Input: On May 25, 2017 Greg Gianforte won the special election following the resignation of a politican that current holds what position?

Context:
Passage 1:
Beth Turner
Beth P. Turner (born May 13, 1958 in Maine) is an American politician who served as a member of the Maine House of Representatives for the 141st district from 2011 to 2018. She was first elected on March 1, 2011, in a special election following the death of Rep. Everett McLeod in December 2010.
Turner served on the MSAD 31 School Board and the Select Board in her hometown of Burlington, Maine prior to her election the House of Representatives.
Passage 2:
San Diego mayoral special election, 2005
The 2005 San Diego mayoral special election was a special election held on Tuesday, November 8, 2005, to elect the mayor for San Diego. The special election was necessary due to the resignation of former Mayor Dick Murphy.
Municipal elections in California are officially non-partisan, though some candidates do receive funding and support from various political parties. The non-partisan special primary was held Tuesday, June 3, 2008. San Diego City Council member Donna Frye and former San Diego police chief Jerry Sanders received the most votes and advanced to the November special general election. Sanders was elected mayor with a majority of the votes in November.

Dick Murphy resignation
On April 25, 2005, Dick Murphy announced that he would resign as mayor of San Diego, effective July 15, 2005. Murphy had only recently been reelected as mayor in the highly contested 2004 mayoral election. Murphy's resignation occurred during investigations by the SEC and the FBI into the San Diego pension scandal.  The city held a special election to fill the vacancy at mayor. Following Murphy's resignation, Michael Zucchet served as acting mayor for three days before he too resigned due to a corruption conviction that was later overturned. Council member Toni Atkins then served as acting mayor until the mayoral election was complete.

Candidates
Declared
Jerry Sanders, former San Diego police chief  (Voter registration: Republican)
Donna Frye, city council member (Voter registration: Democratic)
Steve Francis, businessman (Voter registration: Republican)
Pat Shea, lawyer (Voter registration: Republican)
Richard Rider, retired stock broker and financial planner (Voter registration: Libertarian)
Myke Shelby, Harley Davidson dealer (Voter registration: Republican)
Shawn A. McMillan, lawyer (Voter registration: Republican)
Jim Bell, environmental designer (Party preference: Democratic)
Ed Kolker
Jeremy Ledford
Thomas Knapp

Campaign
The special election to replace Murphy attracted a crowded field of eleven official candidates on the ballot. Donna Frye, a member of the San Diego City Council who had almost beaten Murphy with a write-in campaign in the 2004 election, was the only democrat among the top-tier candidates. Former police chief Jerry Sanders ran on a platform of executive experience, having successfully turn around the financial situations of the local chapters of the Red Cross and United Way since retiring as police chief. Steve Francis, founder and chairman of AMN Healthcare Services emphasized downsizing city government and implementing business principles. Francis outspent his rivals in the campaign, putting nearly $2 million of his own money into his campaign. Lawyer Pat Shea ran on a platform that San Diego should declare bankruptcy to deal with the pension scandal, a position that the other front runners disagreed with.Frye won the plurality of votes in the July primary and advanced to the general election along with runner-up Sanders. However, Sanders and third-place finisher Francis, both republicans, combined for a majority of votes cast in the primary. After conceding the primary election, Francis endorsed Sanders for the general election.  Sanders was elected mayor with a majority of the votes in the November general election.

Primary election
Polling
Results
General election
Polling
Results
Notes
Passage 3:
David Jacoby
David or Dave Jacoby may refer to:

David Jacoby (politician)
David Jacoby (sportscaster)
Dave Jacoby (powerlifter)
David Jacoby (historian)
Passage 4:
Greg Gianforte
Gregory Richard Gianforte ( JEE-ən-FOR-tay; born April 17, 1961) is an American businessman, politician, software engineer, and writer serving as the 25th governor of Montana since 2021. A member of the Republican Party, Gianforte served as the U.S. representative for Montana's at-large congressional district from 2017 to 2021.
In 1997, Gianforte and his wife, Susan, co-founded RightNow Technologies, a customer relationship management software company. The company went public in 2004; by that time, it employed over 1,000 workers. RightNow Technologies was acquired by Oracle Corporation for $1.5 billion in 2011.In 2016, Gianforte ran for governor of Montana as the Republican nominee, losing to incumbent governor Steve Bullock. In May 2017, Gianforte defeated Democratic nominee Rob Quist in a special election for Montana's at-large congressional seat to fill a vacancy created by the appointment of Ryan Zinke as U.S. Secretary of the Interior. Gianforte was convicted of assault in state court in June 2017 stemming from his election-eve body-slamming attack on The Guardian political reporter Ben Jacobs in May 2017. He was fined and sentenced to community service and anger management therapy. Gianforte was reelected in 2018, defeating Democratic nominee Kathleen Williams.
Gianforte did not seek reelection to the House of Representatives in 2020 and instead was a candidate in the 2020 Montana gubernatorial election. In the November general election, he defeated incumbent lieutenant governor Mike Cooney. He is the first Republican to serve as governor of Montana since Judy Martz left office in 2005.

Early life and education
Gregory Richard Gianforte was born on April 17, 1961, in San Diego, California. He is the oldest son of Frank Richard Gianforte, who had a career as an aerospace engineer and, later, as a landlord. His mother, Dale Douglass, worked for General Dynamics in San Diego, and later was a school math teacher. Gianforte is of Italian, English, and Scottish ancestry. He has two younger brothers, Douglass and Michael. After the age of three, Gianforte was raised in the Valley Forge and King of Prussia suburbs northwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, including Wayne, an affluent unincorporated township community that extends into Montgomery, Chester, and Delaware Counties.During his high school years in the 1970s, Gianforte started a software business. He attended Upper Merion Area High School in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, where he was elected class president during his junior and senior years. Gianforte was also captain of his school football team, where he played left offensive guard. He graduated from high school in 1979.
Gianforte graduated in 1983 from his father's alma mater, Stevens Institute of Technology, with a BE in electrical engineering and a master's degree in computer science. He directed a computer lab with 12 programmers. He was a member of the Delta Tau Delta men's fraternity, and enjoyed playing squash.

