Greg Gianforte blew a massive budget surplus and passed the largest property tax increase in Montana history. Then he falsely blamed his tax hike on fellow Republicans.

As a result, nearly 50,000 Montana Republicans voted against him in last week’s primary — the worst showing for a Montana governor in his own party’s primary in at least 44 years.

Those votes went to Rep. Tanner Smith, who was as rightly frustrated with Gianforte as so many Montanans across the political spectrum are. In fact, more people on Tuesday voted against Gianforte than for him.

This message is to Tanner’s supporters.

My name is Raph Graybill and I am running with governor candidate Ryan Busse to get your Montana back. Ryan is a former firearms executive who built a gun company here in Montana. He loves this state. I know we share more in common with you than national political pundits will admit. And I hope you’ll honestly consider voting for us.

Ryan and I are exhausted by national politics. But traveling this state, we know Montanans who may disagree on which presidential candidate to vote for can still work together — the old fashioned, Montana way — and vote to save this state we love.

Like you, Ryan and I are appalled at Big Government Gianforte’s reckless spending and tax increases.

Everywhere we go in Montana, we meet people suffering because of his reckless taxing and spending: retirees who have to go back to work just to afford their property taxes, young families struggling to find or afford a home, teachers, cops and nurses facing rising rents.

There was no reason it had to happen that way. Montana had a $2.5 billion budget surplus. As a former Montana Republican governor used to remind us, “no one said you could keep the change.” But Gianforte spent all that money faster than green grass through a goose. Did it make your life any easier or more affordable?

Gianforte only had to change one number in the tax rate to keep our property taxes from going up. That last four governors — two Democrats and two Republicans — did the exact same thing when faced with property tax increases.  Gianforte’s own staff warned him about the looming increase and told him exactly what to do to keep our taxes down.

But Gianforte ignored them because he needed that money to pay for his spending spree. He put the historic property tax increase in his budget, and we’re now all paying his price.

It’s not just property taxes that have Montanans ready for a new governor, either. Like you, Ryan and I are disgusted at the commercialization of wildlife in our state. Billionaires shouldn’t get special rights to our elk and cutthroat that people like you and me don’t. Gianforte thinks the places we hunt and fish should be locked up and leased to his rich friends. And he’s the only governor in the history of the United States to sue to block a public river access.

Like you, we care about vibrant public schools, which are the backbone of our communities. None of that spending spree went to finding more teachers for rural schools or fixing school funding. We got higher taxes, and little to show our kids for it. Gianforte thinks everyone can afford to pay for fancy private schools, so he’s ripping apart the public schools that our kids depend on and sending taxpayer money to prop up private “academies” like the one he founded in Bozeman.

And like you, we care about personal integrity and personal responsibility. Twice now, Gianforte and his friends have pressured cops to lie for him. Thank goodness law enforcement stood up to him. Even worse, like you, we are still waiting for an explanation on how Gianforte’s private mansion in Helena got a tax cut last year, while every single one of his neighbors all got stuck with thousands of dollars in tax increases.

In short, we agree with you: it’s time for a new governor in this state.

We may part ways on national politics. That’s fine. It’s how Montana has always been. But our state government isn’t an HOA for Gianforte and his billionaire, out-of-state friends. It’s ours, and we need to fight like it. Join us.

I hope this fall you’ll consider voting for Ryan Busse and me to get your Montana back.

Raph Graybill is Democrat gubernatorial candidate Ryan Busse’s lieutenant governor running mate.

Taylor Swift treated her audience in Edinburgh, Scotland to a treat when she chose to perform “Crazier” live for the first time ever. The song was released as part of the “Hannah Montana: The Movie” soundtrack 15 years ago.

In video shared on social media, Swift sang a mash-up of both “Crazier” and “All of the Girls.”

The then-teen country star Swift made a cameo in the 2009 film. “It’s so cool to become a part of the ‘Hannah Montana’ phenomenon,” she told reporters at the time. “It’s taking over the world right now. Honestly, it’s just so cool because ever since I figured out that I was going to be able to be in this movie, every time a little girl will come through one of my signing lines, or every single time I’ll see a little girl in one of my meet-and-greets and she’s got a ‘Hannah Montana’ shirt on, I want to be like, ‘Guess what — I get to be in that movie.”

You can watch Taylor’s “Hannah Montana: The Movie” cameo here:

The film’s production notes indicated that Swift became involved with the movie after she was approached by producers. The singer said she was asked to send in a song that “was perfect to fall in love to” and “Crazier” fit the bill.

Saturday’s show was Swift’s second of three concerts set for Edinburgh. She will round out her tour stops in the United Kingdom on June 30, then head to Amsterdam.

