It's Official - Steve Daines is Running for the U.S. Senate

At his home in Bozeman, surrounded by friends and family, Montana's Republican Congressman Steve Daines announced on Wednesday, November 6 that he is officially running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Max Baucus.

"There's a lot of passion right now for the direction of this country and the need to head in a whole new direction," Daines said. "There are big problems in the U.S. Senate right now, where they're blocking progress on the Keystone Pipeline, blocking us from getting Obamacare repealed, and blocking us from enacting pro-growth legislation, tax and regulatory reform."

Daines said there is a lack of leadership in both houses of Congress.

The problem right now is that we need to replace Harry Reid," Daines said. "We fired Nancy Pelosi in the House in the 2010 election, and now we need to find Harry Reid a new job in 2014."

Daines said his recent vote to end the government shutdown was a difficult choice to make at the time.

"That was a night when we had the choice between a bad vote and a really bad vote," Daines said. "The sooner we got the attention placed back on the failings of Obamacare, the better off we were going to be. For those 16 days, the focus was on the government shutdown, even though Obamacare was failing, the healthcare.gov website was crashing, and all that was drowned out by the shutdown. As soon as we moved past that, the mood of the country shifted to the failings of Obamacare."

Daines made a promise to the listeners of KGVO radio that Montana's two present senators have not been willing to make.

"You know, you can't believe a politician who makes a promise," Daines said. "But, having said that, if I am fortunate enough to be elected as the U.S. Senator from Montana, we'll be on your show talking about the issues and taking phone calls."