Ryan Zinke brings honor to state and country

We are unashamedly Ryan Zinke boosters.

Why not? He is a hometown hero from Whitefish, Montana, and he has lived a life that has brought honor not just on himself but on his community.

In high school, he was a 4.0 student, class president and student athlete extraordinaire.

At the University of Oregon, he was four-year letterman as an offensive lineman while earning a degree in geophysics.

In the mid-1980s, Zinke decided to serve his country and joined the Navy SEALs. That led to service in both Iraq wars, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Afghanistan and too many medals and decorations to list.

Along the way, he earned two master’s degrees, and then returned to Whitefish, where he has had a career in business and politics.

Zinke served ably in the state Senate. When he was out of office, he even spent a brief tenure on the editorial board of the Daily Inter Lake, where we saw first-hand his ability to cut to the quick of a problem. Then, in 2014, he won election to the U.S. House of Representatives as the only delegate from Montana.

He won re-election just last month, and had been planning on pursuing his agenda as a “Teddy Roosevelt Republican” in Congress when his country called — or more specifically when President-elect Donald Trump called. Zinke was an early supporter of Trump, and the new president asked him to serve as his secretary of interior.

Back in 2007 when he was about to retire from the Navy after more than 20 years, Zinke told the Whitefish Pilot, “I’d like to find some noble cause. … I can’t sit on the sidelines any longer.”

While we don’t think that serving in the Navy SEALS really qualifies as sitting on the sidelines, we suspect that Zinke — like his role model Teddy Roosevelt — wanted to get back into the arena and work to better his community, his state and his country.

He’ll now have that chance.

In 2013, Rep. Zinke penned an op-ed that ran in the Inter Lake under the headline, “Crisis solution: Restore trust in government.” His words then resonate with special significance now that he is joining the Trump Cabinet, and augur a better tomorrow:

“To restore our faith in America, it is time that we unite in our commitment for truth and focus on defending our individual and economic freedoms to ensure America remains exceptional for generations to come. … Keeping our democracy “exceptional” in honesty is not a matter of Republican or Democratic political rhetoric; it is essential for liberty and justice for all.”

We wish Ryan Zinke and Donald Trump well in their efforts to restore that faith, achieve that unity, and preserve those freedoms in the years ahead.