Career
Software entrepreneurship
Gianforte began his career in 1983 at Bell Laboratories, working in product acquisition. Frustrated by the bureaucratic corporate hierarchy at Bell Labs, Gianforte departed to co-found Brightwork Development Inc., a developer of server-based LAN management software for the banking industry, which was based in Tinton Falls, New Jersey. He and his partners sold the company to McAfee Associates for $10 million in 1994. Gianforte then began working for McAfee as head of North American sales. In 1995, he moved to Bozeman, Montana.Gianforte and his wife, Susan, a mechanical engineer by trade, co-founded RightNow Technologies in 1997. Part of Gianforte's strategy was to leverage the internet as a means to overcome geographic barriers to building a globalized business. By the time the company went public in 2004, it employed over 1,000 workers and executives in Bozeman and globally, with offices in the U.K., Asia, and Australia. Future U.S. senator Steve Daines was among its executives. The company was acquired by Oracle Corporation for $1.5 billion in 2011. At the time, Gianforte's 20% stake in the company was worth about $290 million. Right Now Technologies had contracts with federal agencies, including handling all of the online search queries for the Social Security Administration and Medicare websites. In 2012, Gianforte sued the Montana Democratic Party for defamation, alleging the House campaign ads it aired critical of then House candidate Daines were libelous. Gianforte alleged the party aired television ads that claimed that Right Now Technologies capitalized itself with public contracts, and then offshored jobs.In 2005, Gianforte and Marcus Gibson co-wrote the book Bootstrapping Your Business: Start and Grow a Successful Company with Almost No Money. He has offered business lectures on entrepreneurship and building a global business.

Philanthropy and civic life
In 2004, Gianforte and his wife founded the Gianforte Family Foundation, which has promoted his creationist beliefs in the public sphere, and has made tens of millions of dollars in charitable contributions. The foundation describes its primary mission as supporting "the work of faith-based organizations engaged in outreach work, strengthening families, and helping the needy; organizations in Montana that work to improve education, support entrepreneurship, and create jobs; and organizations that enhance the local community of Bozeman, Montana." Gianforte, his wife, and his son, Richard, are the foundation's three trustees. The foundation had assets of $113 million in 2013.The Gianforte Family Foundation has given nearly $900,000 to the Montana Family Foundation, in some years making up half of that organization's total revenue. The Montana Family Foundation has promoted conservative and Christian values in the Montana legislature. Asked why he donated to the group, Gianforte said it was because the organization aligns with his views.Through his nonprofit, the Gianforte Family Charitable Trust, Gianforte has contributed substantial funds to several conservative organizations. Some have led legal efforts to dismantle federal campaign finance regulations. Gianforte has donated to the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family, which advocate for a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage, as well as the Montana Family Foundation, which is "the state's primary advocate against LGBT policies". Gianforte served on the board of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, an education reform organization founded by economist Milton Friedman which advocates for school vouchers.Gianforte believes in Young Earth creationism. He has donated at least $290,000 to the Glendive Dinosaur and Fossil Museum, a Montana creationist museum that teaches visitors that the theory of evolution is false, that the Earth is about 6,000–6,400 years old, and that humans and dinosaurs coexisted during the same period. The museum claims dinosaurs were aboard Noah's Ark, and that they likely went extinct 4,300 years ago during the great flood described in the Book of Genesis. The Gianforte Family Foundation also donated a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton replica to the museum.

Affiliations and investments
Gianforte has had a variety of business interests and investments. In November 2013, he was appointed to the board of FICO, which profiles consumer credit risks for lenders. The same month, Gianforte acquired 8,000 shares of FICO, which were then valued at more than $464,000.00. He is a partner in MGRR No. 1, a limited liability company that has received grain subsidies since 1995. Gianforte was the founding board chair of the Montana High Tech Business Alliance. He resigned as chair in June 2017, when he was sworn into Congress.In financial disclosure forms filed in 2017, Gianforte indicated that he owned $150,000 worth of shares in VanEck Vectors Russia ETF and $92,400 in the IShares MSCF Russia ETF, totaling just under $250,000 in two exchange-traded funds focused on investments in Russia. The investments attracted attention because they included shares in Gazprom and Rosneft, which have been subject to U.S. sanctions since the Russian invasion of Crimea, but because the per-person ownership stake in these companies is so small in such index funds, they are exempt from sanctions. After the issue was raised in Gianforte's 2017 congressional campaign, Gianforte stated that his Russia holdings were a small portion of his overall investments and pledged to place all of his assets in a blind trust if elected.Through a holding corporation, Gianforte owns a 12-seat private jet, which he has used as a strategic asset on the campaign trail. He made the aircraft available to others in his congressional caucus to travel back to Washington for important votes.

