In what Republican officials called the best ever attended Lincoln-Reagan dinner at the Hilton Hotel Conference Center in Missoula, Montana Senator Steve Daines was the first to address the crowd.

LINCOLN - REAGAN DINNER 2019
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Daines began by being thankful, and not just for being in Missoula on a warm September night.

“I can tell you that when I wake up in the morning, whether I’m in Washington, D.C. or here in Montana, I look at the sun as its rising and I say thank God that Hillary Clinton is not the President of the United States.”

There was both laughter and applause by the partisan Republican crowd, while Daines counted off some of the talking points of the Trump administration’s own reelection claims, as well as his own.

“Because of this President and the Republican leadership in Congress, we have cut taxes,” he said. “What has that resulted in? The lowest unemployment rate in over 50 years. The lowest unemployment rate for women in 66 years, the lowest ever unemployment rate for African Americans and the lowest ever unemployment rate for Hispanics. There are now more jobs available than we have job seekers in this country.”

Daines also highlighted President Trump’s choices for the judiciary.

“The consequences of getting that majority back in 2014 and then President Trump being elected in 2016 has allowed us now to put two new Supreme Court justices on the bench, with a solid 5-4 majority on the Supreme Court,” he continued. “Think about this. It’s not just the Supreme Court, think about the circuit courts. We now have 43 new Trump-appointed circuit court judges. In fact, seven of those are in the Ninth U.S. Circuit, appointed by Donald Trump.”

Daines also poked fun at the recent seven hour CNN Climate Change summit, and produced a genuine Trump plastic straw from the Trump 2020 campaign and donated the item for auction which followed the dinner.

Attending the event were all the GOP Congressional candidates, in addition to Elsie Arntzen, running for reelection as Superintendent of Public Instruction and Gubernatorial candidate and current Attorney General Tim Fox, however Congressman and fellow Gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte reportedly could not attend due to a family conflict.

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