Last Best Voice

05/31/2026

This map shows Montana’s planned electric vehicle charging corridor network, funded through approximately $43 million in federal infrastructure dollars that were intended to help build charging stations across both urban and rural Montana.

Whether you drive an EV or not, this is about more than cars. It’s about jobs, tourism, small businesses, infrastructure, and giving Montana communities access to a growing segment of the travel economy. These projects mean construction work, electrical work, local investment, and more travelers stopping in small towns across the state.

Montana has always valued independence. We should be investing in every tool available to strengthen our economy, support rural communities, and prepare for the future. Leadership means finding ways to make Montana stronger regardless of who occupies the White House.

The rain this week is a blessing for a state that desperately needs it. But drought, water shortages, and increasingly extreme weather remind us that we also need to be thinking long-term about energy, infrastructure, and stewardship.

Take care of the land. Take care of each other.

05/29/2026

Had a chance to spend some time with Senator Tim Sheehy this week at the Montana Stockgrowers Association meeting in Great Falls. During his remarks, he gave me a shoutout after we’d visited earlier, and I appreciated the opportunity to continue the conversation.

The truth is, Senator Sheehy and I disagree on plenty of issues. But that’s not really the point. Montana doesn’t benefit when we spend all our time calling names, yelling at each other, or treating our neighbors like enemies. We have to work with the people we’ve got, find common ground where we can, and keep pushing for solutions that help Montana families, farmers, ranchers, and small communities.

What I found encouraging is that he’s listening closely to the concerns of Montana agriculture and getting dialed in on the challenges facing farmers and ranchers across the state. We may not agree on everything, but productive conversations still matter.

That’s how progress happens. Not through division, but through showing up, listening, and doing the work.

05/28/2026

Sneak peak at our upcoming event on June 13th, 2026!

Join the Powder River Historical Society for the dedication of a new interpretive exhibit commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Reynolds Fight — the opening engagement of the Great Sioux War of 1876.

Full details coming soon!

05/28/2026

Nestled against the Jocko Primitive Wilderness in Western Montana, Thunder Road Farm is taking a different approach to raising cattle.

Owners Bryce and Gillian Andrews have chosen a path focused on sustainability over scale, moving away from conventional cattle operations and the industrial meat system.

Story link ⬇️

05/28/2026

This week in Great Falls, board members from the Montana Cattlemen’s Association joined the Montana Stockgrowers Association for dinner ahead of the MSGA mid-year meeting. The biggest issue on everyone’s mind was not politics, not party labels, not culture wars. It was water.

Out West, water has always been power. Water shaped the land wars, the fights between cattlemen and sheepmen, disputes between settlers and speculators, and battles over who got to survive on this landscape. My own ancestors came to Montana Territory chasing the same thing every family rancher still depends on today: access to land and water enough to build a life.

Right now, one of the greatest concerns across Montana is the growing strain on our aquifers and water systems. Exempt wells were originally designed to help rural families and ranchers water livestock and support homes where municipal systems didn’t exist. But in places like the Gallatin Valley, developers are using those same exemptions to build dense housing developments with wells at every house, pulling massive amounts of unregulated groundwater from aquifers already under pressure.

Cities and rural communities alike are worried about running out of water. This is not theoretical anymore. Montana is facing its 5th year of drought conditions in many areas, and the pressure is growing.

At the same time, massive data centers, AI infrastructure, and Bitcoin operations are demanding enormous amounts of water and electricity. We should be asking hard questions now before outside interests drain the very resources Montana communities depend on to survive.

I shared an idea that may sound radical to some folks but makes practical sense to me: if data centers want to come here, they should bring their water with them. We already move oil and gas thousands of miles through pipelines. Water is even more valuable. Desalination technology exists. Renewable energy exists. We are capable of creating abundance if we choose to invest in long-term solutions instead of short-term extraction.

Montana’s future depends on protecting the resources that make life possible here. Water is not partisan. It is survival. And if we lose sight of that, no amount of money or development will save us.

Take care of the land. Take care of each other.

05/27/2026

What happens when a retired military investigator who hunted traffickers and terrorists sits down with a Montana rancher to talk about fear, faith, politics, healing, and the future of this country?

You get an honest conversation about humanity.

In our newest Last Best Voice conversation series, Steve sits down with Alani Bankhead for a deeply personal discussion about service, trauma, spirituality, resilience, and why so many Americans are exhausted by division and hungry for something more human.

“We agree on far more than we think we do.”

This conversation isn’t about political theater. It’s about what happens when people slow down long enough to actually listen to one another.

Honest conversations. Real Montana.

Read the full piece now on Substack.

A Conversation With Alani Bankhead About Fear, Faith, Service, and the Kind of Montana We Still Might Become

05/22/2026

by Karli Johnson - Director of State Governmental Affairs, Montana Farm Bureau Federation Montana is at a crossroads. In agriculture, we are in the challenging position of trying to thread the needle between preserving our way of life and supporting the growth our communities have been dreaming of f...

05/21/2026

What happens when a fourth-generation Montana rancher sits down with a man who grew up under Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq? You get an honest conversation about freedom, identity, fear, belonging, sustainability, Montana, and what it means to build community in divided times.

This is exactly why Last Best Voice exists.

Not to shout people down. Not to sort each other into boxes. But to create space for real conversations between real people with different stories and shared humanity.

“Honest conversations. Real Montana.”

Our new conversation series begins with Mehmet Casey, and it’s one of the most thoughtful and human discussions we’ve had yet.

Read the full piece on Substack.

A Conversation with Mehmet Casey About Freedom, Identity, and the Future of Montana

05/21/2026

For Montanans, weather is not just small talk. It is livelihood, survival, and inheritance.

No single storm tells the whole story, but anyone paying attention knows our climate patterns are changing. Longer droughts, thinner snowpack, hotter summers, stronger winds, and stressed soil all have real consequences for agriculture, water, wildlife, and rural communities. These conversations are no longer theoretical. They are happening in pastures, at kitchen tables, and in towns trying to figure out how to adapt.

What matters now is not panic or political posturing. It is stewardship, science, preparation, and working together to protect the land and the people who depend on it. Montana ranchers and farmers have always been resilient, but resilience does not mean pretending problems are not real.

The future of this state depends on our willingness to take care of the soil, the water, and each other with the seriousness these moments deserve.

A massive dust storm swept through northeast Montana last week, closing highways, canceling schools and damaging structures, while experts warn events like this could become more common.