U.S. House of Representatives (2017–2021)
Elections
2017 special election campaign
On March 1, 2017, Republican Representative Ryan Zinke of Montana's at-large congressional district resigned his seat after the United States Senate confirmed him as United States Secretary of the Interior. A special election was scheduled to fill the remainder of Zinke's term. Gianforte had already announced his intention to seek the seat on January 25, before Zinke's resignation. At a March 6 convention, the Republican Party nominated Gianforte. He faced Democratic musician and former Montana Arts Council member Rob Quist and Libertarian nominee Mark Wicks in the general election.In a departure from previous pledges made during his gubernatorial campaign, Gianforte relaxed his past pledges to refuse all PAC money, and began to turn away only corporate PAC funding. His campaign began accepting contributions from political party and leadership PACs.Gianforte distanced himself from Donald Trump during the 2016 Republican presidential primary and did not attend Trump's sole rally in Montana, citing a scheduling conflict. But he endorsed Trump in the 2016 general election and continued to express support for him during his 2017 special election campaign for Congress. Gianforte's campaign was supported by Vice President Mike Pence and Donald Trump Jr., who both stumped for Gianforte in the state. Gianforte tacked close to Trump's political narratives, promoting his outsider status as a first time political candidate, touting his experience as a technology entrepreneur, and criticizing policies leading to sanctuary cities and "the liberal elite."Gianforte supported repeal of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). He declined to say whether he supported the American Health Care Act, the House Republican legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. On May 4, 2017, Gianforte held a private conference call with Republican-leaning lobbyists in Washington in which he offered a more supportive view of the AHCA. He said that it "sounds like we just passed a health care thing, which I'm thankful for. Sounds like we're starting to repeal and replace." Later that May, he said he would not "vote for a repeal and a replace unless I know it protects people with preexisting conditions, lowers rates and preserves rural access". Gianforte assaulted a reporter in response to questions about how the AHCA would make health insurance too expensive for people with preexisting conditions.
Gianforte opposed the legalization of marijuana for recreational use, comparing marijuana to more addictive drugs. He supported allowing the use of medical marijuana for "people in chronic pain, under the care of a doctor."Gianforte opposes abortion except in cases where a woman's life is in danger. He favors removing federal funding from Planned Parenthood. He has said that he supports government enforcement of nondiscrimination for workers, but not for customers. He opposed increasing in the minimum wage. Gianforte supported Executive Order 13769, to ban immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries. He opposed resettlement of refugees in Montana. He opposed sanctuary cities policies. Gianforte blamed the Obama administration for "the situation with Russia" and favored a multilateral strategy to stand against Russian aggression. He supported Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey.Gianforte opposed efforts to transfer federal lands to the states. He called for changes to the Endangered Species Act. He supported amending the Equal Access to Justice Act to reduce environmental litigation, saying that "environmental extremists" had abused the act. He acknowledged human-caused climate change but "did not have specific ideas on how to address climate change". He has said that "the climate is always changing" and believes that closing coal-fired power plants would not help mitigate climate change. He supported Trump's repeal of the Clean Power Plan and has called for investments in clean coal technology. Gianforte has criticized the length of time the Department of Interior spends to evaluate applications to drill and frack for shale gas.
Gianforte outlined his position on retirement by using the Biblical example of Noah. He said:There's nothing in the Bible that talks about retirement. And yet it's been an accepted concept in our culture today. Nowhere does it say, "Well, he was a good and faithful servant, so he went to the beach". The example I think of is Noah. How old was Noah when he built the ark? 600. He wasn't, like, cashing Social Security checks. He wasn't hanging out. He was working. So I think we have an obligation to work. The role we have in work may change over time, but the concept of retirement is not biblical.

Election-eve assault on journalist
On May 24, 2017, the day before the House special election, Ben Jacobs, a political reporter for The Guardian newspaper who was covering the election, reported to the Gallatin County, Montana Sheriff's Office that Gianforte had assaulted him at Gianforte's Bozeman campaign office after Jacobs asked him a question about health care policy. Jacobs said that Gianforte "bodyslammed" him to the floor and broke his glasses. Jacobs was hospitalized after the attack.In the immediate aftermath of the incident, Gianforte made misleading statements to a Gallatin County Sheriff's Office sergeant who reported to Gianforte's campaign office to investigate Jacobs's complaint.  Gianforte told the sergeant, "the liberal media is trying to make a story." In the hours after the assault, the Gianforte campaign issued a press release falsely blaming the reporter, claiming that Jacobs grabbed Gianforte's wrist and caused them both to fall to the ground. But an audio recording of the incident appeared to support Jacobs's statement, and other reporters who were present at the scene corroborated Jacobs's version of events. An eyewitness to the attack, Fox News reporter Alicia Acuna, testified that "Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground", then "began punching the man" and "yelling something to the effect of 'I'm sick and tired of this!'" Acuna said, "at no point did any of us who witnessed this assault see Jacobs show any form of physical aggression toward Gianforte, who left the area after giving statements to local sheriff's deputies." Another journalist who was an eyewitness to the assault, Alexis Levinson, tweeted that she "heard a giant crash and saw Ben's feet fly in the air as he hit the floor."The Gallatin County Sheriff's Office cited Gianforte for misdemeanor assault. On August 25, 2017, he was briefly booked into jail, fingerprinted, and had his mugshot taken, after his legal team lost a bid to avoid that process. On October 10, 2017, Gianforte's mugshot was released publicly by a Gallatin County court order.The Helena Independent Record editorial board rescinded its endorsement of Gianforte and noted that before the attack, Gianforte had encouraged his supporters to boycott certain newspapers, singled out a reporter in a room to point out that he was outnumbered, and joked about choking a news writer. Two other well-circulated Montana newspapers, the Billings Gazette, and the largest in the state, the Missoulian, also rescinded their endorsements of Gianforte. Speaker Paul Ryan and other members of Congress urged Gianforte to apologize.In his acceptance speech the night of his May 25 victory, Gianforte apologized to Jacobs and the Fox News crew for his assault. On June 7, he made a written apology to Jacobs and donated $50,000 to the Committee to Protect Journalists, which accepted the funds because it was part of the settlement and said it would put them towards the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. In return, Jacobs agreed to not pursue a civil claim against Gianforte.Gianforte subsequently pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault in Gallatin County District Court, acknowledging that Jacobs "did not initiate any physical contact with me" and writing a letter to Jacobs saying that Jacobs did not start the physical altercation. Gianforte was originally sentenced to four days in jail, to be completed in part through a work program, but he was ineligible for the work program due to the assault conviction. The judge then switched the sentence to 40 hours of community service, 20 hours of anger management therapy, a 180-day deferred sentence, and a $300 fine along with an $85 court fee.During the court hearing, Jacobs said that he hoped to interview Gianforte in the future, as he was trying to do at the time of the assault. Gianforte said in court to Jacobs, "I am sorry, and if and when you are ready, I look forward to sitting down with you in D.C." As of October 2017, Gianforte had not sat down with Jacobs for an interview, and the issue was not pursued further.
 Since the assault, Jacobs has, through his attorney, accused Gianforte of whitewashing his guilt, twice sending Gianforte cease-and-desist letters about his accounts of his culpability in the assault. Gianforte met with the Missoulian newspaper editorial board in October 2018, and, when asked about the assault, maintained that his original false statement to sheriff's deputies in the immediate aftermath of the incident was his best recollection of events, a statement that Gianforte later contradicted under oath in court with an admission of guilt connected to his guilty plea.On October 18, 2018, during a rally in Missoula, Montana, President Donald Trump congratulated Gianforte for his assault on Jacobs. While verbally praising Gianforte's prowess in carrying out a body slam, Trump made gestures with his hands and arms to pantomime a fighting maneuver. According to analysts, this marked the first time a sitting president had "openly and directly praised a violent act against a journalist on American soil".Gianforte's assault of Jacobs achieved political notoriety. During an October 2018 campaign event with then Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, Representative Jody Hice implored the small crowd that had gathered to oppose the resurgence of Democratic candidates in the 2018 midterm elections. Hice declared, "It's time for this so called blue wave to be body-slammed!"

