Montana Governor Steve Bullock Announces Presidential Campaign



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In an online video, Bullock described a campaign to make money in politics and promote progressive policies from a red perspective. He plans to focus on his roots in Montana and his ability to reach Republican voters.

Bullock's video shows that he was re-elected in Montana in 2016 – the same year Trump won the state in the presidential election.

"To be honest, I would never have thought of being a presidential candidate," Bullock said in his video, which also highlights the successful efforts he's made to extend Medicaid, its support for same-sex marriage and his bipartisan efforts to ban the black money of state policy. . "It's the fight of our time, it's the fight of my career, I'm Steve Bullock and I'm running for president."

The video recalls two major messages from Bullock's campaign: giving Americans the opportunity to live and work in any community and lead a better life than their parents, and convince Democrats to win Republicans – some of them having voted for Trump in 2016 – is possible.

Bullock, in a brief interview Monday with CNN before his announcement, said it was "not so naive to say that all voters would grab their hands and walk together in the fields", but added that it was incumbent on Democrats to convince voters in "places". as a Montana or the Midwest "that" the Democratic Party is fighting for their interests. "

"If we do not recover some of the spots we lost in 2016, it will be a difficult sled, make no mistake, you think we will win in 2020," Bullock said. "I have a proven ability to do it."

He added, "I have the ability to do it.There are many voters, whether they vote for their economic interests, or their interests for conservation or for the next generation, they will come back to see us. "

According to a campaign assistant, Bullock will officially announce his 2020 race Tuesday afternoon in a science class at Helena High School, the same school where he had graduated more than three decades earlier.

After going to New York for a series of talks on Wednesday, Bullock will visit Iowa, where his campaign plans to focus. The governor has a powerful ally in the state: the Attorney General of Iowa, Tom Miller, the only elected Democrat in the state, who has been supporting a Bullock race for months.

Montana Democrat will encounter a number of problems in the presidential campaign: he is largely unknown apart from the most vibrant Democratic activists, he is not currently enrolled in polls that have included him, and he is entering into a historically massive group of Democrats who have months of progress on it.

The late arrival of Bullock in the race – the governor chose to wait for an announcement until the Montana State Legislature, which meets only every two years , ended its session – means that it will have to hurry to find 65,000 donors and sufficient support in the elections should reach the threshold set by the Democratic National Committee for the first two primary Democratic debates this summer.

"I understand I'm coming back later than some, but I'm a governor, I had a job to do," Bullock told CNN, noting that he had signed some of his last bills from the session. Monday morning.

"On one side, it may seem to put me at a disadvantage, but I'm going to travel, talk and listen, but all I can do is rely on both voters to log in." , did he declare. "And while we're looking at this stage of the debate, I think I'm already qualified for two or three polls and hope they'll question some of them next month and we'll see."

Bullock is a longtime Montanan, born in Missoula and raised by a single mother in Helena, the state capital.

In his announcement video, Bullock stated that he only knew the governor's mansion when he was a child because he had handed over papers to the house.

"Now my wife Lisa and I are raising our children in the same house," he said.

After graduating from Helena High School, he attended Claremont McKenna College in California and earned a law degree from Columbia Law School in New York.

Bullock quickly entered Montana politics, working for the Montana state secretary, and then for the state Department of Justice. He first appeared for a term in 2000, when he lost the primary attorney to Montana's Attorney General. Bullock entered a private practice after this loss – including a stay in Washington, DC – before running for success as Attorney General in 2008.

After a tenure as Attorney General, Bullock managed to become the Governor of Montana in 2012.

But it's his 2016 race – at which the governor was re-elected by 4% while Trump won Montana by more than 20% – which will give the 2020 candidate candidate his strongest argument for discussion: convince voters who supported Trump in 2016.

"As the Democratic Governor of one state, Donald Trump, won by 20 points, I do not have the luxury of talking to people who agree with me," Bullock said. in his video clip.

Initially, Bullock plans to run a very small campaign based in Helena. His campaign currently occupies half a room in a downtown building in the capital, where four people work. The campaign is expected to add eight new members this week, including Megan Simpson as Bullock's state director in Iowa and Jeremy Busch as Iowa's press secretary.

Jenn Ridder, a long-time member of the Democratic Party, will be the director of Bullock's campaign, and Galia Slayen, who previously worked for Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, will be its director of communications.

Bullock also has a base of external advisors, including Nick Baldick, former Al Gore campaign advisor for 2000 and Democratic consultant, and Matt McKenna, spokesman for former President Bill Clinton. Jennifer Palmieri, director of communications for Hillary Clinton, has also been advising the governor informally for months.

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