Two years ago, gun salesman-turned gun control pitchman Ryan Busse tossed his hat in the ring in the race for Montana governor. Busse, who teamed up with the Biden campaign and gun control group Giffords after leaving his position at Kimber, easily won the Democratic primary with almost 71% of the vote.
In the general election, though, Busse was thoroughly spanked by incumbent Greg Gianforte. Busse couldnt even collect 40% of the vote, despite doing his utmost to play down his support for things like "red flag" laws and universal background checks, as well as his contention that the firearms industry is marketing to extremists and dangerous people by selling AR-15s and other semi-automatic rifles.
After losing to Gianforte by more than 20 points, I figured Busse's political career was over. I was wrong.
Ryan Busse's new campaign website doesn't mention his position on gun control: https://t.co/TG3hBJ27lN
— Rob Romano (@2Aupdates) January 8, 2026
That's right, Busse's back for another round of political humiliation. Since the governor's seat isn't open for another two years, Busse's decided to run for Congress instead.
Busse's challenging Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke for the 1st Congressional District seat that represents the western portion of the state. Zinke won election by almost eight points two years ago, but the Cook Political Report says MT-1 is an R+5 district, which makes it theoretically easier for a Democrat to win than MT-2, which is rated R+15.
In state elections and special elections to Congress, Democrats have been outperforming their 2024 finishes by anywhere from 8 to 20 points, and Busse is clearly banking on the hopes of a blue wave election to send him to Washington, D.C. But as Rob Romano points out, Busse's also clearly hoping that MT-1 voters will remain blissfully unaware of his second career as an anti-gun activist and paid expert witness defending gun laws in states like California and Illinois.
The only reference to Zinke's pro-gun control stances is a single sentence in his campaign bio that claims he "helped build an iconic American gun company from Kalispell", but "left that job because he feared irresponsible political extremism was threatening our public lands and our nation."
Oddly, though, neither combatting political extremism or gun control is included in Busse's list of priorities. Instead, the Democrat focuses on things like healthcare, public lands, and of course, affordability. Busse seems to have dropped his bashing of gun owners and the Second Amendment in favor of bashing billionaires, "big meatpackers", large corporations, hedge fund managers, venture capitalists, and "large corporations."
Busse's campaign website also features a link to his Substack, which is unintentionally hilarious. Here's Busse, for instance, insisting that he and other Democrats getting blown out by 20+ points two years ago doesn't mean that Montana's really a red state.
You probably have read that Montana became a deep red state in 2024, but that’s just not the whole story. I’m not saying we’re conspiratorial weirdos who doubt ballot totals, but rather that the “purple state gone deep red” headlines didn’t match the totality of our lived experience.
I mean, the totality of Busse's lived experience has to include his humiliation on Election Day, right?
Busse also touts a poll showing him ahead of Zinke by 4 points among a tiny sample of 474 supposedly likely voters in MT-1. I can't find any mention of this survey on the pollster's website, so I suspect that Zinke himself paid for the survey. And before Busse can take on Zinke, he's going to have to win a crowded Democrat primary, and I can't help but notice that his pollster doesn't seem to have asked those respondents about their views of other Democrats vying for the nomination like smokejumper Sam Forstag, who's already garnered the endorsement of Bernie Sanders.
Is it possible that Busse will win the Democratic nomination and unseat Zinke in 2026? Sure. Is it likely? I'd say he has a better chance of winning MT-1 than he did the governor's race two years ago, but that has less to do with Busse himself than the political headwinds the party in power typically face in midterms. One thing is clear, though: Busse himself realizes that if he's going to get elected, he has to stop talking about his work to enact and defend gun control laws across the country. If Busse's lucky enough to win the nomination I'm sure Ryan Zinke will have plenty to say about his opponent's views on the Second Amendment, and I don't think Busse can run away from them forever.
