Montana Republicans shy away from calling Harris' ascension a coup

While unimpressed with Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, Montana Republicans have shied away from using the same words as former President Donald Trump in describing her ascension to the top of the Democratic ticket.  

Trump has accused the Democratic Party of staging a coup after President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign in the aftermath of June’s disastrous debate performance. Harris earned Biden’s endorsement moments after he made the decision public and quickly saw the party consolidate around her. 

“This was an overthrow of a president. This was an overthrow,” Trump said during a rally in Pennsylvania last weekend. “They deposed a president. It was a coup of a president. This was a coup.” 

In what experts and pundits are calling the most unique nomination process since Lyndon Johnson opted against seeking reelection in 1968, Harris’ position as the Democratic Party’s standard bearer was cemented Thursday at its national convention in Chicago. She has selected Minnestoa Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.  

Her path to the top of the ticket skipped over the typical primary process. Democratic voters saw Joe Biden on their primary ballots in late winter and spring. 

State Sen. Mike Cuffe, R-Eureka, who has spearheaded election integrity efforts in Montana during his tenure in the upper chamber, deemed it unfair, at the very least.  

“It certainly does seem like an unfair argument when you spend months going against one person and you have your odds out ahead of you,” said Sen. Mike Cuffe, R-Eureka. “And then you get that candidate swapped out ... I don't know the legalities of that.”    

The head of the Republican Party in Montana, Don Kaltschmidt, likewise acknowledged his ignorance with the Democratic Party’s nomination process. 

“Well, I don’t know the rules for the [Democrats]... but they would be [illegitimate] in the Republican Party,” he said. 

Kaltschmidt is referring to the different convention rules adopted by both Democrats and Republicans. The rules are set by each party and instruct delegates on how they should and can vote for its presumptive nominee.  

Republican delegates are required to vote in line with primary results. For Democrats, if the rules were the same, that would mean that Harris could not be nominated.  

But the only real requirement spelled out for Democratic delegates is that they reflect the “sentiments of those who elect them in good conscience,” allowing them to place their votes as they see fit.  

“You know, look, if she’s nominated by the Democratic Convention to be the presidential candidate by the delegates then she’s the candidate,” said former state Sen. Al Olszewski, chair of the Republican’s Flathead County Central Committee. “I mean, again, the Republican party also gets to pick their own candidate and pick their own rules.” 

Taking a pragmatic view, U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke said that Democrats chose to “abandon that ship,” referring to Biden. And that’s allowed, he said.  

“It is a party, and so the Democratic Party has latitude to, what I would say, adjust for fire,” said Zinke, a Republican running for reelection this year. “... And they had a fire called Biden.” 

Zinke said he would not consider the situation a coup but questioned Harris’ role in the ouster. Harris must have known that Biden was incapable of serving another term, Zinke said, yet placed her support behind him until the very last minute.  

A spokesperson for Republican Tim Sheehy’s campaign — the Bozeman businessman is seeking to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester — declined to comment on Trump’s remarks and instead passed along a statement attacking Harris, Walz and Tester. The statement did describe the Democratic National Convention, which culminated with Harris’ Aug. 22 acceptance speech, as a coronation. 

Media accounts in the weeks between Biden’s poor debate performance and his decision to drop out described Tester as questioning — privately and then publicly — the president’s ability to serve out a second term. Many Democratic members of Congress, who publicly backed Biden for months, withdrew that support following the debate.  

For Cuffe, Biden’s decline was apparent before the debate. 

“I truly have some misgivings about the Democratic Party that they were supporting [Biden] when everyone else could look at it and see that he was failing,” Cuffe said. “Including Jon Tester, he certainly defended the president a long way.” 

Though falling short of Trump’s repeated refrain of coup, Montana Republicans questioned the transparency of the process replacing Biden with Harris. 

“At the end of the day, [Democrats] disenfranchised ...  all those millions of voters who voted for President Biden to be their nominee,” Kaltschmidt said. “Then they willy-nilly picked Harris because the elites decided she would be a better candidate than Biden would be.” 

“The people didn’t pick Harris, the elites of the Democratic party picked Harris,” he added. 

Still, recent polling data shows Harris’ approval rating increasing, with about eight in 10 Democrats viewing her favorably, according to the Pew Research Center. That number represents a marked improvement since May. Just 9% of Republicans view her favorably.  

Reporter Kate Heston can be reached at kheston@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4459.