Former ambassador stumps for GOP in Kalispell

Nikki Haley, former ambassador to the United Nations under President Donald Trump, spoke Monday at several campaign events for the two Republicans representing Montana in Congress.

During a stop in Kalispell, Haley touted the business background of U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte, who's in a tight gubernatorial race against Democratic Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney, as well as the legislative record of U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, who hopes to fend off a challenge from Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates both races as toss-ups.

"The best governors are those that come from business," Haley said, highlighting Gianforte's career as a software entrepreneur. "Greg knows what it's like to sign the front of a paycheck, not just the back of a paycheck. He understands that it's all about knowing the value of the dollar."

Haley credited Daines for his work on the Great American Outdoors Act, a landmark conservation bill that will pump billions of dollars into maintaining national parks and other federal lands. Daines was one of 60 senators of both parties who sponsored the legislation.

"The Democrats can say what they want about Republicans and the environment," Haley said. "Steve Daines passed the biggest land conservation bill in a generation. He was watching out for Montana."

Bullock, who also casts himself as a champion of public lands, has criticized Daines' initial support of William Perry Pendley as head of the Bureau of Land Management. The Senate never confirmed Pendley to lead the agency, and Bullock successfully sued to remove him from the post, but Pendley has refused to step down. Pendley previously challenged Montana's stream access laws as an attorney for oil and gas interests.

Haley spoke Monday to about three dozen Republicans, including state legislators and Flathead County commissioners, at the Red Lion Hotel in Kalispell between stops in Hamilton and Great Falls.

Gianforte spoke at the event with his running mate, Great Falls lawyer Kristen Juras, calling Cooney "deliberately anti-business" and "a 44-year career politician" who would raise taxes. A staunch supporter of Trump, Gianforte noted he voted for the president's tax plan in 2017.

"I spent my life creating jobs and solving problems and serving others ... and I'll bring that to the governor's office," Gianforte said.

Daines was en route to Washington, D.C. in anticipation of votes in the Senate, including the controversial nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.

Democrats have criticized the timing of Coney Barrett's nomination as millions of Americans already have cast votes in the presidential election, as well as indications she would help upend the Affordable Care Act and erode access to abortion.

Haley did not mention those issues but noted Bullock has embraced the idea of adding justices or "packing" the Supreme Court to offset the court's growing conservative majority. She also highlighted Coney Barrett's role as a mother of seven children, dubbing her "our minivan justice."

"How fantastic is she," Haley said to applause. "She's our minivan justice. I love it."

Haley said the stakes are high in this election, laying out starkly different visions of U.S. education and foreign policy. The choice, she said, could result in "law and order and respect of our police" or "lawlessness and riots and defunding the police."

"The reason we're here in Montana is because all eyes are on this election," she said. "If we don't win this election, it changes the entire trajectory of where the country is going."