It was shaping up to be a quiet primary for Republicans in Montana’s House District 1. 

Congressman Ryan Zinke has represented the district, which encompasses the state’s 16 most western counties, since its inception in 2022. Political analysts were expecting the status quo to hold when the congressman’s late-stage retirement announcement shook up the field. Republican candidates poured in to take Zinke’s place, priming the western district for one of the most competitive primary races in its short history. 

A May 4 candidate forum hosted by the Glacier Country Pachyderm provided attendees a glimpse at the politics and personalities that underline the race.  

Emergent GOP darling Aaron Flint, from Kalispell, took the centerstage position, his saucer-shaped belt buckle glinting merrily under the overhead lights. On his left flank, dressed in the pressed suit and inscrutable smile of a seasoned politician, stood Al Olszewski, also from Kalispell. Ray Curtis, from Bonner, stationed himself stage right. He wore a palm-sized pin reading “Hire Ray for Montana” on the pocket of his short-sleeve gingham shirt. The final candidate, Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen, from Helena, was absent. 

Voters will have a chance to cast their vote in the primary election June 2. Absentee ballots were mailed to registered voters in the district on May 8.   

Aaron Flint

Aaron Flint soared into the frontrunner position days after announcing his campaign, due in no small part to a plethora of high-profile endorsements from leading Republican figures, including Zinke and President Donald Trump.  

The latter has formed the tentpole for the 46-year-old radio host’s campaign. The landing page for his campaign website mentions the endorsement three times and pitches Flint as the candidate that will “make the Montana dream affordable again." He has continued to tout his association with the president, even as several national polls report flagging support for Trump. 

“Look, whether you like President Trump’s fighting style or you don’t like President Trump’s fighting style, I think we can all agree that we need a fighter to represent us back in Washington, D.C. who’s going to fight to make the Montana dream affordable again,” said Flint. 

And Flint has made it clear he considers himself a fighter. In his 30 minutes of allotted speaking time at the Glacier Country Pachyderm forum, Flint characterized himself as such more than a dozen times. He also used the platform to make several references to a militaristic domestic takeover by groups he identified as far-left socialists.  

“Maduro is behind bars. Khamenei is dead, but the far-left socialists are on the march here in western Montana,” he said in response to a question about whether he supported the war in Iran. 

Off-stage, Flint took a softer approach to the issue of partisanship in politics.  

“I think you have to continue to engage with all Montanans, and you have to truly listen and you have to find points where we can all agree and some shared values,” he said in an April 25 interview with the Daily Inter Lake.   

As the host of a popular conservative radio show, Flint said he answered on-air phone calls from listeners of all political bents. He also referenced his time in the U.S. Army as evidence of his commitment to bridging political and social divides, saying he served “with people from a whole host of different backgrounds, different opinions.” 

In between bouts of firebrand rhetoric and frequent callouts to prominent Montana Republicans, Flint described himself as pro-life*, and voiced support for more stringent voter verification requirements and further reductions in humanitarian visa programs. He pitched scaled-back housing regulations and investments in high-wage job opportunities as solutions to the affordability crisis. 

“One of the most concrete things that we can do right now is invest in trades education,” said Flint. “That’s how we’re going to build the workforce. That’s how we’re going to create opportunities in the housing sector and in manufacturing for our young people that are coming up, and it’s also going to help us bring down the costs as well.” 

Al Olszewski

Al Olszewski is used to being the underdog. 

The 63-year-old physician finished last in the Republican primaries for the U.S. Senate in 2018 and for the Montana gubernatorial election in 2020. He also came up short in the 2022 Republican primaries for the U.S. House of Representatives, losing out to Zinke by a mere two points. 

But he still couldn’t help but bristle at the clear favoritism that many prominent Montana Republicans have shown to Flint. 

“Our federal representatives, in the last days before the ballot process closed, by surprise, retired and inserted their anointed successors into the race,” he said during his opening remarks at the Glacier Pachyderm Forum, adding that he was running as a “freely chosen candidate.” 

He’s banking that his reputation with voters will win out on Flint’s comradery with the state and nation’s political elite 

“Let me put it this way,” he said. “I respect the fact that [Flint] has all these endorsements. I respect the fact that those endorsements are attached with lots of commitments for money, millions of dollars. I’m a grassroots candidate. I run a different campaign.”  

Prior to 2018, Olszewski served in both the Montana Senate and House of Representatives, making him the only candidate that has actively written and debated legislation. He hopes constituents will look at those experiences and his voting record as a plus. 

