Howdy! Here are the topics for today’s column:

• Super Tuesday
• Eastern Congressional District
• Homeless Camp Bans
• Montana Polling
• Evangelical Voters

SUPER TUESDAY:

As of posting time, former President Donald Trump had won or was winning 12 of the 15 states, while Nikki Haley had a slight lead in Vermont. In two other states (California and Alaska) the counting had not started. (Source)

The Western Word will have more about this on Thursday.

EASTERN CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT:

In case you missed it, MTN News has a story about the Democrats running in Montana’s eastern congressional district (MT-02).

As of this posting, 10 candidates (from both parties) have filed for the seat.

As for the Democrats, MTN says the first Democrat to announce a run for the House seat last year was Kevin Hamm of Helena, a business owner and president of Montana Pride. Another Democrat, Steve Held, officially launched his campaign last week. He owns a ranch and operates a motel business in Broadus, and he’s also a former professional actor. The third Democrat is Ming Cabrera of Billings. Cabrera is currently in the Philippines. Cabrera, who is a Montana native and Filipino-American, told MTN he went to medical school in the Philippines and is visiting a sick classmate.

I also see that Democrat John Driscoll filed for the MT-02 seat on March 5.

The Democrats will have a tough time winning the MT-02 race and the winner of the Republican primary will be highly favored.

Check out the MTN News story HERE. You can see who filed for state offices HERE.

HOMELESS CAMP BANS:

A press release from the Montana Department of Justice:

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen led a coalition of 24 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief Friday in the case of Johnson v. City of Grants Pass which asks the Supreme Court to reverse a lower court’s decision prohibiting states and local governments from enforcing laws that prevent public spaces from becoming homeless encampments.

The Montana DOJ continues:

The Ninth Circuit’s ruling has tied the hands of officials in communities across Montana and the western United States that are struggling to combat widespread homeless encampments.
For example, in Montana, Missoula had 60 separate encampments across its 400 acres of public parks as of August 2023. However, the city is restricted in its ability to combat the issue following the 2018 decision that said jurisdictions must have bed space that outnumbers homeless persons before enforcing an anti-camping ordinance. Since the city cannot meet that requirement, residents are forced to deal with dirty and unsafe parks, vehicles “full of human waste,” and debris clogging the city’s irrigation and waterways. Similar problems are occurring in other Montana cities including Billings, Bozeman, and Kalispell.

So, the attacks against the homeless continue. Maybe instead of fighting this ruling in court and spending thousands of taxpayer dollars to do it, these states should work to create more housing for the homeless.

Read the MT DOJ press release HERE.

MONTANA POLLING:

I took part in a poll via text the other day that was interesting. Basically, it was a poll to help U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy.

Some probably call it a “push poll” where the question tells you negative things about one candidate and then asks who you will vote for.

For example, the poll might say/ask, *“Senator Doe was seen kicking his dog while on a walk, does this make you or less likely to vote for Senator Doe.” Or, for example, *“When asked when the last time he beat his spouse, Senator Doe refused to answer. Does his refusal to answer make you more or less likely to vote for Doe.”

*These questions were not asked by the poll.

We’re not even to the primary yet, and things are getting nasty and weird.

EVANGELICAL VOTERS:

Scripps News is reporting that former President Donald Trump is making a direct appeal to Republican Christian voters. “No one will be touching the cross of Christ under the Trump administration. I swear to you,” he told the crowd at the recent National Religious Broadcasters Conference. Evangelicals overwhelmingly supported the former president in 2016 and again in 2020. And there seems to be more of the same this year.

I consider myself an evangelical Christian, but I am not a Trump supporter. I did not vote for him in 2016, I did not vote for him in 2020, and I won’t be voting for him in 2024. The Scripps News report says that according to Pew Research, Trump garnered 84% of the White Evangelical vote in 2020.

I am proud to be part of the 16% who did not vote for him.

Trump seems to secure a lot of votes from the uneducated voters. In fact, he has said he likes “the poorly educated”

Back in 2016 after a victory in the Nevada caucuses, Trump said, “We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated.” (Source)

I don’t know if the “poorly educated” are part of the evangelical vote, but it kind of seems that they are.

Check out the full report from Scripps News HERE.

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