a “national security threat”. The brief compares the children of those without status to “invading soldiers”. The scathing irony is this: Native Americans, the original inhabitants of this land, were the first to be labeled “aliens” under this exact legal logic. We are the true First Americans.
Tim Sheehy had the audacity to pose with several members of my own People from the Fort Belknap Indian Community, smiling for a convenient “photo op” all the while hiding his intentions of attempting to take those individuals’ citizenship away with extreme prejudice along with the rest of us First Americans and this nation’s marginalized people.
I strongly encourage tribal leaders and tribal organizations to issue a unified statement condemning the use of anti-Native U.S. Supreme Court precedent as a weaponized attempt to rip away the rightful citizenship of Americans. Senator Sheehy’s brief is a “Constitutional vs. Statutory” trap. It is very dangerous to present a distorted argument that the 1924 Act that enacted the policy for Native American citizenship is a “gift” from Congress. If citizenship is merely a “gift” from Congress (statutory), it can be taken away by a future Congress as a statutory gift rather than a constitutional right from the 14th Amendment. The 14th Amendment was framed to be universal to prevent politicians from picking and choosing who counts as a person. Using historically racist Native American exclusion as a “model” for modern immigration policy suggests that citizenship for any group is temporary and subject to political whim. The 1924 Act merely corrected a historical refusal to acknowledge the constitutional truth that the 14th Amendment gives all born on this soil citizenship.
Montana deserves a Senator who understands that Tribal Sovereignty and American citizenship are not in conflict. Montana deserves a Senator who understands that both are foundational to our amazing states identity. That is why I am running for United States Senate. I will stand and fight for all Americans; not just a small select group of entitled people. In Montana, we don’t believe our rights are a “gift” from Washington—we know they are ours by birth, and we will not let 1880s logic dictate our 2026 future.
Michael Black Wolf
Democratic Candidate
United States Senate
by Ken Toole | Feb 11, 2026 | Democrats, Indigenous People, Native Americans, whitewashing history
“Montana’s Indigenous People survived these attempts at erasure; to disregard this history undermines future generations and risks the repetition of these atrocities.” – Lance Fourstar
Last March Donald Trump issued an executive order titled, Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History. Without getting into the details of the order, suffice it to say it is Trump’s effort to reshape historical facts to fit his bigoted view of history as a 1950’s western movie. And now it has landed in Montana at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.
In a flurry of activity to comply with Trump’s order at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana, exhibit text that described the United States being “hungry for gold and land” and breaking promises to Native Americans was ordered changed or removed. Another text describing how U.S.-run boarding schools for Indigenous children “violently erased cultural identities and language” was also deemed not to comply with Trump’s policy.
The whitewashing of history has attracted the ire of many people in Indian Country. The Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council voted unanimously, 11-0, to oppose any changes to existing displays at the monument. Northern Cheyenne fought at the battle along with Lakota and Arapaho Tribes. Northern Cheyenne Vice President Ernest Littlemouth said, “We’re here just to confront what Trump’s trying to do. We want to teach our youth our history. That’s why we got the signage up there.”
Fourstar, who is currently running for the House District 31 in the Montana Legislature, said, “Removing mentions of the United States breaking promises to Indigenous People and the violent erasure of cultural identities in U.S.-run boarding schools is an affront to historical truth. The effects of intergenerational trauma from these policies remain apparent today. We must protect the truth to ensure these harms are never repeated.”
For more information:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61576908326703
https://www.ktvq.com/news/local-news/tribe-federal-officials-differ-over-proposed-sign-revisions-at-little-bighorn-national-monument
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2026/01/27/national-parks-signs-censorship/
by Ken Toole | Feb 9, 2026 | Democrats, Elections, Independent, Politics
Mr. Bodnar,
We are writing about the recent news coverage of your potential run for the U.S. Senate. If you are seriously considering such a run, we urge you to run as a Democrat rather than as an Independent.
Those urging you to run as an independent because a Democrat “can’t win” are wrong. Their opinion is apparently based on polling and Jon Tester’s recent loss to Tim Sheehy. Some “professional political people” in Montana are advocating that organizations and institutions forming the traditional Democratic base support moderate Republicans and Independents rather than Democrats out of desperation. They are mistaken. We wrote a blog post on the past performance of Independent candidates in Montana. We urge you to read it: https://wtf406.com/2026/01/handing-steve-daines-the-next-election/
Before going further, we would like to point out that the public discussion of this Independent scheme is all about strategy and game playing. Politics, at its best, is about the issues and policy initiatives to address those issues. At its worst, politics is anything-goes cynical game playing. . . and lots and lots of special interest money. Obviously, this Independent strategy falls into the second category.
In addition to the historical evidence in our post, we urge you to consider a couple other points.
