Primary Election Date: 06/05/2012
General Election Date: 11/06/2012

Who Am I?

I’m running for the United States Congress because I believe that through public service I can work to improve the lives of others. I believe we must create an economy that produces family wage paying jobs with benefits for the working people and families of America; we must be fiscally responsibly by balancing the budget and bringing down the national debt but not by implementing policies that undermine the middle class, make rich people richer, outsource jobs, and cut programs vital to the elderly and our most vulnerable citizens. We must both protect our environment and develop new energy jobs that will enable us to reduce consumption and dependence on foreign and nonrenewable energy sources. I strongly support a woman’s right to make reproductive choices. I also strongly support peace and will never support a military intervention that does not have a clearly defined and achievable objective.

I have strong roots in Montana. My mother, Marion, was born in Terry, Montana, to a homesteading family. After several years of drought and a fire that destroyed the ranch, my mother and grandparents moved to the eastern shore of Maryland. My father, Henry "Bud" Wilmer, was a bricklayer and mother was a nurse. My brother John is retired from a career in the United States Air Force.

My parents showed me the power and promise of the American Dream, something I also know because I have lived it. In my early 20s I was a divorced single mom without child support and without a college degree. So I made an important life decision. I went to work as a waitress to support my daughter and myself and, eventually, to get a college degree and a better job. It took 16 years, often working two jobs, and even two years working as a carpenter.

I know what it’s like not to be able to afford health insurance. I know what it’s like to struggle to make ends meet, to pay my utility bills with my tips, and to sew my daughter’s clothes for school. I will never forget that experience and the hard work it took to make a better life. I understand the hardships many people are experiencing in our economy today because of my own experiences. I was able to complete my undergraduate degree, and with the help of scholarships and second jobs, I was earned a Master’s Degree and Doctorate in Government and Politics at the University of Maryland in 1990.

I came to Bozeman in 1991 to accept a position on the faculty of Montana State University. My research has focused on war, ethnic conflict, human rights, and indigenous peoples’ self-determination. I have written three books, numerous articles, and have been an invited guest lecturer in the US and abroad. Furthermore, I have conducted field research in former Yugoslavia during the war and over five years following the Dayton Peace Accords.

I am a proud member of the Montana Education Association - Montana Federation of Teachers AFL-CIO. In 1999 I took on a leadership role in efforts that led Montana State University faculty to join the union.

I have been involved in community service in Bozeman and was a co-founder of the Gallatin Human Rights Task Force – a community organization that mobilized in opposition to efforts by white supremacist groups to establish a base in Bozeman. The Task Force continued its work in a pro-active manner by sponsoring consciousness-raising and educational events related to human rights in the community. After Governor Schweitzer appointed me as Chair of the Montana Human Rights Commission I became interested in being more involved in public service. This led to my run for the state legislature in 2006, being elected then and again in 2008 and 2010. In 2009 I was elected Speaker Pro Tempore of the Montana House of Representatives.

I have served on the House Education Committee and the State Administration and Veteran's Affairs Committee in all three sessions. During the 2007-2008 interim I chaired the State Administration and Veterans Affairs interim committee. In the 2009-2010 interim I served on the Environmental Quality Council and the Governor’s Capital Financial Advisory Committee. I have received recognition from several veterans’ groups for work I’ve done for veterans in the legislature. Most recently the Vietnam Veterans of America Montana Council selected me as “Legislator of the Year” in 2011.

Why Am I Running?

Efforts to strengthen and represent the middle class working people of this country – and to create opportunities for those who struggle with poverty and deprivation to move into the middle class – have become increasingly obstructed by an ideology that puts the rich and their interests at the top of our policy agenda. It is a myth that tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations create jobs – if they did, we’d have more jobs now than ever. General Electric paid no taxes in 2009 and still cut 18,000 jobs.

That’s just wrong. I want to be a voice and vote in Congress to change that direction.

I remember the 1990s when our deficit began to shrink and then led to a budget surplus in 1998, 1999 and 2000. We had jobs, we had a stable economy, and the longest sustained economic boom in American history.

In the most recent recession as in the 1980s, corporations that see declining profits cut jobs in order to bring their bottom lines back up. The profits come back but the jobs that have been outsourced don’t. We need to make American workers a priority. Tax cuts don’t create jobs, middle class people spending money creates jobs. When middle class people have jobs and spend money they create a demand for the things that companies make. American worker have seen their jobs disappear while corporations increasingly rely on outsourced labor. Meanwhile corporate executives, oil companies and Wall Street show record profits while handing out massive executive bonuses.

This is why I am running for Congress. The American promise is that with a level playing field where opportunities and achievements are based on merit, we can make the most of our talents and contribute to the quality of life in our communities. This is the ideal on which our country was founded – opportunities and justice allow people to make a better life through hard work. Through most of my life our country has moved that ideal forward, we have aspired to it, and we have improved on it. I don’t think the Republican leadership understands or values that.