“I don’t think there’s anybody that’s going to say that they agree with 100% of my votes, but you know exactly where I stand,” he said.   

Where he stands is decidedly on the right. Asked about rising concerns about everyday affordability and the increasing national debt, Olszewski emphasized economic solutions, like increasing job opportunities and expanding timber sales on public lands. He voiced unequivocal support for a federal ban on abortion and increased voter identification requirements and emphasized preserving work visas for immigrants while restricting other means of migration. 

When it comes to the war in Iran, Olszewski vacillated, telling the Daily Inter Lake he disliked the conflict’s effect on fuel and grocery prices. 

"I was proud to be able to say when Trump was elected, look what [the price of] cream has done, butter. Look what eggs have done. Look what pork and chicken has done and gas,” he said. “But that’s not happening. It’s reversed. Now, it’s going back up. When I talk about that, it doesn’t make me popular within the Republican Party, but for families in Montana those are important issues.” 

A week later, at the Glacier Country Pachyderm forum, Olszewski said he supported the current operations, which he characterized as “a military intervention that is quiet,” while repeating the assertion that he dislikes war.  

Ray Curtis

When Ray Curtis’s wife died in 2015 from complications likely related to a doctor-recommended medical device, he went to his congressional delegation for help. Zinke helped him draft a law mandating new risk reporting requirements for doctors and introduced the bill to Congress. 

More than a decade later, as Curtis is running his own campaign to replace Zinke, he said he still considers that experience a model of what a representative should be.  

“He listened to his constituent and saw a need and introduced this bill,” said Curtis. “But I think over the last 10 years, Ryan Zinke changed. Republicans changed. It’s not the same party it was 10 years ago. What I would want to do is listen like Ryan Zinke used to.” 

Other politicians on the 65-year-old retired government teacher’s Rolodex of Republican role models include Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower. Trump doesn’t quite make the cut. 

“My graduate work is in constitutional history and the making of the Constitution, so it is near and dear to me, and what I’ve seen happen this last year concerns me greatly,” said Curtis. 

His willingness to critique actions taken by Trump cast Curtis in stark contrast to the other candidates at the Glacier Pachyderm Forum. He didn’t demur from criticizing the war in Iran, which he said should have been authorized by Congress, and faulted the Department of Government Efficiency as “some unelected agency that was headed by an unelected foreigner.” During his closing remarks, Curtis even joked that his penchant for moderatism soundly disqualified him from ever being in contention for a Trump endorsement. 

“I know the other Republican candidates would love to have President Trump’s endorsement, and Aaron Flint says that he has it,” said Curtis in an interview with the Daily Inter Lake. “I don’t want his endorsement because I’m not running for what the president wants or what a political party wants. I’m running so I can do what the people want.” 

His platform emphasizes affordability with a specific focus on increasing opportunities for younger generations of Americans and shifting a greater proportion of the tax burden to those in wealthier income brackets. 

“The average Montana, we should get a break on our taxes so people who really can afford to pay for government services do so,” he said. 

By most accounts, Curtis is a longshot for the Republican ticket. He decided not to run traditional campaign ads or host fundraising events, and his moderate leanings have made him an outcast among the state’s conservative GOP leadership — Curtis was not invited to participate in the Montana Republican Party’s singular primary debate, despite appearing on the Republican ballot. 

But Curtis believes he has at least one thing going for him. 

“Montanans want to care for each other,” he said. “I think Montanans understand that we are in this together." 

Christi Jacobsen

Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen seems to have vanished from the campaign trail since filing to run in House District 1 in early March. She skipped out on an April 21 debate that the state GOP hosted in Bozeman and also failed to show at the Glacier Country Pachyderm forum, eliciting some thinly veiled jabs from the competition. 

“It’s so fun to see the candidates here. I wish all the candidates would show up for more of these events,” said Flint in his opening remarks. 

A campaign website features a short biography describing Jacobsen as a political outsider that nonetheless secured the Secretary of State’s office in 2020 and 2024 by the record margins. The website does not list any specific policy positions. 

Jacobsen’s campaign did not respond to multiple interview requests.   

Reporter Hailey Smalley can be reached at 406-758-4433 or hsmalley@dailyinterlake.com. If you value local journalism, pledge your support at dailyinterlake.com/support. 

CORRECTION: At the May 4 forum, candidates were asked if they support a federal abortion ban. Aaron Flint responded by saying, "I am pro-life. I am proud to be a pro-life, and I think we've got to get some important things across the finish line." He did not directly state his stance on a federal abortion ban.