Back in 2020 in his second attempt to become the governor of Montana, with the state coming off 16 consecutive years of a Democrat at the helm, some of Greg Gianforte’s opponents threw everything at the wall to paint him as a far-right-wing threat.
There were his ties to a creationist museum in Glendive and his assaulting of a reporter on the eve of his election to the U.S. House. Before the three-way Republican primary that cycle, the state’s largest union, a Democrat-supporting group, unanimously adopted a statement condemning his candidacy, under the rationale “Greg Gianforte is NOT one of us and too extreme for Montana.” Still, the tech billionaire from Bozeman won both the primary and general elections by decidedly comfortable margins.
Fast-forward four years, and the now-incumbent Gianforte is facing a primary challenger from the right flank of the party trying to flip the attack script.
