Ryan Busse joins race to challenge Zinke for House seat
Micah Drew
(Daily Montanan) Another Democratic hopeful, Kalispell-based former firearms executive Ryan Busse, has joined the primary race for the chance to unseat incumbent U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke.
Busse, who ran an unsuccessful campaign to oust Gov. Greg Gianforte in 2024, announced today he is re-entering the political sphere with high confidence he can emerge victorious, in both a crowded primary field and in the general election.
“We need to run somebody who’s run a big-time campaign, who’s done the work, and who’s proven they can raise the money,” Busse told the Daily Montanan. “I think I’m the best candidate for the primary, but, for me, this is about winning the general, and it’s about taking back the state.”
Busse’s first foray into politics was his gubernatorial race, but he had previously earned national attention from a book published in 2021 where he made the case that the firearms industry and the NRA are at the heart of the country’s political divide.
Republicans hold one of the slimmest margins in the House of Representatives in history, and recent vacancies due to resignations and deaths have further narrowed their advantage.
That makes the 2026 elections even more crucial to both parties, as it will take just a handful of victories for Democrats to wrest control of the lower house, while Republicans need to shore up every advantage they have.
In Montana, the state’s more competitive western district, rated a +5 Likely Republican election by the Cook Political Report, is drawing a lot of attention. (The state’s eastern district, represented by Rep. Troy Downing, is rated a +15 “Solid Republican.”)
Zinke won two elections in Montana as the state’s sole at-large representative before joining Trump’s cabinet in 2017. When the state split into two Congressional districts, Zinke ran for the western seat in 2022, winning by 3.5 percentage points. His re-election margin more than doubled 2024.
But that shift of voters towards the GOP — and the fact that a Democrat has not represented Montana in the House since 1997 — hasn’t stopped four Democrats from announcing bids for the western seat.
On Monday, Missoula smokejumper and union leader Sam Forstag announced his candidacy for Zinke’s seat.
The race already had two candidates who announced in 2025 — Matt Rains, of Simms, and Russ Cleveland, of St. Regis, who bring similar backgrounds as veterans and in agriculture to their campaigns.
Busse said his decision to run came after polling data released by Tulchin Research, a California-based Democratic pollster, in recent weeks showed him with an early lead against Zinke.
While Busse said he did not pay for the polling, it was conducted to test the viability of a head-to-head matchup with Zinke and showed Busse with a 47-43 lead — within a margin of error of 4.76%— which goes up to an eight-point lead “after respondents were presented with balanced information about both candidates,” according to the poll summary.
The poll, conducted among 424 likely voters in the district from Nov. 22-25, 2025, also showed Zinke has a net favorability rating of -7.
Notably, the poll did not ask respondents about a matchup between Zinke and a generic Democrat.
“I can’t overemphasize how much this poll floored me — this is what we always hoped for in the gubernatorial race but never got,” Busse said. “I think this shows voters are ready for a change.”
In 2024, Busse earned just under 39% of the vote statewide in his loss to Gianforte, but earned roughly 43% of the vote in counties comprising the more moderate western district. However, in almost every western district county, Busse received fewer votes than Zinke’s 2024 challenger, Monica Tranel, who lost by eight points.
Despite the loss, Busse said he believes his campaign for governor gave him the name recognition and on-the-ground experience to reach voters, but that he understands it’s going to be a competitive race just to get through the primary.
“I salute anybody who wants to put themselves on the line to take out Zinke and win the election,” Busse said. The crowded primary field “is what we anticipated, it’s how you know it’s a competitive seat.”
Similar to his gubernatorial campaign, Busse said affordability and public lands are two areas he wants to focus on.
The latter, especially, is likely to be a hot topic in the Congressional race, with Zinke’s background as a former Interior Secretary during President Donald Trump’s first term offering numerous policy stances for opponents to push against.
Zinke has been a staunch champion for public land access over the last year, bucking his party to hold the line against federal land sales and co-founding the bipartisan Public Lands Caucus.
“First off, I’m glad Zinke saw fit to finally vote for public lands,” Busse said. “But that’s pretty much showing up to work for Montanans. That should be the lowest of all bars to clear, but I do appreciate him doing it.”
In the last two races for the western district, a third-party candidate has received just over 3% of the vote.