It was on this date in 2018, 2019, as well as 2020, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Matt Rosendale, who was a 2018 candidate for U.S Senate in Montana who unsuccessfully tried to swipe the seat of Democratic Senator Jon Tester, and who in 2020 is currently trying to get elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for Montana’s At-Large seat. Rosendale touts his background as a real estate investor from Maryland who pretends he’s a rancher out on the range from almost all the way across the country, but all public records show, though, that Rosendale is a “rancher” by way of just renting real estate out to others who actually do the ranching on that land. This would be like if a landlord claimed to be a professional cosplayer because one of their tenants went to a comic convention dressed as Sailor Moon.
Anyway, that reputation as a carpetbagger is already rather established in Montana, because Rosendale was bludgeoned with that label when he was defeated in the 2014 Congressional Primary for Montana’s At-Large seat in the U.S. House of Representatives against CSGOPOTD alumni Ryan Zinke. After winning one term in the Tea Party Wave in Montana back in 2010 to get into the State House, Rosendale won a single term in the Montana State Senate in 2012, before his losing streak started. The only election he’s won in Montana was for State Auditor in 2016, on the benefit of getting to run unopposed.
And, because Rosendale is willing to campaign on immigration by calling for Donald Trump’s stupid idea for a border wall along the U.S./Mexico border and since Sen. Jon Tester s***talked the thin-skinned orange menace, Emperor Dementia von F***face himself went to campaign on Rosendale’s behalf, which amounted to him rambling incoherently for almost an hour while barely mentioning the candidate. That would be the same rally where Trump lost the crowd enough that a guy in a plaid shirt upstaged him, and that other attendees were escorted out and replaced with plants because they didn’t look enthusiastic enough.
Our main issues with Rosendale, however, aren’t his carpetbagging, so much as they are with his rampant racism. That’s almost a given, we know, with labeling himself a Trump conservative and wanting a border wall, but because he’s spoken highly of white supremacists in Montana like Taylor Rose and Chuck Baldwin. Or how after Florida Congressman Ron DeSantis was outed as the moderator of a Facebook group of conservatives that exists almost solely to share racist memes and insane conspiracy theories like Pizzagate or that the left orchestrated Charlottesville, Rosendale was revealed to have been an active member of it for some time (when caught, he dropped himself from the group).
Matt Rosendale couldn’t seem to go more than a week without a major campaign gaffe, as now he’s being investigated by the Federal Election Commission because his campaign was illegally coordinating their ad campaigns with the NRA because he himself blurted out that he was doing it in a televised interview.
While Rosendale was defeated in his 2018 matchup with John Tester, earning only 47% of the vote, but in 2020, he defeated Kathleen Williams to win the At-Large seat in the U.S. House of Representatives for Montana, replacing Greg Gianforte. His voting record seems to indicate the radically conservative ideals we’d fear he’d have:
- January 7th, 2021: Matt Rosendale votes for the objection to the electoral college’s votes in the 2020 election, a failure to send any sort of message that he wasn’t intimidated or sympathetic to those who attacked the Capitol to attempt a violent coup.
- January 13th, 2021: Rep. Rosendale votes against the second impeachment of Donald Trump, because the Republican Party no longer feels like they should be accountable for anything, including failed coups that result in the deaths of both their participants and police officers.
- February 4th, 2021: Matt Rosendale votes to keep Marjorie Taylor Greene’s committee assignments, because he wouldn’t want her to be accountable for all the bigoted remarks and conspiracy theories she’s spread online (probably because she’s a kindred spirit).
- February 25th, 2021: Rosendale votes against HR 5, the latest version of the Equality Act, that would provide workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans.
- March 3rd, 2021: Rep. Rosendale votes against HR 1, a bill created to prevent the corruption of money in politics, and protect voter access to the ballot box.
- March 3rd, 2021: Matt Rosendale votes against the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021.
- March 10th, 2021: Rosendale votes against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, because he feels people deserve to die in poverty during a pandemic.
- March 17th, 2021: Rep. Rosendale votes against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
- May 19th, 2021: Rep. Rosendale votes against HR 3233, the creation of a commission to investigate the Capitol Attack.
- May 20th, 2021: Rosendale is one of 63 Republicans who vote against the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act.
- June 15th, 2021: Rep. Rosendale is one of twenty-one Republicans who pick a side to have rooted for in the failed coup attempt on 1/6/21 and votes against awarding Congressional gold medals to members of the Capitol Police who bravely defended members of Congress during the attack.
- June 16th, 2021: Matt Rosendale is one of 14 Republicans who vote against celebrating Juneteenth as a federal holiday.
- July 22nd, 2021: Rep. Rosendale is one of 16 Republicans who vote against HR 3895, the Allies Act, which was passed without his support to raise the amount of visas offered and to expedite their issue to Afghan translators and their families to honor our promise to protect them against the Taliban after U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, thus feeling we should go back on our word and leave them to die.
As we noted that Matt Rosendale has spoken highly of white supremacists above, it should come as little surprise that this month he has been in an absolute bigoted panic over the news that refugees from Afghanistan are going to be resettled in Montana, and began almost immediately reacting with inflammatory rhetoric. He was publicly rebuked by the Mayor of Helena, Wilmot Collins for it, who is himself, an immigrant refugee from Liberia who came to the United States in the 1990s.
Montana is, of course, an extremely right-leaning state, so it would be an upset if in 2022 if someone could wrest Montana’s At-Large seat away from Matt Rosendale. We can only hope for that unlikely outcome.
One Year Ago, September 25th, 2020: Matt Rosendale (MT)… 2020 Update
Two Years Ago, September 25th, 2019: Matt Rosendale (MT)… 2019 Update
Three Years Ago, September 25th, 2018: Matt Rosendale (MT)… Original Profile
Four Years Ago, September 25th, 2017: Sam Brownback (KS)… 2017 Update
Five Years Ago, September 25th, 2016: Sam Brownback (KS)… 2016 Update
Six Years Ago, September 25th, 2015: Sam Brownback (KS)… 2015 Update
Seven Years Ago, September 25th, 2014: Sam Brownback (KS)…Original Profile