2018 House campaign
In 2018, Gianforte ran against Democratic nominee Kathleen Williams, a state legislator and natural resources expert from Bozeman, and Libertarian Party candidate Elinor Swanson, a lawyer from Billings.Gianforte opposed Williams's proposal to allow those 55 and older to buy into Medicare, remarking, "Medicare for all is Medicare for none", and cautioned that Medicare would be at risk of spending cuts if Democrats won a majority in the House. Williams criticized Gianforte for introducing a bill to remove federal protections from several wilderness study areas in Montana without holding any public meetings on the issue.Polling data in the weeks leading up to the election showed Gianforte and Williams in a close contest within the margin of error. Gianforte was reelected by a 5% margin. Exit polling data indicated that Gianforte had his strongest support at the polls from men older than 44 and from those with annual incomes above $50,000.

Tenure
115th Congress
Gianforte was sworn into the House of Representatives on June 21, 2017. At his inauguration ceremony, he announced his support for congressional term limits, barring members of Congress from becoming lobbyists, and withholding congressional pay if no budget is passed. It is unusual for members of Congress to announce such support for legislation in their inauguration. Montana Democrats mailed Gianforte an orange prison jumpsuit on the day of his inauguration.The first bill Gianforte introduced, on June 21, 2017, was H.R. 2977, the Balanced Budget Accountability Act, which, as he summarized it, would withhold pay from members of Congress unless a balanced budget is passed. The bill did not achieve a committee hearing.Gianforte touted refundable tax credits for low income parents as an achievement of the Republican Caucus in the 115th Congress.In 2018, Gianforte expressed opposition to the aluminum and steel tariffs imposed by President Trump, expressing fears about the impact of retaliatory tariffs (the trade war) on Montana agricultural exports.Gianforte chaired the Interior Subcommittee of the Oversight Committee through the end of the 115th Congress in 2018. He introduced legislation to nullify Wilderness Study Area (WSA) designations from more than 800,000 acres of land in Montana under the stewardship of the federal Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service.

116th Congress
In the 2018 midterm elections, the Republicans lost control of the House to the Democrats, and Gianforte began his second term in January 2019 in the minority caucus. Over his career, Gianforte voted in line with Trump's position in about 93.3% of key votes. He voted with Trump's position more often than Montana U.S. Senator Steve Daines, a fellow Republican.In January 2019, during the 2018–2019 United States federal government shutdown, Gianforte said that he "didn't come here to Washington to shut the government down" but expressed support for Trump and blamed Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for the shutdown. He opposed the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump over the Trump-Ukraine scandal, calling it a "sham", and voted against both articles of impeachment against Trump (abuse of power and obstruction of Congress). Gianforte voted against a measure to bar Trump from initiating military action against Iran without congressional consent; a spokesman for Gianforte said in 2019 that he would not "discuss the conditions under which he would vote in favor of authorizing military force against Iran because talking about it strengthens the position [of] Iran's regime." Gianforte voted against the 2020 House Democrats police reform bill; against restoring part of the Voting Rights Act; against universal background checks for gun purchases; and against the 2020 D.C. statehood bill. In line with Trump's position, he voted against legislation to block U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, but he opposed Trump's decision in 2019 to withdraw U.S. forces from northern Syria, where they had been stationed as part of U.S. efforts to block Turkish attacks on Kurdish forces. Gianforte voted against legislation in 2019 to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour. He voted against legislation to overturn Trump's emergency declaration to divert federal appropriations for construction of a border wall. He opposed federal action to combat climate change and supported Trump's withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris Agreement on climate change, voting against legislation to block Trump from withdrawing from the agreement. Gianforte voted against reauthorizing the Export–Import Bank and against a bill allowing the government to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs. He voted for the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement on trade.Gianforte is one of the few tech executives to be elected to political office in the U.S. After Representative Darrell Issa left office in 2019, Gianforte became the wealthiest member of Congress, a distinction he held until the January 2020 appointment of Kelly Loeffler to represent Georgia in the Senate.In December 2020, Gianforte was one of 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives to sign an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed at the United States Supreme Court contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election, in which Joe Biden defeated Trump. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case on the basis that Texas lacked standing under Article III of the Constitution to challenge the results of an election held by another state.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement that called signing the amicus brief an act of "election subversion". She also reprimanded Gianforte and the other House members who supported the lawsuit: "The 126 Republican Members that signed onto this lawsuit brought dishonor to the House. Instead of upholding their oath to support and defend the Constitution, they chose to subvert the Constitution and undermine public trust in our sacred democratic institutions."Committee assignments

