Ryan Zinke Running for Montana’s U.S. House Seat

Ryan Zinke, a former Navy Seal Team Six member and Montana state representative from Whitefish, announced this week that he is running for Montana's lone U.S. House seat as a Republican.

Zinke said he wants to focus on the values of individual freedom, economic freedom, and energy independence.

"You can't fuel this country on pixie dust and hope. It is about fossil fuels, making them more efficient, making fossil fuels cleaner. My daughter is a former Navy diver, she's married to an active duty Seal, and the last couple wars are about oil, and I think Montanans are tired of sending our kids overseas to fight for foreign oil."

Zinke also positioned himself as a debt hawk and said the recent federal government shutdown focused on the wrong issues.

"Well, the argument should have been about the debt ceiling and our debt—what we're going to do. I understand Obamacare and I certainly don't like it, you know, how are we going to make it better. But the argument about the debt ceiling is about the debt with me. We should have forced the president to give us a budget for five years and how we're going to deal with a $17 trillion debt."

Zinke will battle fellow republicans, Matt Rosendale and Corey Stapleton in the Republican primary. John Lewis is, so far, the only Democrat candidate in a race that could see even more competition in the months ahead.

Ryan Zinke: