Kyle Austin, a former Republican now running as a Libertarian for the U.S. Senate in Montana, is campaigning on a platform of reducing government overreach, overhauling healthcare and addressing the cost of living.
Austin, a fourth-generation Montanan, pharmacist of 18 years, small business owner and farmer, said he switched parties due to division and name-calling among Republicans.
Austin joined Montana This Morning recently to discuss his campaign.
Watch the interview here:
Question: This is your first time in an election as a Libertarian. You've previously run as a Republican. Why the change?
Answer: "Well, so I ran as a Republican. I've been a lifelong Republican. My grandfather was a Republican. My father was a Republican. And with the division among the Republicans and the name calling, I felt it was appropriate for me to switch to the Libertarian party where I can continue my conservative values to represent Montana. I do believe that this is the year that a third party candidate can really shine because both parties, Democrats and Republicans, have destroyed the reputation on what they're doing and they're failing to represent the people of Montana and that's what I plan to do."
Q: What were your thoughts on that shake-up we saw when Steve Daines dropped out pretty much last minute?
"You know it was really surprising you know but again it comes down to why is Danes picking the replacement? You know Danes should not have filed. He should have announced that he wasn't going to rerun and allowed people to come up in and actually compete on the Republican ballot for the primary."
Q: What are your political priorities?
"So, being a fourth generation Montana I am a candidate for all Montanans. I mean I got Native American friends, Native American neighbors, I'm a pharmacist of 18 years, I'm a small business owner, a farm and rancher, and so I understand all of the issues in the state of Montana. Big government, I mean being a small business owner, big government has stepped on small businesses and is my number one priority to doge and defund agencies that are out of control like the Montana Department of Labor and Industry completely out of control. And as a United States Senator I want to pull 93 million dollars away from that agency and give it back to the Montana taxpayer. The second priority as a pharmacist for 18 years is Healthcare 2.0. I've been thinking about this for years, it's just not about lowering the cost of prescription drugs. There is a lot of corruption in the healthcare industry. As a pharmacist I understand that and I want to overturn the entire healthcare industry, consolidate it, eliminate the waste, and make it run efficiently."
Q: Born and raised in Montana, what are your thoughts on the cost of living in Montana?
"So, the cost of living is out of control. There's a lot of things we can do with that, even the cost of doing business on our farm and ranches. I mean our farmers and ranchers out right now are seeing problems with high fuel prices, high fertilizer prices, they can't afford to put crops in the ground this year and so we're seeing those family farms disappearing and that's something we have to take immediate action on. As a farmer I understand we bring our fertilizer out of Canada. Why are we dependent upon Canada for our fertilizer? Let's build a fertilizer production facility right here in the state of Montana. Now, when it comes to housing, again, property taxes are one of the big things we have to cut government so government doesn't need more money to operate. It goes back to the old saying we have to cut the fat."
Q: What are your thoughts on President Trump's term so far?
"You know he's really making waves and that's not a bad thing. I mean people out there making waves actually, you know, it's like stirring the pot, you know, you see where our faults are at you see where our positives are at and you make those changes for the future. And so, what he's doing we could agree with it or disagree, but it's going to really pave the way for our future whether it's in an AI with our AI race against China, whether it has to do with our space race going to the moon and building a campus on the moon. I mean there's a lot of things in the works right now that a lot of people aren't thinking about."
Q: What are your thoughts on the war?
"I am not a fan of endless wars, okay? I understand we have reasons that the Muslims are enemies. Iran is our enemy, but it's not our war and we should have sat back and we should be there to defend ourselves not to go into a Middle East country creating an endless war. I really think that Trump did not think this through very well and he's in a position right now where the world is not backing him. I mean when he reached out to the entire world to help the Navy in the strait to open the strait back up and not one country stepped up to defend him, that's a message that the world is sending that Donald Trump you don't belong there."
Q: Now you just said that Muslims are the enemy, does that count for every Muslim?
"So, the the Muslims that have moved to the United States, they still practice their old religion and there is some issues going on specifically in New York right now that you see it. Where they are colonizing and they are electing their people and they're still wanting to push their Sharia law into our government and so there is an internal terrorism. I mean terrorism doesn't have to be done with bombs and missiles they can do it with their religion they can do it by getting into our government and changing the way America does business. The way America values are. And that's where we have to really protect ourselves as well in the United States."
Q: You were arrested in 2023 for a domestic disturbance. We're three years out from that, what do you want to say to the people?
"Well here's the thing, is what the what the news says isn't always true, okay? So, yes I was arrested. The thing was the cops were wrong. The cops were wrong, I went through the system and everything was dismissed and released. So, again, you can't believe everything the news says and and cops aren't always right. I'm not saying they're bad people but a lot of times they have a process, we have to go through the process, but at the end of the day I did nothing wrong."
Q: You recently wrote to Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen saying that you have some concerns of potential voter fraud. Can you explain that a little bit more?
"I mean we need to preserve our voter integrity. One of the concerns I have is Seth Bodner running as an independent has to collect 13,300 signatures to be on the ballot and, I think this is a huge concern for Montanans. Who's signing that ballot? I want to make sure that they are Montana residents. That they are Montana registered voters and they belong, that signature belongs on that ballot. I want to make sure that there's not dead people on that ballot. I want to make sure there's not foreign people on the ballot. I want to make sure he's not on campus having students that are not Montana residents signing that ballot. So, I want Christi Jacobson to do her job and continue voter integrity and making sure that every signature on that ballot belongs there."
Q: Did you ever hear back from her on that?
"I did not get a response from Christi on that."
Q: If you are elected, what would you fight for the most for other local business owners here in Montana?
"The big thing with local business owners, getting the Department of Labor and Industry out of the way. What we see is a lot of socialism being manufactured in the Department of Labor and Industry that does not allow a business to function anymore. They are literally ran by a number of rules out of the Department of Labor and Industry. Then you have the rights of the business owner on the hiring and the firing being dictated by the Department of Labor and Industry. So, when does a small business owner get to legally fire a bad employee? And so we got to get that out of the way. The other thing is property taxes. So, in the city of Billings for example the property taxes are out of control. Small businesses they struggle to just make that bill but yet we're competing on a world level. For instance, how many small businesses that pay local taxes here compete with Amazon? But Amazon pays zero income tax in our communities. Is that fair to the local businesses? It's not and that might be a conversation for the state legislature to switch from a property tax model for small businesses to a sales tax to allow every business competing on the global level to pay a sales tax and and offset that for our local businesses."