First, the idea that your race as an Independent will avoid the tarnished brand of Democrats is naive. Before you have even announced, the Republicans are out with an attack ad: https://www.montanarightnow.com/montana/political-group-releases-ad-targeting-departing-um-president-seth-bodnar/article_309940b3-3514-463e-bbb9-ffd45149f759.html. The chair of the Missoula Republican Central Committee has an editorial circulating in papers around the state calling you “Sneaky Seth” among other things. Whether you run as an Independent or a Democrat, you will be smeared by the Republican attack machine. Steve Daines will be extremely well funded and will run a dirty campaign.
Second, Democratic base voters are a significant segment of the population you would have if you prevail in the primary. Instead of looking at polling, which is increasingly unreliable, we encourage you to look at actual election results in Montana. The 2024 election in the Eastern Congressional District illustrates the value of Democratic base voters. The Democratic candidate in that race was John Driscoll. Despite the fact that Driscoll ran virtually no campaign, he garnered 33.9 percent of the vote simply because he had a “D” behind his name on the ballot. That percentage would be even higher in the Western District. In the Eastern District race in 2022, Independent candidate Gary Buchanan captured only 22 percent of the vote.
As the deadline for filing approaches, we hope you will carefully consider which party more closely aligns with your beliefs on issues and realize that you have very little chance of prevailing as an Independent in Montana.
Sincerely,
WTF406
by Helena Lovick | Jan 27, 2026 | Democrats, Elections, Republicans
Former U.S. Senator Jon Tester
Great Falls, MT
[For transparency, I am the previous chair and current vice chair of the Cascade County Democrats. The opinions presented here are my own and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the Cascade County Democrats. – Helena Lovick]
Last week a message supposedly written by former U.S. Senator Jon Tester leaked. (Tester hasn’t confirmed or denied the text message…pretty clear it’s real.) Many of Tester’s long-time supporters, including myself, are pissed about its content and here’s why.
What was the message about?
The leaked message covered Tester’s thoughts on the Democratic Party, his experience running for office, and what he thinks of the probable run by University of Montana President Seth Bodnar for U.S. Senate (Bodnar resigned late last week).
Former UM President Seth Bodnar
The Good
Before I go off about my personal thoughts about Tester’s views, I’ll first give him some credit. I’ll admit that as a three-term U.S. Senator Tester knows a hell of a lot more than me about what it takes to run for the U.S. Senate and win. In Tester’s opinion, to win the candidate “has to run a near flawless race that is well funded and well staffed.” He also acknowledged that we need a Senator to “fight to stop all the insanity that is going on in our dictatorship today, not rubber stamp it.” Agreed, we certainly need a fighter, not someone ready to bow down to a dictatorship.
The Bad
In the message, Tester praised Bodnar but agreed with consultant Jim Messina that Bodnar can’t win as a Democrat. Tester also appears to support a Bodnar run as an independent, because “a generic independent does about a 8 point swing [against incumbent Daines]” in comparison to a generic Democrat. Before we get into the ugly content of Tester’s message, this already was raising some red flags for the Democratic base. If you abandon our party to win, what does that do to candidates that aren’t afraid to run as a Democrat? IT TAKES VOTES AWAY FROM THE DEMOCRAT. And then neither the Independent nor the Democrat win. Sounds pretty great if you are a Republican.
We saw this exact scenario play out in 2022. In that election, Independent Gary Buchanan threw his hat in the ring for the Montana Eastern U.S. House race. That move took votes away from the Democratic candidate Penny Ronning, but not the Republican Matt Rosendale. And for what?? Both Ronning and Buchanan lost and let Matt Rosendale (gag) easily carry the race with 56.5% of the vote. I would not encourage a left-leaning candidate to run as an independent in a Senate race that already has a Democratic candidate. In Montana, in our current political climate, you are dooming them both. And honestly, the consultant class doesn’t care, because they will make money if Bodnar runs as an Independent, no matter the outcome of the election.
The Ugly
Ok, I have some ick thinking of a Democrat encouraging an Independent to run over another Democrat, but what was ugly about Tester’s message?
Throughout his message, Tester made numerous jabs at Democrats:
- “…every race I ran … was about distancing myself from the Democratic Party.”
- “During my last two races the democratic Party was poison in my attempts to get re-elected.”
- “[the Democratic party] was a hell of an anvil.”
- [about Reilly Neill currently running for U.S. Senate against Daines] “We can watch her talk about trans rights, democracy and bathrooms…BTW she will lose by 25, but she is a Democrat.”
Political Parties Can Change
First, a political party isn’t static or an unchangeable institution. THE PARTY IS THE PEOPLE. If you agree with most of a party’s political positions, but don’t like something about it… then work to change it! Tester has been entrenched in the Democratic Party of Montana for over three decades. If it’s been such an anvil, where was the effort to make it better? A U.S. Senator has a huge impact on their home state’s political positions. Use that power to build a bench, to strengthen the party, speak up on party positions! I know, I know, it’s hard. But that’s what it takes if you want to make a difference.
