Montana State Auditor Troy Downing is seeking the Republican nomination from the Eastern Congressional district but past his past criticism of President Trump may derail his campaign. Fellow Republican candidate Elsie Arntzen has released a new advertisement highlighting Downing’s past statements.
Never means Never.
Troy Downing is a never-Trumper and fake conservative .
If you don’t believe me, listen to Troy in his own words.
I’m proud to be the REAL conservative in this race.#mtpol #Trump2024 https://t.co/Lu7EFLUcf4 pic.twitter.com/AL8YjTQqYU
— Elsie Arntzen for Congress (@ElsieArntzenMT) April 11, 2024
News of Downing’s anti-Trump position first surfaced back in 2018 when he was running in the Republican Primary for US Senate. In that race, Downing came in third of four candidates, garnering only 29,341 votes.
Downing appears to have been an outspoken critic of President Trump on social media throughout the 2016 election, according to previous reporting by The Hill.
In September of 2015, Downing tweeted that Trump “cracks me up” and said that he wasn’t electable.
On March 3, 20`16 Downing said that Trump is “either a liar of an idiot” and later tweeted about a Trump robocall and used the hashtag #NeverTrumpNeverHillary, a reference to the “#NeverTrump” movement of Republicans who rejected their party’s nominee.
In the only publicly available poll in the race for Montana’s Eastern Congressional District Downing trails former Congress Denny Rehberg by 10 points.
Absentee ballots are scheduled to mail Friday, May 10 for the June 4 primary election.
By: Montana Newsroom staff
