Youngest State Official Aims to Keep Montana from Becoming California
"Montana needs 'people who will fight tooth and nail' for the people in the state"
A Montana state representative is looking to make a name for himself as the youngest elected official in the state legislature.
State Rep. Lukas Schubert (R-Kallispell), who is only 19 years old, told The Montana Chronicles he became involved in Montana politics because he said he was concerned about the state's direction.
“Seeing the direction that our state is going, we're headed down the same path as place[es] like California [and] Colorado,” he said. “Those two states used to be Republican [and] conservative, but weak Republican leadership combined with the Democrats made those states go liberal.”
Schubert said that it is important that Montana has “strong Republicans” who will stand up to Democrats so they “don't take over our state and we don't become another California.”
He added that Montana needs “people who will fight tooth and nail” for the people in the state.
The 19-year-old, who is originally from California, told The Telegraph that he came to Montana with his mother in 2021 due to the state’s restrictive “COVID laws and liberal policies.”
Schubert, who is one of the youngest elected officials in America, said the country needs “to get the younger generations involved in politics.”
He added that the younger generation has a “unique point of view.”
Examples he cited were issues such as AI, technology and homeownership.
Schubert said homeownership is important to restoring “the American Dream.”
“It is critical that it is the ownership factor where families are able to own their homes rather than just be stuck in some condo their entire lives renting it, even if the cost is relatively low. People want to own the property,” he explained. “That's been the driving force of wealth retention and gain in the middle class throughout American history.”
Schubert said he plans on introducing a bill that will use “free market solutions” to “reduce the cost of building homes” so Montana can have more homeownership.
The Montana Building Industry Association Executive Director Andy Shirtliff previously told The Chronicles that the state needs to build 70,000 housing units to address its housing shortage.
So far, the Montana Legislature has been in session for a little over two weeks.
Schubert said there has been “somewhat of a learning curve” as a legislator, but he couldn’t “point to anything specific.”
“A lot of it is just getting the feel, which just takes time,” he explained.
The state representative said that he did legislative debate in high school, which helped prepare him for how to present a bill.
Schubert said that the legislative session has “been good” so far and is “excited about it.”
Regarding legislation, he and other Montana Republican state representatives co-sponsored House Bill 121, preventing biological males from entering female spaces. This bill passed the State House.
“The fact that this is even controversial at all shows precisely why we must pass it,” he said.
Last week, Schubert introduced House Bill 222, which opens “wolf hunting season until the population is at or below a certain number.”
Other legislation the state representative plans to introduce are bills about elections, property taxes and illegal immigration.
The illegal immigration bill Schubert plans to introduce would make it unlawful to hire illegal immigrants in Montana.
He said he was putting “some final touches” on the bill to make it “as bulletproof as possible for the courts.”
“Our state courts are very biased, so we'll see what happens. Even if it is very bulletproof, legally speaking, they might just strike it down anyway,” he said.
Schubert said the issue of “illegal immigrants coming into our state and lowering the wages of Americans and Montanans is no good.”
The state representative said he thinks this issue will be “one of the biggest issues in the next two to four years.”
However, according to Schubert, the top issue in Montana is judicial reform.
“We're able to pass pro-life, school choice [and] protecting kids from transgender ideology. We're able to do that stuff, but the courts, these very far-left corrupt liberal judges, they get involved,” the state representative explained.
“They strike down virtually every other piece of conservative legislation to the point where even though we have massive majorities in the legislature, we have the governor, the full federal delegation, full statewide offices, they're all Republican, except these corrupt liberal judges,” he added.
Montana Republicans have introduced numerous pieces of legislation that deal with judicial reform.
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Zachery Schmidt is the founder of The Montana Chronicles. If you have any tips, please send them to montanachronicles@proton.me.
Photo “Montana Welcome Sign” by J. Stephen Conn. CC BY-NC 2.0.