Natural Resources Committee
Subcommittee on Federal Lands
Subcommittee on Water, Power, and Oceans
Oversight Committee
Subcommittee on Information Technology
Subcommittee on Interior (Chair, 115th Congress)
Subcommittee on Intergovernmental AffairsCaucus memberships

Congressional Western Caucus

Governor of Montana
Elections
2016
On January 20, 2016, Gianforte announced his candidacy for the Republican Party's nomination for governor of Montana in the 2016 election. A citizen of Butte filed a political practices complaint against him, alleging that he began campaigning before registering; the complaint was dismissed.In a campaign speech that year, Gianforte stated that he had been involved in discussions with Facebook about bringing a new call center to Montana, but that Facebook had declined because of that state's business equipment tax. A Facebook spokesman disputed Gianforte's claims, saying that no discussions with him had taken place and that the tax was not the reason the company decided not to locate a call center in Montana. Gianforte stood by his statement, saying he had spoken with a Facebook executive the previous fall.During his gubernatorial campaign, Gianforte pledged not to accept special interest PAC money and ran television ads criticizing his opponent for doing so. He came under scrutiny when an audio tape surfaced revealing his past advocacy to replace state income tax and state business tax revenue with a state sales tax.Management of public lands was a point of contention in Gianforte's 2016 campaign for governor. In 2009, Gianforte's LLC filed a lawsuit against the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks about the boundaries of an easement for public access to the East Gallatin River adjacent to his property. Gianforte's suit against the state became an issue in the 2016 campaign, with his critics characterizing it as a wealthy out-of-stater's effort to block public access to a popular stream. Gianforte consistently denied the allegations and called the issue a misunderstanding, noting the suit was never served, though the lawsuit was settled outside of court. Gianforte opposes same-sex marriage and abortion.Incumbent governor Steve Bullock defeated Gianforte in the November general election, 50%–46%.

2020
Gianforte contended with Attorney General Tim Fox and State Senator Al Olszewski for the Republican nomination in the 2020 Montana gubernatorial election. Gianforte drew parallels between his experience building a large technology company in Bozeman and Trump's business background, and shared anecdotes of visits to the White House meant to illustrate their ties.Gianforte won the Republican nomination. In the November general election, he defeated incumbent lieutenant governor Mike Cooney.

Tenure
Gianforte was sworn in as governor on January 4, 2021.
On February 12, 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Gianforte lifted Montana's statewide mask mandate. The previous day, he signed a bill giving liability protections to businesses and healthcare providers. In May 2021, Gianforte signed a bill into law that limited the ability of hospitals and other businesses to require that their staff be vaccinated against COVID-19 and prohibited businesses from requiring that customers be vaccinated in order to access facilities. Montana became the only state with such a ban on employers.On February 18, 2021, Gianforte signed a constitutional carry bill into law.On March 16, 2021, Gianforte signed a bill changing Montana's system of choosing judges, giving the governor, with the state senate's approval, more control over the process.On April 2, 2021, Gianforte signed a bill banning sanctuary cities in Montana; at the time, there were no sanctuary cities in Montana. Montana became the 13th state to ban sanctuary cities.
Later that April, Gianforte signed a bill into law that ended same-day voter registration in Montana, in addition to a separate bill that prevented students from using a student ID as voter ID. He also signed a bill making it easier for individuals to challenge government regulations for violating their religious beliefs, and signed three bills restricting abortion.On April 30, 2021, Gianforte signed a bill requiring individuals to undergo gender reassignment surgery in order to change their birth certificate. On May 7, 2021, he signed a bill banning transgender athletes from girls' sports in public schools. On April 28, 2023, he signed a bill banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors.

Personal life
While working at Bell Labs in New Jersey in the 1980s, Gianforte met his wife, Susan, the first-generation daughter of German immigrants. They married in 1988. Gianforte and his wife have resided in Bozeman since moving from New Jersey in 1995. They have four children. Gianforte was raised Presbyterian. He and his wife attend Grace Bible Church, a nondenominational church in Bozeman.Gianforte is an avid hunter. In a 2016 interview, he described entertaining investment bankers from Scotland and New York at his Montana home, in connection with his company's public stock offering, where he served them a dinner of mountain lion teriyaki, antelope chops wrapped in bacon, and elk tenderloin. On October 28, 2000, he was fined $70 for violating state Fish and Wildlife Commission rules by killing an elk. In February 2021, he violated state hunting regulations by trapping and shooting an adult black wolf known as "1155". While born in Yellowstone National Park and radio collared in 2018, it was roughly 10 miles (16 km) north of the park's boundary. As Gianforte had not completed a wolf trapping certification course, he was issued a written warning by Fish, Wildlife and Parks. In December, he killed a mountain lion near the same area that was also being monitored by the National Park Service. "M220" was radio collared in 2019 and was estimated to be five years old when he was driven up a tree by the hunting group's dogs and shot in compliance with Montana state laws.Gianforte received an honorary doctorate from Stevens Institute of Technology and gave the commencement speech in 2012. In 2007, he received an honorary doctorate from Montana State University's College of Engineering. In 2007, Gianforte was inducted into the CRM Hall of Fame. He received the 2003 Stevens Institute of Technology's Stevens Honor Award. Gianforte was named Pacific Northwest Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young in 2003.As of 2018, Gianforte's net worth was more than $189 million, which made him one of Congress's wealthiest members.

