Congressional candidate aims to protect rural Montana

Democratic Congressional candidate Matt Rains feels he understands the needs of the average Montanan.

A fifth-generation rancher, Rains says he learned about the hard work and dedication needed to keep rural Montana alive while working on his family’s Birdtail Ranch in Simms.

“I grew up in small-town Montana. Rural Montana is very important to me, especially the more I travel during this campaign,” Rains said. “I am sick and tired of rural Montana being talked about in the past tense. We need to make ranching and farming prosperous again.”

While Rains is currently back home running the family’s 3,000-acre ranch, he has seen more of the world than most. After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point with a degree in systems engineering in 2002, Rains flew Blackhawk helicopter missions for the army as a Captain in South Korea and Iraq. After leaving the army, Rains took up photography and traveled around Europe before turning his attention to documenting humanitarian crises in Africa with his company, Lux Capio Photography.

Rains spent time in 60 countries during his four years as a photographer, capturing images of the conditions faced by many living in Syria, Afghanistan, Kenya and beyond. He was one of the first foreign photographers to bring attention to the Rohingya Genocide in Myanmar, earning him gallery shows in Los Angeles and Saudi Arabia.

After returning to the United States, Rains took a job with Dynegy, and energy company in Illinois which maintains 53 power plants in 12 states. While there, Rains led inspections of the company’s power plants and introduced an inspection program that used unmanned aerial vehicles to save the company more than $2.4 million.

In 2018, Rains returned home to take over as the owner and manager of his family’s Birdtail Ranch, where he raises top-quality quarter horses and cattle.

While Rains admits he grew up in a family with strong Republican leanings, he says he developed his Democratic ideology while traveling the world.

“It changes a person so that when you come back to the United States and see how we function here, you see that we need to be more focused on the people, not the businesses,” he said. “Being in West Africa is where things kind of clicked for me. People were so excited that someone had taken the time and energy to visit them. Spending time there, with the people and the kids, just taking pictures and being a part of that was amazing. It’s all about the people. There is strength in people, in the human spirit. I have seen it.”

Rains said that after he returned home, he knew he wanted to run for political office, but he was waiting for the right time and opportunity. When Congressman Greg Gianforte announced he was stepping down to run for governor, Rains saw his opportunity.

“When it came down to it, there wasn’t anyone in the race that I felt was truly a Montanan or could speak for the vast majority of Montanans. I felt we needed someone who could go to Congress and truly be able to understand the issues and what is going on,” Rains said. “Montanans deserve someone who will take that seat and hold it. If we always have a freshman representative in that seat and are never going to have any real influence. That really hurts our state. I really feel that it is time we got someone who is committed to what they are doing in that Congressional seat.”

Rains says there a number of issues that would be a priority for him if elected, including improving internet and cell service in Montana to bring in more remote job positions and improving the availability of housing for working Montanans.

“Our cell network coverage in Montana is atrocious. I had better cell service in Africa 10 years ago than I do in Montana right now. It’s not even close. You can be on the interstate in Montana and lose service, that is not acceptable,” he said. “Montana doesn’t so much have a job problem as it has a housing problem. Rural Montana has jobs available, but you can’t find anywhere to live. It is something we have to fix. If we lose rural Montana, this state will be a shell of what it should be.”

Above all, Rains says he wants to do what is best for the people of Montana and that he will strive to help support the state’s farmers and ranchers.

“Congressional representatives are supposed to gather what all of their constituents want and need and be as loud as possible in Congress and get that,” he said. “With Montana, what is that one Jenga piece that if you pull it out, the whole thing collapses? For me, without a doubt, it is agriculture.”