Virginia was the soft opening for our targeted political fundraising for this cycle. Next up is Montana, where I hope we can help get Four Directions back on the ground in Montana! (This will be our last political fundraiser of 2023, but we’ll get started again toward the end of January or early February.)
Why Montana / Four Directions for our first boots on the ground for 2024?
Montana is hardly a swing state, is it? But the conservative state has elected Democrat Jon Tester to the Senate three times, starting in 2006. Unfortunately, in 2024, Tester is running what looks to be his toughest race yet!
So while it’s not a swing state, it is a strategic choice – this is is a seat we have to hold! And as always, we feel that boots on the ground + helping the Native population use their voice in the election + supporting Four Directions, which has a most excellent track record in helping turn out the native vote, isn’t just a win-win, it’s a win-win-win.
Plus they nearly always can pull off a double-match for us, and who doesn’t love a double-match? So I say we count that as a 4th win! (But no guarantees on the double-match until I hear back from Bret.)
The Native American vote is critical. According to the Montana Office of Public Instruction, Montana is home to approximately 78,000 people of Native American heritage, constituting 6.5% of the 1,100,000 total population of this sparsely-settled state.
According to the High Country News, the Native vote has thrice helped put Jon Tester over the top:
In Montana, though the state went for Trump overall, counties overlapping with the reservations of the Blackfeet Nation, Fort Belknap Tribes, the Crow Tribe and Northern Cheyenne Tribe went blue. The divides were often stark; Glacier County, encompassed by the Blackfeet Nation, went for Biden by 64%, the highest in the entire state, while the neighboring county voted for Trump by 75%. The Native vote in Montana has made the difference before, when Indigenous voters helped Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat who has advocated for Indian Country in legislation regarding water settlements, missing and murdered Indigenous women, and tribal recognition, get elected the last three terms in often-close races.
Four Directions had boots on the ground operations in Montana in 2012 and 2014 – and had some hard-fought litigation success on behalf of one of the Nations – but in the past few years they have not been active in the state. I’ll let Bret & OJ explain why in the zoom, lest I get any of the details wrong.
Recently OJ (OJ Semans) had a conversation with Marvin Weatherwax – a leader of the Blackfeet tribe and Chairman of the Coalition of Large Tribes – and made a request to OJ:
Four Directions is needed in Montana to help our Tribes with the Native Vote in 2024, they proved they can make our voices heard, and I support them in doing so.
Can we help get them the early money they need now in order to get their ground operations up and running well before the 2024 election? We are getting a bit of a late start in our fundraising this year (no one’s fault but my own!), but I’m talking with a couple of our amazing Balloon Juice Angels, and each one has offered up to $5,000 for their angel matches!
We’ve set a goal of $25,000 to kickstart the Four Directions return to Montana. They are working on finding a double-match for us, and we’ll hear about how that’s going at the zoom on Thursday.
On the zoom, we will no doubt learn more about Four Direction’s push into Montana. If there is time, they can also talk about the other states they are focusing on in 2024. No surprise – when we talked, our list of key states to focus on this year matched theirs, and theirs matched ours!
To RSVP for the zoom, please send me an email message, so I can send you the zoom link for Thursday.
*For a deeper dive into Montana’s 12 Nations and their history and culture, you can check out the Montana government study referenced above: “Montana Indians: Their History and Location.”
frosty
This is great news, WG, especially if Four Directions can double match ours! We really need Tester in the Senate. It’s good to hear he is doing so much to earn the Native vote.
Sparkedcat
I am more than willing to donate to Four Directions again. Money well spent in Arizona.
WaterGirl
@frosty: @Sparkedcat: Yay! Are either of you thinking of attending the zoom?
Almost Retired
This is great. Looks like the Native American vote is more than the margin of victory for Tester, and I would think a dollar spent in such a small (population) state is going farther than in the Texas or Ohio Senate races.
BlueGuitarist
Montana is a swing state for US Senate,
and Monica Tranel is a good candidate running in MT’s first congressional district against the awful Ryan Zinke. leans R but winnable
frosty
@WaterGirl: I’ve got something else going on Thursday, so I can’t attend the Zoom.
Alison Rose
This is great! Just sent you an email.
Maxim
I’ll be at work still, so I can’t do the Zoom, but I will happily support Four Directions again.
WaterGirl
@frosty: No need to attend! Just wondering.
Mousebumples
Can’t Zoom but great to see us working with Four Directions again! I’m hoping they’ll also be working with tribes in Arizona and Wisconsin (again, I think, on both, if memory serves) on 2024 – and glad to have their help in Sen. Tester’s race, too!
