Flathead Dems optimistic, but realistic about 2020

Since the inauguration of President Trump in 2017, a group of Flathead Valley residents has gathered every Tuesday next to Depot Park to protest the president and bring attention to traditionally liberal causes.

“Most of us here had never held a sign in our lives until Trump was elected,” said Betty Kuffel, a retired emergency-room doctor and community activist.

On March 3, about 30 protesters were waving signs at vehicles passing by on Main Street. Many drivers gave the group honks of support, but at least as many were honking and waving at the two counter-protesters supporting Trump on the corner of Main and Center streets.

While Kuffel said the counter-protesters were intrusive at first, she said her group pays them no attention anymore.

“This has been very therapeutic,” she said of the rallies. “It’s been such a chaotic three years. And this state is very red … it was interesting finding a core group with Democratic values.”

“I feel like it’s my family,” Kuffel said.

Finding a group of like-minded individuals can feel daunting for Democrats in a county like Flathead, where only 26.8% of voters went for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016 compared to 65% for Trump.

But Lynn Stanley, chairwoman of the Flathead Democratic Party, told the Inter Lake there are more Democrats here than people often realize.

“Every once in a while we run across somebody who says, ‘I thought I was the only one,’” Stanley said. She added that more and more liberal-leaning citizens have “come out” since 2016, and much of the local Democratic leadership is composed of people who are new to the party.

“They’re coming out because they feel we have to do something,” Stanley said.

Scott Wurster, a committee member for Flathead Democrats, said he has never seen a higher level of interest and engagement in Flathead politics.

“I can say this without any question that the state of the Flathead County Democratic Party has never been stronger,” Wurster said.

“I think there’s no question that there’s going to be an extremely high Democratic turnout [for the 2020 elections]. There’s a lot of enthusiasm.”

From the Resist Trump rallies to a new monthly book club to film screenings, the Flathead Democratic party is doing a lot to try to engage and educate local Democrats. But it is a core of engaged young people that remains elusive.

Stanley realizes there are many obstacles that keep younger voters – who are more likely to vote blue – from getting involved in politics.

“We have to recognize that young people are at a different stage in their lives,” she said. “There are a few that have plunged into activism. But some of them have two or three jobs. They have bills to pay, student debts to pay off.”

She said even though they may have strong views on politics, engagement is “often just not possible for them.”

Stanley mentioned one effort Flathead Democrats will make to draw young voters – an outdoor “Friendraising” event in August with live music and a number of Democratic candidates. “I hope young people will take advantage and come and meet candidates and register to vote if they need to,” Stanley said.

Stanley added that younger residents of the Flathead are drawn to issues on which the Flathead Democratic Party are heavily focused.

“Water quality and the issue that was engaged by the bottling plant: Don’t take our water,” Stanley cited as an issue with high levels of engagement. In addition, she said Flathead Democrats are motivated by access to public lands, climate change and money in politics, among other issues.

“Democrats always have a long laundry list of things that are important to us. This is what makes us Democrats,” Stanley said.

Wurster believes Democrats are also in a stronger position than four years ago as the Republican party has changed in the age of Trump’s presidency.

“I would say that in the past, even if I’ve disagreed with their policies, I’ve recognized and respected the Republican party for having principles like fiscal restraint and dignity,” Wurster explained, “and it seems like a lot of those things have been eroded.”

He said he “does not recognize the current Republican party” and believes a lot of Republicans feel the same way.

“At a fundamental level I think Democrats and Republicans basically want the same thing. They want to be able to take care of their families, they want to make a decent living and they want to have opportunities for their children,” he said.

“We can disagree about how we get there … but I think there are a lot of shared values we have that don’t divide us, necessarily.”

Stanley ran as the Democratic candidate in House District 7 in 2016 and House District 8 in 2014. She was defeated by Republican opposition both times, but was encouraged by her experience while door-to-door campaigning.

“What I found when I knocked on Republican doors, I would talk a lot about give-and-take in the Legislature and the need to be pragmatic,” she said. “I got a lot of heads nodding. I don’t know that they voted for me, but I think everybody is alienated by the hyperpartisanship.”

She said good governance is something everyone wants to see, and “right now at the national level we’re not seeing that.”

Despite the reported enthusiasm among local Democrats, the Flathead Democratic Party has realistic expectations for this year’s local races. There is one contested primary in House District 3 – between appointed incumbent Debo Powers and young newcomer Garrett Henson – but the other five Democratic candidates for local legislative races and candidate Kristen Larson for Flathead County commissioner are running unopposed.

Other than Powers, Dave Fern of Whitefish’s House District 3 is the only Flathead Democrat currently with a seat in the Montana Legislature.

Stanley said she hopes Democrats can increase their percentage of the vote “by two or three points … in those deep red districts.”

“I think the national winds could help us,” she added. “I’m always an optimist, my glass is always half full. If we maintain those [two representatives] and eke out one or two other wins … that would be a victory.”

“It’s going to sound evasive,” Wurster said, “but for me, a victory is getting solution-oriented people elected. People that will listen to each other, work collaboratively wherever possible to try and come together and set aside this nasty rhetoric, which doesn’t serve anybody’s interest.

“And whatever the composition of that is party-wise,” he added, “would be less important than the larger welfare of the state.”

But Stanley said this era of Republican prominence in the Flathead was not set in stone. She said there was a time when Democrats “held sway” in the area before the current period of Republicans dominating the political landscape.

While she would not say the pendulum would swing all the way in the other direction, she said it is a matter of time before “it changes into something new where Democrats play a bigger role.”

Reporter Colin Gaiser may be reached at 758-4439 or cgaiser@dailyinterlake.com.