Electoral history
Writings
Gianforte, Greg; and Gibson, Marcus (2005). Bootstrapping your business: start and grow a successful company with almost no money. Adams Media.
Gianforte, Greg (2008). Eight to great : eight steps to delivering an exceptional customer experience. www.BookSurge.com.
Gianforte, Greg (2012). Attack of the customers : why critics assault brands online and how to avoid becoming a victim. Self-published.
Passage 5:
Ryan Zinke
Ryan Keith Zinke (; born November 1, 1961) is an American politician and businessman serving as the U.S. representative for Montana's 1st congressional district since 2023. A member of the Republican Party, Zinke served in the Montana Senate from 2009 to 2013 and as the U.S. representative for the at-large congressional district from 2015 to 2017. He was appointed United States Secretary of the Interior by President Donald Trump in 2017 and served until his resignation in 2019 following a series of ethical scandals.Zinke played college football at the University of Oregon and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in geology. He also has a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Science in global leadership. He was a U.S. Navy SEAL from 1986 until 2008, retiring with the rank of commander. The first Navy SEAL to be elected to the U.S. House, Zinke formerly served as a member of the Natural Resources Committee and the Armed Services Committee. As a member of Congress, Zinke supported the use of ground troops in the Middle East to combat ISIS and opposed the Affordable Care Act, various environmental regulations, and the transfer of federal lands to individual states.
Zinke was appointed as United States Secretary of the Interior by Donald Trump. He was confirmed on March 1, 2017, becoming the first Navy SEAL and the first Montanan since statehood to occupy a Cabinet position.As Secretary, Zinke opened some federal lands for oil, gas and mineral exploration and extraction. His actions as Secretary of the Interior raised ethical questions and were investigated by the Interior Department's Office of Inspector General. In October 2018, Interior's inspector general referred the investigation to the Justice Department. On December 15, 2018, Trump announced that Zinke would leave his post as of January 2, 2019, to be replaced by his deputy, David Bernhardt. The Inspector General's report concluded that Zinke had repeatedly violated ethical rules and then lied to investigators. His tenure as Secretary of the Interior was plagued by scandals, including his insistence that special flagpoles be erected so that flags could be raised or lowered when he was in residence, spending over $200,000 of taxpayer money to do so. Zinke left his post at the Department of the Interior at end of 2018 after serving two years amid mounting misconduct allegations related to his Whitefish corruption scandal.

Early life and education
Zinke was born in Bozeman, Montana, and raised in Whitefish. He is the son of Jean Montana (Harlow) Petersen and Ray Dale Zinke, a plumber. He was a Boy Scout and earned his Eagle Scout award. He was a star athlete at Whitefish High School and accepted a football scholarship to the University of Oregon in Eugene; recruited as an outside linebacker, he switched to offense and was an undersized starting center for the Ducks of the Pac-10 under head coach Rich Brooks. Zinke earned a B.S. in geology in 1984 and graduated with honors. He intended to pursue a career in underwater geology. Despite never working as a geologist, Zinke publicly calls himself a geologist. He earned an M.B.A. from National University in 1993 and a Master of Science in global leadership from the University of San Diego in 2003.

Military career
Zinke served as a U.S. Navy SEAL from 1986 to 2008, retiring at the rank of commander. He graduated from Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training (BUD/S) class 136 in February 1986 and subsequently served with SEAL Team ONE. Following SEAL Tactical Training and completion of a six-month probationary period, he received the 1130 designator as a Naval Special Warfare Officer, entitled to wear the Special Warfare insignia also known as "SEAL Trident".  Zinke was assigned as a First Phase Officer of BUD/S from 1988 to 1991. In 1991, he received orders to United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group (NSWDG) and completed a specialized selection and training course. Zinke served at the command until 1993, during which time he planned, rehearsed and operated during classified operations. He then served as a Plans officer for Commander in Chief, U.S. Naval Forces, Europe and served a second tour with NSWDG as team leader, ground force commander, task force commander and current operations officer from 1996 to 1999.In the late 1990s, Zinke paid back the Navy $211 after improperly billing the government for personal travel expenses. His former commanding officer, now-retired Vice Admiral Albert M. Calland III, said that as a result, Zinke received a June 1999 Fitness Report that blocked him from being promoted to a commanding officer position or to the rank of captain. Zinke acknowledged the error but maintains that the incident did not adversely affect his career. His promotion from lieutenant commander to commander was approved the next year.From 1999 to 2001, Zinke served as executive officer for the Naval Special Warfare Unit Two and then as executive officer, Naval Special Warfare Center from 2001 to 2004. In 2004, Zinke was the deputy and acting commander of the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Arabian Peninsula. His campaign website stated that he was "the deputy and acting commander" of Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force–Arabian Peninsula and "led a force of more than 3,500 Special Operations personnel in Iraq" in 2004. Retired Major General Michael S. Repass, who was Zinke's superior in Iraq, told The New York Times that these claims "might be a stretch" but that Zinke "did a good job" and was "a competent guy". After his tours in Iraq, Zinke served "as the second-ranking officer (and briefly acting commander) of the main SEAL training center." In 2006, he was selected to establish the Naval Special Warfare Advanced Training Command, serving as dean of the graduate school until his retirement from active duty in 2008. The graduate school had 250 educators, offering over 43 college-level courses to over 2,500 students annually at 15 different locations worldwide. Zinke retired from the Navy in 2008.

Awards and decorations
Business ventures
In 2005, Zinke formed Continental Divide International, a property management and business development consulting company. His family members are officers of the company. In 2009, Zinke formed the consulting company On Point Montana. He served on the board of the oil pipeline company QS Energy (formerly Save the World Air) from 2012 to 2015. In November 2014, Zinke announced that he would pass Continental Divide to his family while remaining in an advisory role.

