The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) recently released an ad in Montana featuring a rancher who “usually” votes Republican but is “supporting” Democrat Monica Tranel. However, the DCCC has run into an issue with this ad as it appears that one of the ranchers featured does not even live in the district.
The DCCC, along with Democrat Monica Tranel, who is challenging Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), a former Navy SEAL, in Montana’s First Congressional District, are running the ad featuring ranchers Alfred and Kevin Anderson. The ad aims to highlight Tranel’s support for small businesses and local economies, specifically ranching families in Montana.
All that land over there is owned by one billionaire, another billionaire to the south. There’s another one right there,” one said as the other added, “They’ve got us all surrounded.
Alfred and his family have ranched this land for 75 years. So when the billionaires tried to squeeze them out, I helped them fight back and we won,” Tranel said in the ad as one of the ranchers said, “Monica fought for us when nobody else would.
The ad also features a quote from one of the ranchers, stating, “I usually vote Republican, but I’m supporting Monica.
However, there is a significant issue with this ad: The location shown in Big Timber, which is not within Montana’s First Congressional District but approximately 60 miles away. If Alfred and Kevin Anderson are residents of Big Timber, they would not be legal voters in Tranel’s race as they do not reside in the relevant district.
It remains unclear whether the ad creators were aware of this issue when producing the ad or if it was purposely worded to state that the rancher is “supporting” Tranel rather than explicitly “voting” for her. Regardless, the implication is present in the advertisement.
Meanwhile, as Zinke defends his seat, he has continued to support the Trump-Vance ticket, describing the Harris-Walz ticket as a “progressive liberal ticket” that represents sanctuary cities, defunding police, and the policy of “abandonment.
This ticket is the most progressive liberal ticket. It’s San Francisco and Minneapolis, home of defunding the police, sanctuary cities, and tampons in the boys’ bathrooms, and abandonment,” Zinke told Breitbart News Daily in August. Both Harris and Walz, [he] abandoned his post the moment his unit goes to deploy. He abandons them, and he lies about it. Ironically, there’s so many parallels between Harris and Afghanistan and Walz’s phony record,” Zinke added, listing policy failures of Vice President Harris.
Zinke also expressed concerns about the Biden-Harris policy, stating that under their leadership, “We face a major regional conflict in Ukraine with no objectives and no plan — $150, $160 billion into it.” He went on to say that the same administration has allowed billions of dollars to flow into the coffers of the same people launching missiles into Israel. Zinke emphasized that Trump’s policy is “America First,” implying that it would better protect national security interests and promote American values.