Democratic congressional candidates debate at Northern

Montana Farmers Union hosted a debate between democratic candidates for the new eastern congressional district of Montana at Montana State University-Northern Thursday, where candidates were asked about a number of issues facing the agriculture industry and the people of rural Montana.

The three candidates were Montana State Sen. Mark Sweeney, D-Philipsburg, Billings resident Skylar Williams and former Billings City Councilperson Penny Ronning.

While candidates covered different aspects of the issues raised in the debate, there was little disagreement in terms of their general positions on the issues.

Among those issues was mandatory country of origin labeling for meat, which all three candidates supported.

Ronning said it is a matter of transparency and people should have the right to know where the products they buy are coming from, so she supports labeling.

Williams agreed and said its not just a matter for the meat industry, but products of all kinds.

"You buy a wrench from China, you have very low expectations of that wrench, you by one from America you know it's going to last," he said.

He said when it comes to labeling meat Made in the U.S. there are some circumstances where it may still be appropriate to use the label if meat was raised, produced and processed in the U.S. but packaged in Canada or something like that, as long as that is made clear to consumers.

Ronning and Sweeney agreed that such a circumstance would require transparency as well.

Sweeney said country-of-origin labeling is also a marketing opportunity for those selling the product.

The candidates also voiced support for the increasing transparency in the transactions between feeders and packers, perhaps through a bill like the Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act.

Sweeney said the meatpacking industry needs to be examined by investigators with subpoena power and broken up, or at least made to level the playing field for new people to get into the industry.

All three candidates said they are not experts in the agriculture industry and repeatedly said they need, and are willing to listen to, the input of people who understand the job and industry better than them.

They said they have a great resource in Montana Sen. Jon Tester, who remains the only active farmer in congress and would look to him for guidance. Ronning also said Montana Sen. Steve Daines also has more knowledge about agriculture than they do, as well, so he will be an asset.

The candidates were also asked about the right to repair, efforts to make it easier for ag producers to fix their own equipment instead of being required to take the equipment to facilities certified to do it, which costs producers time and money, and many argue is unnecessary.

All three candidates supported right to repair with Ronning being especially outspoken on the issue.

"Both sides of my family are ag families," she said. " ... I grew up with a grandfather who fixed his own equipment, my uncle fixed his own equipment, my cousins fixed their own equipment."

Sweeney said ag producers are among the most independent and resourceful people he's ever met, and they shouldn't be penalized for repairing their own equipment. He said he tried to get a right-to-repair bill passed in the state senate, but it failed on the floor.

Another issue Ronning had personal experience in is the mental health and suicide crisis in rural America, particularly among agriculture workers including her cousin who took his own life.

"He walked into the barn and hung himself," she said. " ... In rural communities we tend not to talk about our feelings, to not talk about these issues, and we need to overcome that stigma."

She said there are programs reaching out to the ag community and offering mental health support and the government needs to support those efforts.

Sweeney said this tragic story is one he's heard from many of his constituents as well and it is clearly a massive issue that needs to be addressed through health care legislation and bolstering broadband infrastructure to improve tele-health services.

Williams said the stress on ag producers and workers is incredible due to the precarious nature of their jobs and they need help getting through that.

He said he supports Medicare For All saying that vital services people need shouldn't be contingent on their ability to pay, and if the government pools its resources and is allowed to negotiate drug prices it will be able to provide health care, just like other countries do, and provide for rural communities which private industry is largely failing.

Williams also advocated for making higher education free, or as close to free as possible, believing that, like health care, knowledge and education shouldn't be kept behind a paywall.

He said this could help young agriculture producers get the training and education they need and not be frightened of going into debt just because they wanted an education.

"When you see people coming out of college 30,000 in debt, that is not attractive," he said.

Williams also said the U.S. needs to stop giving tax breaks to massive companies that do not need them, and instead give them to young ag producers who are just starting out and need a leg up.

Ronning said just recently in Helena she saw Jobs for Montana graduates participating in their Jobs Jamboree at a hotel she was staying at, with young people from across the state presenting what they've been working on at their high school.

