Wes’ Agenda
The freedoms enjoyed by Montanans are under threat from a President in Washington and Governor in Helena who want to replace democracy with authoritarian control. The politics of the past are no longer possible. We need a new generation of leaders who are up to the task of fighting back as the far right attempts to destroy our state and country. A new direction for the Democratic Party that can win. And a new approach to lawmaking that will build back after that victory with a stronger system that codifies the norms we took for granted and protects our freedoms from similar attacks in the future.
That new generation of leader needs to be able to draw a morally clear line in the sand, communicate the reasons why our freedoms are worth defending, then do the hard work of winning support to our cause. That new generation of leader needs to be capable of standing up and defending the freedom we believe in.
Cost of Living
Wes rented apartments in London, New York, and Los Angeles for two decades, experiencing multiple approaches to renter exploitation, protections and access. And it took him a decade to financially recover from hospital bills following significant injury. An incremental approach will not fix Montana’s cost of living crisis. While symbolic property tax rebates sound nice, they do nothing for renters, and don’t come close to addressing the extreme increases hitting homeowners. Reducing junk fees for renters does little to address the underlying problem that is simply disparity between income and cost, and supply and demand.
Increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour and peg annual increases to the rate of inflation going forward.
Reduce state income taxes for working families and young people.
Invest in apprenticeship and training programs for trades, tech, clean energy, agriculture, hospitality, and other careers vital to Montana businesses.
Provide locally-owned businesses tax breaks pegged to worker wage hikes.
Help wealthy out-of-state homeowners shift investments to local Montana businesses through property tax incentives.
Shift tax burden from working families to large corporations exploiting Montana’s natural resources.
Eliminate the policies of hatred against women, minorities, and the LGBT community that prevent employers from relocating to Montana.
Healthcare
Wes has experienced emergency room surgeries without health insurance in the United States, and in countries benefiting from universal access to healthcare. In 2023, Wes took time away from his career to help care for his mother and wife, who both had the same major surgery a month apart. Virginia’s surgery was here in Bozeman, his mom had hers in Europe. Witnessing the disparities in diagnosis, care, and cost, it’s impossible to come to any conclusion other than that access to healthcare should be a human right. And that the government must never insert itself between a doctor and their patient.
Protect Medicare and Medicaid from cuts enacted by Republicans.
Create a public option accessible to any Montanan so that your access to healthcare will no longer rely on your job, your marital status, or your luck.
Make prescription medications affordable for all Montanans.
Provide all Montanans with access to mental healthcare, and reduce barriers to entry like cost, stigma, and therapist licensing.
Codify access to abortion, contraception, and all other forms of reproductive healthcare into Montana law.
Kids and Families
Montana has performatively banned access to TikTok and online pornography, even while the very real dangers to children posed by social media and artificial intelligence have been allowed to expand unabated.
Mandate paid family and medical leave for all Montanans.
Remove arbitrary restrictions on social media and replace with effective legislation that puts kid’s mental health first.
Ensure access to affordable childcare.
Provide adoptees with original birth certificates upon request at any age, with no birth parent veto.
End funding of exploitative, dangerous Safe Haven Baby Boxes, divert funds to expand upon the Safe Haven Newborn Protection Act.
Climate, Environment, Wildlife and Public Lands
The areas where Wes feels most at home are also uniquely important to Montana. The outdoors accounts for a significant portion of our state’s economy and provides residents with astounding quality of life. But, it’s being exploited by the Gianforte government in order to transfer ownership and access to water and wildlife away from normal Montanans.
Legislate changing DNRC’s “may enforce” provision for violations of water use laws to “shall enforce.” Increase fines to rates preventing misuse. Dedicate revenue to state water conservation programs.
Prevent Senator Daines from reducing protections for Montana’s Wilderness Study Areas.
Expand use of controlled burns to prevent the worst impacts of wildfire.
Establish emergency assistance fund for victims of climate disasters paid for by royalties from polluting industries. Reduce subsequent royalties with decarbonization.
