Montana Gov. Steve Bullock announces bid for 2020 Democratic presidential race

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HELENA, Mont. — Montana Gov. Steve Bullock on Tuesday joined the growing list of candidates in the 2020 presidential race, saying he was the only Democrat who won in a red state that President Donald Trump took by 20 points in 2016.

“I believe in an America where every child has a fair shot to do better than their parents. But we all know that kind of opportunity no longer exists for most people; for far too many, it never has,” Bullock said. “We need to defeat Donald Trump in 2020 and defeat the corrupt system that lets campaign money drown out the people’s voice, so we can finally make good on the promise of a fair shot for everyone.”

His announcement included a 2-minute and 44-second video about why he is running. The video touched on his fight against dark money in elections and passing what he said were some of the strongest campaign disclosure laws in the country.

“This is the fight of our time,” he said in the video. “This is the fight of my career.” Bullock, 53, was elected Montana’s 24th governor on Nov. 6, 2012, and was re-elected in 2016.

He joins more than 20 Democrats who have launched bids for the White House, including well-known names such as former Vice President Joe Biden, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and California Sen. Kamala Harris.

In an April 18 interview with The Student Life, a student paper at the Claremont Colleges where he attended school, he said “I am concerned about the state of our country, though, and continue to travel and tell the story of what we’ve been able to accomplish in Montana and what I think ought to be part of that overall conversation. ”

He said he has not only gone to Iowa and New Hampshire to test the waters.

“I’ve also gone to places that not everybody has (like) Arkansas, Wisconsin. I think folks really want government to work again,” he told the newspaper.

Life before the governorship

Before becoming governor, Bullock served as Montana’s attorney general. Prior to that, in the private sector, he represented workers as a labor lawyer and as a private citizen led the successful effort to raise Montana’s minimum wage.

Working with a Republican Legislature, he expanded Medicaid in 2015, passed an Earned Income Tax Credit, established the state’s first public pre-K and passed one of the most progressive anti-dark money bills in the country, according to his official biography.

The most recent legislative session has been described by some as one of the most productive in years, mostly due a group of more moderate Republicans known as the “Conservative Solutions Caucus” and Democrats supporting bills. The caucus said it was focused on solutions for their constituents that could be signed by the governor.

Democrats, however, touted their role for getting legislation passed in 2019, including Medicaid and worker’s compensation for presumptive illnesses for firefighters.

Bullock said the state was a “shining example of how our political system is supposed to work, especially at a time when the rest of the nation fails to come together.”

Bullock is married to Lisa (Downs) Bullock. They have three children, Caroline, Alexandria and Cameron.

Advocacy against ‘dark money’

Bullock has opposed “dark money” in Montana elections and has made it a pillar of his time in elected office. This is money in which nonprofits organizations in elections are not required to list identities of donors.

As attorney general, he led the first challenge against Citizens United all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court in 2010 rejected the argument and held that political spending is a form of protected speech under the First Amendment.

In 2015, Bullock signed the Disclose Act, which he said required “improved disclosure” that would make “Montana elections the most transparent in the nation.” In 2018, a federal appeals court upheld the law and rejected a group’s claim it is vague.

Most recently, on May 7, he signed Senate Bill 326 by Sen. Nate McConnell, D-Missoula, to ban certain campaign contributions by foreign nationals.

Read more at usatoday.com