Montana Gov. Steve Bullock’s argument for the presidency so far focuses less on any single policy initiative and more on his own biography. | M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO 2020 candidate forum 'Maybe all the rules are gone': Bullock tries to break through in Democratic primary "We’re over 200 days from any voter expressing their preference," Bullock told POLITICO. "I think there’s a lot of time to have moments."

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock on paper has a strong case for the Democratic nomination for president: He’s a twice-elected governor from a state Donald Trump won in 2016, he worked with a GOP-controlled legislature to expand Medicaid this year, and he is running against dark money in politics.

But so far, none of that seems to matter much to Democratic voters. Bullock has polled at best, at 1 percent in most national polls, and he missed the first Democratic debate last month. He hasn’t held a town hall on CNN, MSNBC or Fox News, as others in the field have. Bullock was also toward the back of the pack in fundraising, raising $2.1 million in the most recent quarter (although, unlike some others, his campaign wasn’t spending outside its means).


And while executive experience has often been a boon to would-be presidents, all the governors seeking to run against Trump — who never held elected office before moving into the White House — are struggling to break through.

“Maybe all the rules are gone. Maybe every single rule is gone,” Bullock said in a wide-ranging interview with POLITICO reporters and editors.

“But, if Iowa and the early states still remain the sort of great sorting hat to winnow the big field down, I think I have some great connections there.”

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The term-limited governor ticked off the endorsements he has received from prominent Iowa Democrats, including state Attorney General Tom Miller, an early backer of former President Barack Obama’s 2008 bid, and longtime Story County Democratic chair Jan Bauer.

He’ll get his biggest chance yet to introduce himself to a national audience in two weeks, when 20 Democrats head to Detroit for the second round of debates. But he’s already downplaying the importance of that event.

“We’re over 200 days from any voter expressing their preference,” Bullock said in the Tuesday interview, which is part of a recurring POLITICO series with 2020 candidates. “I think there’s a lot of time to have moments.”

Bullock’s argument for the presidency so far focuses less on any single policy initiative and more on his own biography. He thinks Democrats are not doing enough to win over voters who backed Obama and Trump.

“We have to bring out our base and win back those places that we lost,” he said, saying Democrats need to give people a reason to support the party as opposed to just being anti-Trump.

He said he believed he could carry Montana in a general election against Trump, citing his and Sen. Jon Tester’s (D-Mont.) recent victories in the state.

But Bullock said he doesn’t think he’s the only Democrat who could carry Big Sky Country, naming former Vice President Joe Biden as another candidate who might be able to win there. He said Obama narrowly lost in Montana in 2008 after spending his July 4 holiday in Butte, showing voters that he cared about their concerns.

“If the strategy is to just microtarget and say, ‘Here are pockets of blue, and let’s get these people out to the polls,’ the results are going to be the same,” Bullock said.

He also pledged to lean into his focus on fighting so-called dark money — donations from undisclosed sources that are put to political purposes by super PACs and other groups — something that has been a constant in his career stretching back to his time as Montana attorney general.

“Everything that this field is talking about right now is not going to be impacted unless you address” public corruption, Bullock said.

Democratic presidential hopefuls have made a range of promises about their fundraising this year to try to signal their seriousness about rooting big money out of politics. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pledged to forego big-dollar fundraisers and special perks for donors, and she and others have sworn off cash from federal lobbyists, oil and gas industry employees or drug industry executives.

But while Bullock is critical of corporate PACs and wants more transparency around political donations, he isn’t eschewing help from federal lobbyists. The Center for Public Integrity reported that he’ll attend a July fundraiser hosted by a federal lobbyist, who is also a longtime friend.

“No PACs, no corporate dollars, and every single dollar that I’ll have [from large donors] is going to be disclosed,” Bullock responded when asked how he squared the fundraiser with his anti-big money argument.

“Everybody can be pure if you transfer over $8 or 10 million from their Senate accounts directly,” he said, referring to Warren and other senators who jump-started their 2020 fundraising with cash raised during earlier campaigns.

Despite the hurdles between him and the White House, Bullock was adamant that he is not eyeing running for Senate in Montana in 2020.

He sharply criticized Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) in the interview Tuesday for standing by Trump over the president’s tweets about members of Congress, saying Trump uses “racist language.” (When asked if Trump himself was a racist, he said, “If he walks like a duck, tweets like a duck, he’s probably a duck.”) But he definitively ruled out challenging Daines.

Bullock's custom, monogrammed cowboy-style boots, made from an alligator he hunted on a trip to Louisiana. | M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO

He wouldn’t endorse a Democrat to take on the sitting senator, but he said Daines was “beatable.” Asked why national Democrats and pundits seemed to think he was the only candidate who could beat Daines, he responded, “That’s because you guys don’t know a damn thing about Montana.”

“I’m going to do everything I can to make sure who we nominate can beat him,” he said.

During the hour-long interview, the Montana governor gamely answered questions on everything from why he doesn’t support a Medicare for All-type health-care system (he backs adding a public insurance option) to why he still supports the death penalty in some cases (he said he while he has deep concerns about racial disparities in its application, he wouldn’t take it off the table for limited situations like domestic terrorism).

The only question that tripped him up came at the end, and it was about what he was wearing: custom, monogrammed cowboy-style boots.

“I’m happy to answer anything else but the boots!” he said.

Pressed on where he got them, Bullock resisted before finally spilling the story: They’re alligator skin, he said, made from an alligator he hunted on a trip to Louisiana.

Will the alligator boots make an appearance on the debate stage in two weeks? “Not now!” he joked. "I’m going to wear wingtips at this point."