Democrat Reilly Neill deserves respect for her efforts
Democratic U.S. Senate Candidate Reilly Neill
Secondly, what a thing to say about Senate Candidate Reilly Neill. She is a Democratic candidate speaking up in alignment with the Democratic Party’s platform and political positions. Good Democrats DO stand with LGBTQ rights, especially when they are under attack like now. We DO speak up about the rising dictatorship in our country that is threatening our democracy. What else can an ethical candidate do? Appeal to a non-existent middle to try to eke out an 8 point swing to win? An 8 point swing that will never materialize because you will be splitting the vote between an Independent and a Democrat?
Yeah, that’s trash.
Republicans are scared anyway (good)
Even with the potential benefit of vote splitting favoring Daines, Republicans see the winds of change in public opinion now. They have already come out with an attack ad on Seth Bodnar before he even announced. Looks like Daines seat isn’t perfectly invulnerable.
Let’s beat Daines by not splitting our vote. Let’s be strategic and vote for the person unafraid to share their positions on issues, willing to take the heat. That’s a fighter. That’s the kind of person we need to elect. And that is the Democrat who wins the primary in June.
by Ken Toole | Jan 10, 2026 | Democrats, Elections, Republicans
Some political consultant types are working to hand the next election to Steve Daines. We all know that beating Steve Daines in the next election will be tough, but if there was ever an election cycle where Democrats had a chance of beating an incumbent Republican Senator in a red state, it is the 2026 election.
Trump’s increasingly erratic behavior combined with his callous disregard for the welfare of the country may well be wearing thin, even with his normally staunch supporters in the Republican Party. He is mired in a sex scandal, his economic program is driving up prices, he has unleashed masked thugs on the American public, and he has turned to foreign military actions in Venezuela, which angers some in his “America First” base.
Trump’s poll numbers are dropping. Recently Marjorie Taylor Greene abandoned him. Seventeen Republican members of the U.S. House abandoned him to vote to extend the ACA subsidies. Five Republican Senators voted against him in passing the War Powers Act Resolution. But the Montana delegation, and particularly Steve Daines, are “all in” with Trump. . . .and Daines is on the ballot in 2026. Trump could prove to be a political liability.
Enter the consultant class in Montana. Tired of losing elections they have concluded that the problem is the Democratic “brand.” Of course it could be that consultants and pollsters don’t know what they are doing and Democrats are in the mess they are in because they have been listening to consultants for far too long. No doubt they have polling that shows a Democrat just can’t win. Their solution is simple. Dump the Democrats and run for the middle of the road as “independents.” They do all of that while pointing fingers at the “extremists” in the Democratic Party. Unfortunately, they are finding support among frustrated groups and individuals who blame electoral losses on the Democratic Party.
This is not a new idea. The problem is, it doesn’t work. In 2022 the “ideal” independent candidate surfaced in the Eastern District Congressional race for investment advisor, Gary Buchanan of Billings. Buchanan had worked in Republican (Racicot) and Democratic (Schwinden) administrations on economic development. He was a well established presence in the business community and was known for his moderate positions on issues. In the election he was running against a relatively unknown Democrat named Penny Ronning and the controversial Freedom Caucus Republican incumbent, Matt Rosendale.
Rosendale raised a little over $2 million, Buchanan raised about $500,000 and Ronning raised around $175,000. In the final vote count, Rosendale won with 57% of the vote. Buchanan only garnered 22% of the vote, barely beating Democrat Ronning’s total of 20%, despite having more than twice as much money.
Another telling independent campaign failure in Montana occurred during the 2024 election for Public Service Commission District #4 in the northwest corner of the state. In that race Republican incumbent, Jennifer Fielder, faced a challenge from independent candidate, Elena Evans. Evans raised around $50,000. In addition an “independent committee”, the Montana Ratepayers Association, reported spending nearly $500,000 for the race to support Evans and defeat Fielder. Fielder raised around $12,000. Despite the fact that the independent outspent the Republican and an unprecedented amount of money was spent by a dark money group supporting her, Evans received only 47% of the vote.
Independent presidential candidate Ross Perot received about 26% of the vote in Montana in 1992. Ralph Nader received 1.3% of the vote when he ran for president as an independent in 2004 and .75% when he ran again in 2008. For a complete listing of the performance of independents running in legislative races, follow this link (spoiler alert–none have won) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_third-party_and_independent_performances_in_Montana_state_legislative_elections?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Two ballot measures which were predicated on taking advantage of people’s frustration with the two party system and implementing changes to our election process in the 2024 election – CI-126 and CI-127 (inaccurately referred to as the open primary initiatives) – failed by 51.1% and 60.4% respectively. This despite the fact that the campaign supporting them was well organized and well funded and there was no organized opposition.