The first leg of Swift’s massive Eras Tour was the first set of concerts to gross over a billion dollars. Swift broke Elton John’s “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” gross record after 60 shows.

Watch the full music video for “Crazier,” featuring additional footage from “Hannah Montana: The Movie,” right here:

Nine percent of Montana voters cast a “no preference” ballot in both the Democratic and Republican presidential primaries on June 4, signaling dissatisfaction with the frontrunners for U.S. president ahead of a competitive general election.

In the Democratic presidential primary, 9,141 voters, or 9%, cast a “no preference” vote, with President Joe Biden being the only candidate on the ballot. In the Republican primary, 16,381 voters, also 9%, selected “no preference,” with former President Donald Trump as the ballot’s only candidate.

Though both Biden and Trump handily clinched their respective parties’ nominations this spring, protest votes against the two candidates have mounted during the primary cycle as polls show growing discontent among voters.

Advocacy group Montana for Palestine last Wednesday claimed a “‘no preference’ campaign victory” following an effort by the group to use the primary election to signal voters’ condemnation of U.S. support for Israel amid the ongoing war in Gaza. The group in an email admonished the Biden administration and U.S. Sen. Jon Tester for their support of Israel, calling Biden “a shameless genocidaire.”

Andrea Bachman, organizer of Montana for Palestine in the Flathead Valley, said she cast a “no preference” vote “to send a message to President Biden that I don’t support his policies that are supporting a genocide in Palestine.”

The number of Democratic “no preference” votes last week was more than double that of 2020, when 2.8%, or 4,250 voters, selected “no preference” in Montana’s Democratic primary. In 2016, 4.3%, or 5,415 voters, voted “no preference.” In 2012, when former President Barack Obama was the only candidate on the primary ballot, however, 10% of voters selected “no preference,” a similar figure to this year’s election.

In the 2020 Republican primary, 6% of Montanans (13,184) voted “uncommitted.” “No preference” received 4.7% of the vote (7,369) in 2016 and 3.9% in 2012 (5,456).

President Biden has lost more than a half-million votes to “uncommitted” or “no preference” movements across the country this primary cycle, according to The Hill.

Brendan Work, co-founder of Montana for Palestine, said the movement is an “attempt to show the Biden administration that we have a red line, that voters are disgusted by their aid, support, complicity in the genocide.”

Democratic officials have warned that if progressives sit out of the election in November, it will likely go to Trump, who has vowed to “set [the pro-Palestinian protest] movement back 25 or 30 years” and called himself the “best friend Israel has ever had.”

“There’s no such thing to us as a ‘lesser evil’ genocide,” Work said, adding that he will not vote for Biden in November unless the president calls for an “immediate, permanent ceasefire.”

Trump, too, continues to lose votes despite clearing the primary field of competitors after Nikki Haley dropped out of the race in March. Haley won one in five Republican primary votes in Indiana last month, despite no longer being in the race. She boasted similar numbers in Maryland, and in Nebraska’s Republican primary last month, more than one-fifth of voters cast a ballot for someone other than Trump.

Per an April poll by the Pew Research Center, half of polled voters said they would replace both Biden and Trump on the ballot if given the chance.

Montana for Palestine also encouraged voters to write in “ceasefire” in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, which Jon Tester easily won.

When asked about the “ceasefire” protest votes, a spokesperson for the Tester campaign pointed to the high number of votes captured by the senator. Tester received 97% of votes (103,341) in the primary –– 9,590 more than Biden.

The secretary of state’s office has not released the total number of write-in votes for the Democratic Senate primary. In Gallatin County, 1% of voters (141) cast a write-in vote in the Senate race. In Yellowstone County, less than 1% (49) did so.

The Tester spokesperson did not respond to specific questions about whether or not the campaign is concerned about capturing the votes of Montana progressives as the senator heads into a highly-competitive reelection bid. The Montana Democratic Party did not respond to requests for comment.

Pro-Palestinian organizers have made Tester a main target of their activism in recent months, questioning his policies on Israel during public events and disrupting his remarks at the Montana Democratic Party’s annual Mansfield Metcalf fundraiser.

Work said Tester’s position as chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense puts him in “a powerful position” to limit or cease weapons shipments to Israel.

The organization has not directed specific protests towards the Republican members of Montana’s congressional delegation –– U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, Rep. Ryan Zinke and Rep. Matt Rosendale –– who have expressed staunch support for Israel since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on the country.

Zinke in November introduced a bill that would expel Palestinians from the U.S. who arrived after September 2023.

When asked about the state’s Republican Congress members, Work again emphasized Tester’s role on the defense subcommittee and said that progressive voters in Montana are “taken for granted by the Democratic Party.”

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