Candidate Fagg to attend campaign event Monday

The Hill County Republican and Democratic central committees will host separate events this week meant to educate voters ahead of June’s primaries and November’s midterm elections.

Montana Republican U.S. Senate candidate Russ Fagg will be in Havre at 7:30 a.m Monday for an hour-long campaign stop at Char’s Family Dining.

Carly Hill, Fagg’s campaign manager, said the visit is the first of several stops Fagg will make throughout northeast Montana.

The visit, she said, will provide a chance for voters to meet him.

Fagg, a retired Yellowstone County District Court Judge and former state legislator from Billings, is one of six candidates looking to win the Republican nomination and unseat Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., in November.

The other Republicans contenders are Montana state Auditor Matthew Rosendale, state Sen. Al Olszewski, R-Kalispell, and business owners Troy Downing of Bozeman, Ron Murray of Belgrade and James Dean of Havre.

Tester faces Sarah Dean of Havre in the Democratic primary.

Hill County Republican Central Committee chair Andrew Brekke said the campaign stop is the third in the Hill County Republican Party and the North Central Pachyderm Club’s Meet the Candidates for U.S. Senate series.

Candidates James Dean and Ron Murray have already spoken to the group.

Three officials with the Montana Democratic Party will also speak at the Hill County central committee’s Meet and Greet with State Party Leaders Tuesday at 6 p.m. during their monthly meeting.

Central Committee chair and state Rep. Jacob Bachmeier, D-Havre, said pizza will be served during the meeting.

Montana Democratic Party communications director Roy Lowenstein, Montana Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee Director Amanda Frickle and Nick Lockridge, chair of the Blue Bench Project, are the featured speakers.

Bachmeier said the guests will each speak and answer questions about the party’s candidate recruitment efforts and campaign strategy for the coming midterm elections.

Both events are free and open to the public.

All 100 seats in the Montana House of Representatives, 25 seats in the Montana Senate and two seats on the Montana Public Service Commission will be on the ballot in November, the Montana Secretary of State’s website says.

In addition to the seat held by Tester in the U.S. Senate, Montana’s lone U.S. House seat held by Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., will also be up in 2018.

Democrats John Heenan of Billings, Grant Kier of Missoula, former state Rep. Kathleen Williams, D-Bozeman, former state Sen. Lynda Moss, D-Billings, and Jarred Pettinato of Whitefish are competing for the party’s nomination to take on Gianforte in November.