She said four-year colleges aren't for everyone and a great deal can be done at the high school level.

She also said subsidies for farmers are extremely important, a fact she learned first hand from a friend of hers who told her she wouldn't have lasted the first three years in agriculture without those subsidies.

Sweeney also voiced support for technical training in colleges like Northern which he said create the very workers who will be able to make all the projects funded by the American Rescue Plan and Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill.

"We need a labor force that's capable and trained to do that," he said.

The labor shortage was another subject of discussion at the event and Sweeney said things like rising rent prices need to be addressed.

"We're going through a labor shift that we don't even fully understand," he said.

Ronning said she's always been a huge supporter of unions and remains so during this labor shortage.

"We need to get back to a place where we believe in the American workforce, where we value the American worker," she said.

One of the stressors ag producers face is the increasingly dire effects of climate change, which Williams said is his number one political issue and one that needs to be addressed by transitioning as much as possible to renewable sources of energy.

Sweeney said the ag producers are looking to get energy from other sources and with increasing fuel costs it couldn't be a better time.

Ronning said she's always been a fan a public-private partnership and climate change is one issues the ag sector and government can work together to find solution.

She said private industry worked with the city of Billings to reduce their energy usage, which has since been able to diversify their energy sources, and she thinks Montana and the U.S. can do the same.

Candidates also talked about the upcoming 2023 Farm Bill, a agriculture-related legislative package passed every five years, and they said all the issues discussed need to be a part of the bill so producers and workers have their complex issues addressed from as many angles as possible.

Sweeney said the bill should include things like low-interest loans for new farmers.

Upon being asked about noxious weeds during the questions and answers section he said that should probably also be an element of the bill as well, which his fellow candidates agreed with.

While most of the questions were directly related to the agriculture industry, others addressed broader policy issues like Montana Constitutional Initiative 121 which would cap residential property taxes at 1 percent of the assessed value and limit annual changes in valuations and all three said they are against it.

Sweeney said this kind of thing has been tried before and didn't work and it should be an issue for debate in the Legislature not a constitutional initiative.

"If that happens we're not going to have money for our local schools, police departments, fire departments," he said.

Williams said he's spoken to many people at the Montana Department of Revenue and has yet to find someone who supports it.

Ronning said she can speak from personal experience, having served on Billing's City Council, that property taxes are often the only resource municipalities have and public services will get cut if CI-121 is passed.

She also talked briefly about food insecurity, saying that in Big Sandy, a town of less than 600 people, 90 children don't have enough food at home and that shouldn't be something that happens in the richest country on earth.

Candidates were also asked about the ongoing teacher shortage in Montana and Ronning said she thinks the Montana Federation of Public Employees will be a great resource for addressing the issues.

Williams said he believes in free higher education, but that can come with a tradeoff, perhaps in the form of a requirement that new teachers spend their first year or two teaching in a rural public school.

He said he thinks young educators need to experience the teaching environment just for a little while to see if they might be interested in it long term.

The three candidates were asked about what the main thing is that makes them better for Montana than Republican incumbent Matt Rosendale and they all said variations of the same thing: They show up.

The three candidates criticized Rosendale for his refusal to participate in last week's debate in Miles City.

Sweeney said he shows up to events like this and is willing to listen which evidently his opponent isn't.

Williams said Rosendale's lack of engagement is a slap in the face to the people he represents.

"You can't represent people you don't talk to," he said.

Ronning agreed with her fellow candidates, but said this isn't just a problem with Rosendale but with congress generally.

She said she saw 13 empty senate seats at the first impeachment trial for then-President Donald Trump and this "moral decay" reared its head a year later during the attempted insurrection on Jan. 6 2021.

She said everyone should consider their vote carefully and cast it for someone who represents their best interests.

Williams also took some time to encourage young people to get involved in politics and not be afraid of people who call them presumptuous for thinking they can make a difference in their communities.

"Take that leap and land on your feet," he said. " ... In the words of John F. Kennedy, 'those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.'"