What’s the most significant development in American electoral politics since the election of President Obama? Some say it’s the deepening division within the Republican Party. Others say it’s the beating Democrats have taken at the state and local level of politics.
Here’s a third possibility which is related to the second: the success of Republican Senate and House candidates in Red States.
This success is nearly complete in the South with the defeat last year of Mary Landrieu, Mark Pryor, and Kay Hagan. But in 2012, the GOP missed the opportunity to capture Senate seats in two deeply Red States in the Northern Plains — North Dakota and Montana.
These seats will be very much in play come 2018. And in Montana, an ideal challenger to Democrat Jon Tester is emerging. He is Rep. Ryan Zinke.
Zinke served as a US. Navy SEAL from 1985 to 2008. He retired at the rank of Commander.
As a SEAL, Zinke served as a member of the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group from 1990 to 1993 and again from 1996 to 1999. In 2004, Zinke was named the deputy and acting commander of Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Arabian Peninsula. In this capacity, Zinke led a force of more than 3.500 Special Operations personnel in Iraq.
In 2006, he was awarded two Bronze Stars for combat.
Following his retirement from the Navy, Zinke was elected to the Montana State Senate. And last year, he was elected to Congress by a 15 point margin.
Meanwhile, Tester’s ACU (American Conservative Union) rating is typically around 15 percent, making him well out-of-step with Montana. Tester also voted in favor of Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. This is reason enough to target him.
Zinke, with almost 25 years of service defending America from enemies like Iran, strikes me as the perfect anti-Tester.
A big Zinke victory in his 2016 congressional race will serve as a platform for a run against Tester in 2018. Accordingly, I have contributed to Zinke’s reelection campaign.
After pushing so aggressively in 2014, I vowed not to ask readers to make campaign contributions until 2016. But if you want to contribute earlier, and begin the process of defeating Democrats who voted to pave the way for a prosperous and nuclear Iran, you can do so here.
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