Political career
Montana Senate (2009–2013)
Zinke was elected to the Montana Senate in 2008, serving from 2009 to 2013, representing the city of Whitefish. While serving in the State Senate, he "was widely seen as a moderate Republican" but drifted to the right. Zinke was selected as chair of the Senate Education Committee and promoted technology in the classroom, rural access to education and local control over schools. He also served on the Senate Finance and Claims Committee. As a state senator, Zinke was also a member of the SEMA-supported State Automotive Enthusiast and Leadership Caucus, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers sharing an appreciation for automobiles.

Global warming and clean energy
In 2008, Zinke said he "support[s] increased coal production for electrical generation and believe[s] it can and should be done with adequate environmental safeguards" and that he "believe[s] the use of alternate energy sources and clean coal is preferred over petroleum based fuels". In 2010, he signed a letter calling global warming "a threat multiplier for instability in the most volatile regions of the world" and saying that "the clean energy and climate challenge is America's new space race". The letter spoke of "catastrophic" costs and "unprecedented economic consequences" that would result from failing to act on climate change and asked then-President Obama and then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to champion sweeping clean-energy and climate legislation.

2012 campaign for lieutenant governor
Zinke was the running mate of Montana gubernatorial candidate Neil Livingstone in the 2012 election. The Livingstone/Zinke ticket finished fifth out of seven in the Republican primary with 12,038 votes (8.8% of the vote).In 2012, Zinke founded the super PAC Special Operations for America (SOFA) to support Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign. It raised over $100,000 and paid $28,258 to Continental Divide International, Zinke's company, for fundraising consulting. Zinke appointed right-wing commentator Paul E. Vallely, a promoter of "birther" claims and other anti-Obama conspiracy theories, to SOFA's board. Zinke announced he was resigning as chairman of SOFA on September 30, 2013, with his friend former Navy SEAL Gary Stubblefield taking his place. While Zinke's financial disclosure report for 2014 listed him as chairman of SOFA, SOFA had been making independent expenditures in support of Zinke's campaign since November 20, 2013. In 2014, the Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission regarding coordination between Zinke's campaign and SOFA. As of December 2016, the FEC had taken no action on the matter.

Radio show
In 2013, Zinke hosted a radio show in which he engaged with and promoted fringe conspiratorial views, including birtherism (the contention that Obama was not born in the United States). Zinke said on the show that he was not sure whether Obama was a foreign citizen and called on Obama to release his college transcripts. Later, in 2016, as a congressman, Zinke appeared on the radio show Where's Obama's Birth Certificate, known for its promotion of birther conspiracy theories.

2014 House election
In the spring of 2014, Zinke announced his candidacy for Montana's at-large congressional district, a seat vacated when the incumbent, Steve Daines, successfully sought a seat in the U.S. Senate.During the Republican primary, Zinke attracted attention for calling Hillary Rodham Clinton "the real enemy" and the "anti-Christ." He touted his anti-abortion credentials and was endorsed by the Montana Right to Life Association.Zinke won the five-way Republican primary with 43,766 votes (33.25%) and defeated Libertarian perennial candidate Mike Fellows and Democratic nominee John Lewis, a former state director for U.S. Senator Max Baucus, in the general election,
with 55.4% of the nearly 350,000 votes cast statewide.

U.S. House of Representatives (2015–2017)
In Congress, Zinke supported the deployment of U.S. ground troops to combat ISIS, "abandoning" the Affordable Care Act, and cutting regulations. He supported a Republican effort to repeal the estate tax.Zinke condemned the "anti-Semitic views" held by neo-Nazis planning a march in support of Richard B. Spencer in Whitefish, Montana, in January 2017.

Political positions
Education
In 2015, Zinke voted for an amendment proposed by Representative Dave Loebsack that provided for the expansion of the use of digital learning through the establishment of a competitive grant program to implement and evaluate the results of technology-based learning practices. The amendment passed, 218–213.

Environmental regulation
Zinke frequently voted in opposition to environmentalists on issues including coal extraction and oil and gas drilling. When Trump opened nearly all U.S. coastal waters to extractive drilling, rescinding Obama's protections, nearly a dozen coastal states protested. Zinke visited with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and exempted only Florida's coast from drilling.

Climate change
Zinke has shifted over time on the issue of climate change. In 2010, while in the Montana Senate, Zinke was one of nearly 1,200 state legislators who signed a letter to President Obama and Congress calling for "comprehensive clean energy jobs and climate change legislation." But since 2010, he has repeatedly expressed doubt about anthropogenic climate change; in an October 2014 debate, Zinke said, "it's not a hoax, but it's not proven science either." During Senate confirmation hearings on his nomination as Interior Secretary, Zinke said that humans "influence" climate change, but did not acknowledge the scientific consensus that human activity is the dominant cause of climate change.

Transfers of federal lands to states
Zinke broke with most Republicans on the issue of transfers of federal lands to the states, calling such proposals "extreme" and voting against them. In July 2016, he withdrew as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in protest of the portion of the party's draft platform that would require that certain public lands be transferred to state control. Zinke said he endorsed "better management of federal land" rather than transfers.

Committee assignments
Committee on Armed Services
Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces
Subcommittee on Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities
Committee on Natural Resources
Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources

2016 House election
In 2016, Zinke ran unopposed in the Republican primary on June 7 and faced Democratic nominee and Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau in the general election on November 8. He defeated Juneau with 56% of the vote.

