The Republican candidate for House District 80 is Rachel Burright.
Burright told MTN she is running to help fix a system that is broken and be part of the solution to help families.
She said a lot of issues important to Montanans are national issues, but locally the legislature can take action to support small businesses and open up education opportunities like skill trades.
House District 80 comprises the western part of Helena, including the neighborhoods near Carroll College and Capital High, and extending into the valley with the neighborhoods near Forestvale Cemetery. The Democrat candidate is Melissa Romano, you can learn more about her here.
Watch our full interview with Burright
Q: Why are you running for the legislature?
"Well, you know, it's really important to me to be able to help fix the system that's broken and through many, many long conversations with people over the years, it's really become apparent that we have a layered breakdown of our family, of our community, and it's really impacting our children. I want to be part of that solution."
Q: What are three key issues you believe need to be addressed by the next Montana legislature?
"I think a lot of the issues that are most important for Montanans are actually more national focused and a little bit more difficult to handle here in Montana level. Top of the list here, I think we've seen a lot of local businesses the last four years close and a lot of our small businesses now continue to struggle to pay their bills and to also find good help.
I would really like to see our educational opportunities opened up for Montana, specifically the skilled trades. These are these are occupations that really are something that can last. If you need to take off six months, you don't have to worry about the latest technology catching up with any of that. The wood still works the same way. The pipes still fit the same way. I would really like to see these types of careers open up in a meaningful way for Montanans."
Q: Housing and property taxes are a key issue for many Montanans, what actions if any do you think the legislature should take?
"There's been a lot of conversation about this. It is a very real issue for every one of us. Housing is a problem. I think there is so much that could have been done preemptively that was not these conversations weren't being had. Property taxes is a difficult one because there's so many different factors. Some of them we can adjust a little bit, but I haven't found a solution.
I haven't heard of a solution that would really fix what we're looking at without drastic changes. Most of what I'm hearing is moving money from one place to another for some temporary relief, which is helpful, but it's not fixing the problem. Right now, it's a little bit less, but for a long time we've had a real shortage of homes, and I think it would have been really smart, too, when we first started seeing these home prices increase and the influx coming into Montana to really streamline those regulations, make it more affordable and easier to purchase homes and to build homes to get that access opened up.
I think there were several things that could have been done better, and I hope that we can shift the conversation a little bit going forward here and broaden the conversation and really find some better solutions."
Q: This fall Montanans will be voting on access to abortion. What do you think the legislature’s role regarding abortion should be following that vote?
"Well, in the public votes on something, on a contentious, on a Constitution initiative like this, it's our job to uphold the laws that are going in place. And that's something that we all have a responsibility and take an oath to do. So I'm expecting that whatever the results of that be to follow the law."
Q: Another issue impacting Montana families is childcare, are there actions you think the legislature could take to address the issue?
"Child care is a big one. I know in the last several years there have been many good bills put forth and and approved that are shifting some of that as well. I think many of us have been focusing on— a lot of us want to have our children watched by people that we know, watched by family members. And a large daycare isn't always an option. So I would like to definitely reinforce some of that, those programs and that access so that people can find the care that they really need and really want. Not necessarily, all outside of the home."
Q: Is there anything else you want to say that we haven't covered so far, or that you think voters should know?
"You know, there's politics has become such a terrible thing here. I think a lot of us and I would say maybe all of us at times are very frustrated when we look around and the condition of our communities and our families and the lack of conversation and the lack of support and community that we're we're struggling to find.
And we're not quite sure how to get there for a long time, far longer than I've been around. We've been told not to have conversations about politics or religion. They're difficult. They can be dividing. But I argue that that's exactly what we need to be discussing. We've forgotten how to have uncomfortable conversations. We forgotten how to have healthy dialog and civil dialog. Forgotten how to disagree with one another. And we look around and we're tired of it, but we don't know how to do anything about it. We've lost the ability to converse well. My hope and my goal is to change this conversation systematically every day in the legislature and in the conversations that I have with my constituents and everyone else, every day.
We need to focus on the heart of what we want. We need to be at the supportive family and the supportive community that we want to see. And those things do not come from government. They come from each one of us. That takes all of us every day making a concerted effort to be the support that we want to see.
This is about community. And how can we do that? Well, when we don't know each other well, when we struggle, who is there? We can't rely on the government to fix all of our problems. We have to step in and start fixing them. We have to be the change that we want to see and we hear it over and over again. But that change starts with changing the conversation that we're having."