The consulting group managing the ballot measures was a group called Fireweed. PSC candidate, Elena Evans, paid them at least $21,000 of the total she raised for her campaign. And rumor has it that Fireweed and others are approaching the Democratic Party about rule changes that would facilitate the party election of independent candidates.
Of course most people say they are fed up with the two party system. Polling routinely shows relatively large numbers of people who self identify as independents. But that does not show up clearly in voting trends. If split ticket voting is any indication of party loyalty, or lack of it, it appears that Montana voters are becoming more partisan. A recent analysis of split ticket voting done by the Montana Free Press relied on data from one researcher who said that some split ticket rates dropped from 20% in 2018 to 8% last year. https://montanafreepress.org/2025/12/08/how-has-ticket-splitting-changed-in-montana/
Having an independent candidate, particularly a strong independent candidate as envisioned by the proponents of this idea, is dumping cold water on all down ticket Democrats on the ballot. Traditionally, Democrats in local, legislative and state-wide offices have benefitted from the campaigns at the top of the ticket. . .the so-called “coattail effect.” An independent at the top of the ticket will be punching down every time he is asked, “Why didn’t you run as a Democrat?” One can only hope that the Democrats running for other offices are paying careful attention to this effort.
So, now the rumor getting all the buzz in Helena hallways is that there is a group, paid political consultants (ie Fireweed) and others, promoting a run by University of Montana President Seth Bodner as an independent against Daines. Doing so would virtually hand this election to Steve Daines. The best they could achieve is to split the anti-Daines vote between the Democrat and the Independent. In the process they further weaken the Montana Democratic Party. It’s hard to understand how all of these so-called smartest people in the room come up with these harebrained schemes.
by Helena Lovick | Sep 23, 2025 | Democrats, Politics
The Montana Democratic Party hosted their party convention this month in Livingston and it seemed business as usual. Because of the threats of violence that Montana Democrats faced after the Kirk assassination [despite right wing accusations – no one was celebrating his murder], the convention had increased safety measures in place. Luckily, the convention itself went smoothly without any violence or stripping of the voting rights of delegates like we saw at the Montana Republican Party convention held earlier this year.
The convention was held to amend Montana Democratic Party bylaws and also to elect new party leadership. Despite running two separate candidates, the Cascade County Democrats failed to gain a spot on the Executive Board. Instead, the 20-person board is 30% members from Missoula. Huh. I joke that Cascade County is the ugly stepchild of politics as we keep getting overlooked as the state has slid towards red.
New leadership was elected on Sunday, September 14th. Everyone went home…and that’s when the fun started. On Wednesday, September 17th, the newly elected Vice Chair resigned.
What Happened???
The party was all about unity at the convention. Change was inevitable when former Chair Robyn Driscoll stepped down from her role after six years. But then we go and have possibly the shortest term for an elected political party Executive Board Member ever.
Who was the Vice Chair?
The short-term Vice Chair was Max Johansen, a leader in the Park County Democratic party. I didn’t get a chance to meet with Max one-on-one, but he ran unopposed for Vice Chair and was elected by acclamation.
What happened?
After Johansen won his spot, he went out and spoke to reporters. And here’s what he said:
Per the Bozeman Chronicle:
Johansen criticized Tester for failing to adapt to the changing political environment the past several years, calling him part of the “old guard” that “represents a philosophy that no longer serves the interest of the party,” saying he had not adapted over the years to face a candidate as well-sharpened by the GOP as Tim Sheehy was during last year’s campaign.
Per Montana Public Radio:
“We’re tired of hearing from people who feel like they know everything because they’ve been at the top of the heap for so long,” Johansen said. “That is actually how parties get stale and that’s exactly how parties lose ground.”
That was a surprisingly aggressive position to take against a hugely popular figure in the Montana Democratic Party. When you are given such a large platform, there needs to be some delicacy around public comments. Instead, Max came in with a sledgehammer. And the old guard he dissed had some grave concerns about him continuing in the role. On Tuesday, September 16th, Tester spoke about Johansen on his “Grounded” podcast and said Johansen was seeking to tear down the party rather than build it up.
Three. Days. Later.
Johansen resigned “after acknowledging that certain comments he made following the convention were disruptive and inconsistent with the direction of the executive board,” according to the Democratic Party press release.
Wow. I think we saw that coming.
What’s Next?
Now we wait to see who will fill the board vacancy and smooth over this situation. Honestly, we don’t have time to mess around. Thanks to the trump Party and his ilk, fascism is here in America. The Democratic Party has to get its shit together and rise to this moment.
Let’s 👏get 👏our 👏shit 👏together👏