Establish grant program for providing livestock guardian dogs to communities threatened by predator conflicts.
Reestablish public ownership of wildlife by ending landowner preference programs.
Establish state fund for public access modeled on federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, using fees from oil and gas production on state lands.
Prioritize public access regardless of land ownership modeled after “Right to Roam” laws.
Enshrine Migratory Bird Treaty Act protections into state law. Where the federal government is failing Montana will lead.
Model state funding of wildlife habitat on agricultural land after Conservation Reserve Program.
Penalize industry killing of wildlife at rates that prevent it from occurring. Dedicate revenue to state wildlife conservation programs.
Mandate state participation in federal grant programs funding construction of a rural EV charging network and wildlife crossings for busy roads.
Expand protections for stream access law.
Mandate creation of state action plan on climate crisis.
Shift state wildlife commission from appointees to publicly elected officials accountable to voters.
Gun Safety
Firearms advocacy organizations have been entirely captured by far right politics, and work to frustrate progress on gun safety that could benefit gun owners, then hold up the broken mess they themselves create as evidence that our nation’s political systems are broken. Wes uses guns for self defense, hunting, and recreation, and realizes that making them an enemy of half the nation’s population is not a recipe for a future that will work in the benefit of gun owners.
Make safety measures like gun safes and secure vehicle storage accessible to all Montanans.
Expand access to firearms training, education, and opportunities to shoot to all Montanans.
Make access to mental healthcare available to all Montanans, without stigma or barriers, especially during emergencies. Firearms suicides make up the majority of gun deaths.
Indigenous Rights
Wes’ wife’s grandfather, Earl J. Barlow, helped establish access to public education on reservations both here in Montana, and nationwide, as an educator, school superintendent, and the first Indigenous Director of the Office of Indian Education. Earl also successfully organized tribal nations for the inclusion of Article X, recognizing the cultural integrity of American Indians during the Montana Constitutional Convention in 1972. Wes will honor that legacy to the best of his ability.
Fund public education on reservations.
Fund public safety on reservations.
Fund physical and mental healthcare on reservations.
Fund the prevention of human trafficking on reservations.
Support truth and reconciliation for Indian Boarding School policies.
Expand grant programs designed to help create thriving Indigenous businesses around tourism, hospitality, agriculture and outdoor recreation.
Urge federal government to restore Indigenous treaty rights on federal land.
Eliminate food insecurity by funding access to healthy, local food on Montana’s reservations.
Support Indigenous colleagues, voices and leaders.
Religion
Wes is a devout atheist who agrees with our nation’s founding fathers that the best way to protect your freedom to practice any religion you please, or no religion at all, is to separate church and state.
End public funding of religious schools.
Remove religious practices from public classrooms.
Mandate curriculum based in best possible science.
Let librarians make decisions in libraries.
End religious tests for healthcare legislation.
Teach history of women’s, LGBT and Indigenous rights in public schools.
Civil Rights, Privacy, And Voting
The Trump administration’s effort to collate information about all Americans into a single database that could be used to punish citizens is a potent warning about what’s to come. At the same time, our most vulnerable neighbors are being villainized in an effort to rally hatred, and voting rights are under assault from the Gianforte government.
Codify equal rights and access to healthcare for all Montanans, regardless of identity, gender, age, or nature of procedure.
Legislate automatic voter registration.
Enshrine protections for same day voter registration, college student residency, voting by mail, and against voter ID.
Protect voting rights for Indigenous Montanans by codifying legal ballot collection measures.
Model a Montana Consumer Privacy Act after California’s.
Establish mental health crisis response program, providing alternative to law enforcement in emergencies.
Ban law enforcement officers—federal, state or community—from obscuring their identities on duty.
Require law enforcement officers, federal, state or community—to identify their agency and badge number to any member of the public.
Codify protections for public recording of law enforcement actions.
Redirect speed enforcement efforts towards improving road safety.