6 June 2018 — 0904 mdt
Montana’s Democrats reject healthcare as a right,
embrace identity politics, nominate Williams for Congress
Kathleen Williams, the former state legislator from Bozeman, won the Democratic nomination for Montana’s sole seat in the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday, defeating John Heenan 33.5 to 31.7 percent (the margin was 1,990 votes). Grant Kier ran a distant third — and one of 20 Democratic ballots was cast for Lynda Moss, who had suspended her campaign and endorsed Kier.
Incumbent Rep. Greg Gianforte received 135,515 votes, 24,667 votes more than the Democratic candidates received.
Williams won despite being the weakest fundraiser of the three major Democrats.
During her campaign for the nomination, Williams refused to join Heenan in stating that healthcare is a right. She refused to endorse Medicare for All, Sen. Bernie Sanders’ single-payer plan. She denounced the National Rifle Association. And she urged women to vote for her as an act of gender solidarity, presenting herself as the reincarnation of Jeannette Rankin, the Republican who served two terms in the U.S. House many decades ago. It was a clever and successful primary election strategy.
In my judgment, Williams was the weakest general election candidate of all the Democratic U.S. House hopefuls. Her fundraising was anemic. Her shameless begging for gender identity votes reinforced the tribalism that is rending the Democratic Party asunder. Her attacks on the NRA, and proposals for stricter controls on firearms, will win the hearts of Democrats, but will chill the spines of firearms owning independents. And her repudiation of the principle that healthcare is a right will gladden the hearts of the fools who oppose single-payer health care.
Can she beat Gianforte on 6 November? If there’s a Democratic landslide that results in Democratic control of the U.S. House, she might win. Otherwise, I think she’ll lose with 40–45 percent of the vote.
John Heenan had the best chance of beating Gianforte, and was the only Democratic candidate to state that healthcare is a right and to say he’d vote for Medicare for All. But instead of nominating Heenan to take on Gianforte, Montana’s Democrats, by a weak plurality, decided it was more important to go down in flames with a candidate flying the flag of gender identity politics.