Montana needs a proven fighter

My life of service to Montana and our nation didn’t start when I announced my campaign for Congress or when President Donald J. Trump endorsed me. My life of service started on Sept. 11, 2001. 

I was working for Montana’s U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns in the Capitol when we were attacked. I remember clearly, all I could do was just sit there and watch the black smoke rise out of the Pentagon; and that moment is what inspired me to come back home to Montana and enlist in the U.S. Army.  

I enrolled in the University of Montana, enlisted in the Montana National Guard and joined Army ROTC. That’s where I met my incredible wife, Jessica. Fast forward a few deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, launching the radio show, and now we are raising three incredible kids. 

I served 20-plus years in the Army Guard and Reserves, retired at lieutenant colonel. But most Montanans know me from the mornings on the radio, where until recently I hosted Montana’s leading statewide talk radio program. I’m the guy joining you in your combine, pickup or kitchen table. The guy who had your back every single morning, listening to Montanans talk about the big issues that matter to you. 

What I heard every single day is that hard-working folks are working harder than ever before and are still falling behind. Meanwhile, there are politicians back in Washington, D.C., getting rich off the backs of taxpayers. That’s not right. 

I have a plan to end that profiteering:

1. Ban congressional stock trading;

2. Constitutional amendment setting term limits;

3. Balanced budget amendment; and

4. If they don’t pass a budget, they shouldn’t get paid. No budget? No pay. 

Meanwhile, back here in Montana, the far-left socialists who created the mess in D.C. are teaming up to take this congressional seat away from you to advance their agenda. My far-left opponents are endorsed by folks like Rep. Ilhan Omar, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. They don’t share our Montana values. But they have already spent millions of dollars in Montana to buy this seat out from under you.  

People ask why I am running. Because Montana needs a proven fighter that will stop the radicals and fight for us. It’s time a new generation of leadership steps up. 

I want all our kids to have the same future here in Montana that we had, and that starts with making sure there’s opportunity and affordability in the Treasure State.  

Here’s my plan: 

1. Make a high school degree mean something again; 

2. Stop funding the woke agenda and encourage and invest in trades education;

3. Make our timber industry great again;

4. Manufacture and mine in America again;

5. Cut the red tape that’s driving up housing prices;

6. Deliver ongoing tax reform so you keep more of your paycheck; and

7. Defund the Biden administration amnesty so U.S. citizens aren’t footing the bill for illegal aliens.

 Like a lot of young families, my family and I have bounced around Montana a bit, chasing jobs and family. I grew up in Glasgow and the Flathead. Our kids were born in Missoula, went to elementary school in Bozeman and now the youngest two are in school in the Flathead Valley. Jessica and I were married in Sanders County at the Wayside Bar in Trout Creek. Our family homesteaded both sides of the state. We want to make sure the Montana we love stays Montana. 

I shared that 9/11 was a turning point for me. I decided then and there to serve my country. Within a year I had completed boot camp, enrolled at University of Montana ROTC and had my blue infantry cord. That dedication, sense of duty and commitment is what I promise to you as Montana’s next congressman.

I am a combat veteran. I’m an America first patriot endorsed by President Donald J. Trump. And I would be humbled to have your vote in the Republican primary for Congress. 

Aaron Flint is a Republican candidate for western Montana’s U.S. House seat. He lives in Kalispell.