In very concrete terms, I am running not just to create jobs, but jobs that will support individuals and families in dignity and provide not only for their basic needs, but their aspirations. Jobs should include benefits like health care, and enable us to save for our retirement security.

I am running to end the belief that the only way to solve our budget crisis is by attacking unions, cutting Medicare and Social Security and giving large tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans. We need to invest in both our education system and in new technologies. We must realize that an investment in education is an investment in our economic future.

I am running for Congress because when we are sending American family members and our hard earned dollars to fight two wars, we need someone who will ask the right questions. I am running for Congress because we need people who realize that partisanship and gridlock does not solve our problems- putting the American worker and family first will.

Hold Me Accountable!

Montanans are facing considerable obstacles due to the recession and globalization of American jobs. They are seeing the destruction of the middle class, jobs being shipped overseas for cheaper labor, unions blamed for the downfall of corporations and an unprecedented attack on Medicare and Social Security.

The consistent response from the right during the recession has always been greater tax cuts for the wealthy as according to them, the trickle down theory works perfectly. Americans know the truth, regardless of what they or their media outlets may claim; this theory does not work for 98 percent of America. It did not work under Reagan and it won’t solve our problems today.

The middle class built our country and that is who we must empower- now more than ever. It’s time to give tax cuts to the people who need them and would put them to use immediately.

On top of the attacks to the middle class, the right claims that unions are the cause of the downfall of American corporations by driving up costs and driving down profits. But the profits just seem to keep rolling in for the executives. Enron made sure to pay executive bonuses and default on employee retirement funds when it went belly up – and with no consequences. Workers are told they have to work for lower wages, lower benefits, and fewer “regulations” – which means lower standards of safety and health in the workplace. To make matters worse, every shake-up of the economy – caused not by workers but by irresponsible conduct by financial institutions – is used as a pretext for taking collective bargaining rights away.

Collective bargaining is, in my view guaranteed by the First Amendment and is reserved to the people under the Ninth Amendment. Unions created the strength of America’s workforce and safe and humane working conditions by establishing child labor laws, occupational health and safety laws, overtime compensation, and even health benefits.

We should honor these men and women, not blame them for the economic mess we currently face. The strength of American workers' rights is directly related to the strength of our economy. American economic prosperity starts with working families.

Lastly, we are witnessing unprecedented attacks on Medicare and Social Security.

Social Security and Medicare were two of the greatest achievements ever to come out of Congress and dismantling either of these programs is not an option. Senior citizens did not cause the economic crisis and we do not need to balance the budget on their backs.

I will focus on strengthening these programs, eliminating waste and fraud, and ensuring that Social Security and Medicare will be around for generations to come.

My DFA values:

My campaign is about empowering the people and giving them a candidate who they not only can relate to but also give them a voice in a room filled with millionaires. My life is one of overcoming obstacles, struggling to make ends meet in order to reach a goal, to have better job that makes use of my talents and provides security. Most people have had a life like mine. People all across the country are angry with Congress and they have good reason; those elected continually forget the people they represent.

I will not forget my constituents because I cannot forget my own experiences. For 16 years I worked a variety of hourly wage jobs in order to raise my daughter and go to college. I’ve paid my electric bill with a handful of $1 from tips. I’ve stayed up late sewing my daughters clothes together so she had something new to wear on the first day of school.

It’s time our members of Congress start remembering who they represent and that’s exactly what I would do if elected.

We must bring renewed focus on jobs in America and invest in education as well as new technologies. America is the world’s leader and we must be electing people who can resonate with all Americans, not just those with the largest wallets.

If the voters of Montana give me the privilege of representing them in Congress, I will wear their desires proudly and be sure to vote for the future of America, not for corporations

My Campaign is People-Powered!

Too often we see disenfranchised candidates using a slew of staffers to try and connect with their perspective constituents. I truly am running a grassroots campaign. The evidence is in our fundraising and our strong and wide network of volunteers.

As of the July 1st reporting deadline I had raised the most money among Democrats in this by nearly twice. More importantly, I had the largest number of contributors and smallest average contribution. I am not looking to become the next corporate congressperson- I want to represent my constituents in the best way possible.

From the farmer waiting to see how his crop fares to the woman who sat nervously awaiting to see if the debt ceiling was raised and she’d still receive social security, my campaign is being funded by the hard earned dollars of everyday Montanans.

All of this fundraising could not be done without my army of volunteers. From 9 in the morning till 10 at night, my kitchen is filled with volunteers of all ages, from 19 to 72 years old, who have made time in their busy lives just to help me run become their next Congresswoman. These people aren’t just some small part of my campaign- they are the campaign. Some of them have rearranged their entire lives to help elect a woman they may have only read about in a newspaper or spoke with myself for 15 minutes and decided that their mission was to elect Montana’s first woman to serve in Congress in over 70 years. Since June1st my campaign has made over 20,000 phone calls.