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2 more candidates jump into MT’s crowded 2020 US House race

Posted at 7:42 PM, Jul 10, 2019
and last updated 2019-07-10 21:42:15-04

HELENA — The crowded 2020 race for Montana’s open U.S. House seat got a bit more crowded Wednesday, as two largely unknown candidates entered the contest — a Democrat and a Republican.

Democratic U.S. House candidate Matt Rains
Republican U.S. House candidate Tim Johnson

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matt Rains, a rancher and Army veteran from Simms, is the Democrat; Tim Johnson, the superintendent of schools in Corvallis, is the Republican.

They joined a field that now has seven declared candidates, including some well-known names in Montana politics.

Montana’s only U.S. House seat is open next year because incumbent Republican Greg Gianforte is running for governor, after only one-and-a-half terms in Congress.

Republicans Joe Dooling, a Helena rancher, state Auditor Matt Rosendale and Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton already are vying for their party’s nomination.

On the Democratic side, Kathleen Williams — who lost to Gianforte by five percentage points last year — and state Rep. Tom Winter of Missoula are competing for the seat as well.

Rains launched his campaign with a two-minute video posted on YouTube, highlighting his ranching and military background.

In a news release, he said he’d be part of a “new generation of leadership” that would address problems like unaffordable health care, a shortage of good-paying jobs and agriculture harmed by new trade policies.

Johnson said on his website that he’d be emphasizing education in his campaign, as well as a return to civility in political discourse.

The primary election to choose the major-party nominees for the seat isn’t until next June.