H.E.Wolf
Thank you WaterGirl for this great news!
Four Directions has a great GOTV track record, and it’s very exciting that we jackals have a chance to partner with them a year ahead of the 2024 election.
To borrow a slogan from pro-choice powerhouse EMILY’s List: “Early money is like yeast – it makes the dough rise.”
Looking forward to the Zoom presentation this Thursday….
Auntie Anne
I wish I could make the Zoom, but am so excited we’re working with Four Directions again. Am happy to support their efforts!
karensky
There are 12 tribes and 7;reservations in Montana and have been helpful to Tester in previous races. Good choice!
dc
I know where to look for the donation button, but there may be occasional readers of the blog who don’t. Perhaps you can indicate where to hit the donate link.
I’m in for 25.00.
Mousebumples
@dc: I’m on mobile, and if you scroll to the bottom of the page, I see a thermometer. Usually WaterGirl puts it in the post, but she might be waiting on confirmation of double matching.
We recently had to replace our (22 year old) furnace, so I’m probably not able to angel match this one, but I’ll check our budget and see how much I can toss in later this week
Eta – does this work?
ActBlue
rekoob
@dc: For what it’s worth, I added USD 100 to the total. Only USD 24,875 to go! Looking forward to the Zoom on Thursday.
dc
I already donated, my point is that not everyone who may pass through the blog knows where to find the donation buttons.
Mousebumples
@dc: ah, my mistake. Apologies for misreading it there. 😊
WaterGirl
@karensky: You sound knowledgeable. :-) Are you from Montana or living there?
Someone just sent me this that was found on the internet, but wasn’t sure it was accurate. Your thoughts on accuracy?
WaterGirl
Bret just mentioned that November is Native American Heritage Month.
And 2024 is the 100-year anniversary of the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act. Before that, in order to get US citizenship you had to give up their tribal ways, “living like a civilized white man” or serve in the military.
evap
I’m in! I started to really pay attention to politics in 2004 and in 2006 I gave money to a bunch of senate and house races; the first year I made any political donations. Some may remember that there was a giant blue wave that year and Tester got elected for the first time. It was thrilling to see Tester, Sherrod Brown, Bob Casey, Claire Macskill, and Jim Webb flip GOP seats — I gave money to all of these. I have been donating to Tester ever since. The problem with a “blue wave” election is that six years later these seats are up again. I hope both Tester and Brown keep their seats.
Sandia Blanca
I am also unable to attend the Zoom, but very interested in donating to this great group again. Water Girl, are you going to add a thermometer to this post, or is that coming later? Thank you for your dedication to finding these strategic opportunities for us.
Alison Rose
@WaterGirl: If anyone is looking to do some reading in honor of the month, I read one of Joy Harjo’s poetry collections, An American Sunrise, earlier this year and really enjoyed and appreciated it. She’s a former US Poet Laureate, the first Native American in that role.
I could also recommend Sabrina and Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine, A History of My Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt, Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley, and if you’re open to picture books, Fry Bread by Kevin Noble Maillard (illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal).
WaterGirl
@dc: Yeah, I put up the post, then made the thermometer in the sidebar, but haven’t added it to the post yet because I was on the phone with Bret from Four Directions.
I will get that added to the post now, and then I will add it to the mobile menu, too, which I sometimes forget to do!
WaterGirl
@Sandia Blanca: I just added the thermometer to the post.
I needed to check with Four Directions first to make sure that anything we donated now would be matched when they find us a match. (Some organizations don’t count donations that come in before a match is finalized.)
But they have found us a single match, so we are good to go!
I’ll start one of the $5,000 angel matches in the morning.
WaterGirl
@dc: Good point, thank you. Wanted to get the post up before it got too late because the zoom is in just 2 days, so I had to do some things a bit out of order. :-)
dnfree
Just FYI, I am still making a monthly contribution to Four Directions, but obviously that’s not specifically Montana. So I don’t know if that is still accumulating in a thermometer somewhere or not. But they seem to do excellent work so I just have let it continue since whenever we raised money for them before.
Manyakitty
@Almost Retired: don’t discount Ohio. Sherrod Brown knows how to win here. He needs the support.
mvr
OK, in for $25 without reading through to the rationale. Call me a sucker.
Coyoteville
I just donated $55 now, as I can’t do Thursday. I’ve donated to them before in previous election cycles (originally on my own but mostly via Balloon Juice).
Let’s keep up the good work.
Sandia Blanca
@WaterGirl: Thank you very much!