Boots to Ballots: Montana's Farmers and Ranchers Are Rewriting Local Politics
Across Montana's counties, a quiet but consequential shift is underway as agricultural workers and rural landowners trade their daily routines for campaign trails. Frustrated by rising property taxes, shifting land-use regulations, and federal grazing policies they say ignore local realities, a new wave of farmer-candidates is stepping into local government. Their campaigns are reshaping the conversation about who governs Montana's rural communities.