Stone challenges Knudsen in Republican House District 33 primary: Joyce Stone

Joyce Stone of Glasgow is challenging Rep. Casey Knudsen of Malta in the Republican primary of House District 33.

No candidates from other parties have filed as yet, so the winner should advance to the general election unopposed.

"We need good people to volunteer their time, to run for office and to be a part of the public conversation throughout the United States and the state of Montana," Stone said. "I fit that bill. I want to give back to communities of the Hi-Line, I want to serve the communities of the Hi-Line, I want to serve my neighbors and so I thought this is a way I can be of service to others."

She said she was unhappy with a few of Knudsen's votes during the last session and, after lamenting them and voicing some frustrations, she thought "you know, you could put your money where your mouth is, so here I am."

For example, she said, Knudsen voted against the Montana Medicaid expansion.

"I feel Medicaid expansion is incredibly important to continue to keep the doors of our rural hospitals open," She said. "We need to be able to help people get back to work and we need to be able to provide them that care in our rural areas."

She added that he voted for the anti-vaccination bill that would take away a daycare provider's freedom to have rules requiring vaccinations in their daycare, and another anti-vaccination bill that would allow foster children to be placed in households that choose not to vaccinate. 

"Vaccinations are incredibly important to our public health system. There are people who are medically vulnerable who benefit from as many people being vaccinated as possible," Stone said. "I was one of those people while I was going to through chemotherapy. I was able to continue working safely as a nurse because of immunizations."

She believes solution-generated legislation is important, she said, adding that her goal is to go to Helena and help the district find solutions to its problems rather than just treating the problem.

"Kind of like in medicine, if you can fix the medical problem rather than treat the problem you can hopefully mitigate that and it goes away," Stone said. "I'm hoping that I can just bring a common sense approach, I have a lot of common sense and I think like that, so I would like to be that person."

With the current COVID-19 crisis and the closing and restrictions were first being announced, she said, everything sounded great and then with time and hindsight she didn't think the state didn't have to do as much as it did, but "no one would necessarily know that."

She said the town of Glasgow has four ventilators and generally, four people on shift working, and that it takes more than one nurse to take care of a ventilated patient, especially in isolation.

"The fear of the unknown was pretty traumatic not only in the medical field, but among a lot of the citizens," she added. "I really can't say off the top of my head what I would do differently and as a frontline medical provider I appreciated that people were staying home and that it was being encouraged because I saw what was happening in Italy and it scared me not only for our community, but for my family and myself as well.

"... It's hard to say what I would do different without the benefit of some hindsight and seeing what has transpired after a few months, the world doesn't have a modern day pandemic, if you will, to have a set of rule books to go by."

She said it is going to be a very tough legislative session due to the state being likely to see significantly lower revenues when the next session convenes. 

There is going to have to be a lot of creative minds working together, she said, adding that tough choices will have to be made by group effort, respecting each other and being conscientious that the state of Montana as a whole is going to be hurting.

"I'm just really excited by the opportunity to be a part of something for our state and something for our communities," Stone said. "There are not a lot of people in the world that would be willing to serve in a public office and I'm just so grateful for this opportunity. I've learned a ton, it has been absolutely worth it to run. I would encourage people to get more involved in their communities and even in their local politics, it's good. Politics doesn't have to be bad. It doesn't have to be."

--

Born 1972 in Iowa

Bachelor of Science in nursing, Montana State University, 2005

Worked for McDonald's, Home Depot, a chamber of commerce, Billings Clinic and Frances Mahon Deaconess hospital; board-certified registered nurse

Husband is Ryan Stone, four children.