Secretary of the Interior (2017–2019)
Donald Trump Jr. recommended to his father that Zinke be nominated for Secretary of the Interior. Zinke was named as then-President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for United States Secretary of the Interior on December 13, 2016. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved his nomination by a 16–6 vote on January 31, 2017, and he was confirmed by the full Senate by a 68–31 vote on March 1. Among the senators expressing support for Zinke's confirmation was Jon Tester of Montana. Zinke was sworn into office by Vice President Mike Pence the same day.The day after his swearing-in, Zinke rode a United States Park Police horse named Tonto several blocks to the entrance of the Department of Interior's Main Interior Building to his official welcoming ceremony.On May 24, 2017, in the Montana special election to fill Zinke's vacated House seat, Republican nominee Greg Gianforte defeated Democratic nominee Rob Quist, with 49.7% of the vote to Quist's 44.1%.

Rescinded ban on lead bullets
On his first full day in office, Zinke rescinded the policy implemented by outgoing Fish and Wildlife Service Director Daniel M. Ashe on January 19, 2017, the last day of the Obama administration, that banned the use of lead bullets and lead fishing tackle in national wildlife refuges. Zinke said: "Over the past eight years … hunting, and recreation enthusiasts have seen trails closed and dramatic decreases in access to public lands across the board. It worries me to think about hunting and fishing becoming activities for the land-owning elite. This package of secretarial orders will expand access for outdoor enthusiasts and also make sure the community's voice is heard." The regulation was meant to help prevent lead contamination of plants and animals.The move was opposed by the Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, and other environmental groups. The rollback was praised by Senator Steve Daines, the National Rifle Association, and National Shooting Sports Foundation, as well as other "gun rights advocates, sportsmen's groups, conservatives and state wildlife agencies."

National Monument reductions
In April 2017, Zinke began reviewing at least 27 national monuments to determine whether any of them could be reduced in size. In June 2017, he recommended that Bears Ears National Monument's boundaries be scaled back. In August, he added the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument and Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument to the list of monuments to be shrunk, while also calling for new management rules for multiple national monuments to decrease the number of actions that are prohibited within the monuments.In December 2017, Trump signed executive proclamations that reduced Bears Ears National Monument by 85% and Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument by almost 46%. These moves prompted several legal challenges. A day later, Zinke issued a report recommending that Trump also shrink two more national monuments—Gold Butte National Monument in Nevada and Cascade–Siskiyou National Monument in Oregon. He also recommended changes to the management of six other national monuments. These changes were welcomed by Republicans such as Representative Rob Bishop, the chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, but condemned by Democrats and environmentalist groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council and Sierra Club.After The New York Times took Zinke's Interior Department to court, it won and got 25,000 documents, of which 4,500 pages were related to Zinke's multi-monument review, and which showed the administration set out to increase coal, oil and gas mining access. The documents also showed that the Zinke administration's new map largely matched a map previously promoted by longtime Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, whose plan claimed it "would resolve all known mineral conflicts for SITLA [Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration] within the Bears Ears… the real [beneficiaries] are Utah schoolchildren and the people of San Juan County", a claim the Utah Diné Bikéyah tribe disputed as hypocritical.

Expenditure controversies
In September 2017, it was reported that on June 26, Zinke had chartered a jet belonging to an oil industry executive for a flight from Las Vegas to Kalispell, Montana. Zinke had been in Las Vegas to make an announcement related to public lands and to deliver a speech to the National Hockey League's Vegas Golden Knights, an expansion franchise owned by William P. Foley, a major donor to Zinke's congressional campaigns. The chartered flight cost taxpayers $12,375. Costs for commercial flights between Las Vegas and Kalispell typically start at $300. Upon arrival in Kalispell, Zinke spent the night at his private residence before delivering remarks at the annual meeting of the Western Governors Association the next morning. Zinke and his staffers returned to Washington on a commercial flight the next day.Zinke used private aircraft and performed political duties in relation to an April 1 trip between St. Croix and St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Zinke had been in St. Croix on March 30 for an official meeting with Governor Kenneth Mapp during the day, and spent the night at a fundraiser for the Republican Party of the Virgin Islands, where donors of between $1,500 and $5,000 were allowed to have their pictures taken with Zinke. The next morning, he took a private flight costing the government $3,150 to St. Thomas to celebrate the centennial of the islands' handover to the United States by Denmark.In December 2017, Politico reported that Zinke had booked government helicopters for more than $14,000 to travel in June and July 2017. One of these trips was the swearing-in ceremony of his successor in Congress; the Department of Interior defended the use of government helicopters instead of a two-hour car drive by saying Zinke would otherwise not be able to fully participate in the ceremony. An Interior spokesperson also told a Politico reporter asking about the expenses, "Shame on you for not respecting the office of a member of Congress." Another of these trips was the use of a Park Police helicopter to have a horseback ride with Vice President Mike Pence; the Interior Department justified the use of the helicopter over the three-hour car drive by saying, "the Secretary will be able to familiarize himself with the in-flight capabilities of an aircraft he is in charge of" and that Park Police staff would "provide an added measure of security to the Secretary during his travel." Zinke dismissed Politico's reporting as "total fabrications and a wild departure of reality" but did not identify any inaccuracies in it.In March 2018, the Associated Press reported that the Interior Department spent approximately $139,000 to upgrade three sets of double doors in Zinke's office. A spokesperson claimed Zinke was unaware of the relevant work contract.

Inspector general investigations and other inquiries
In October 2017, the Interior Department's Office of Inspector General (OIG) launched an investigation into Zinke's use of three charter flights during his tenure as Interior Secretary. In April 2018, OIG released its report, concluding that Zinke's chartered flight to give the June 2017 speech to the Las Vegas Golden Knights was authorized "without complete information" and that the speech was not official business because Zinke did not discuss the Interior Department or his role as Interior Secretary. OIG concluded that the two other charter flights, one to Alaska and the other to the U.S. Virgin Islands, "appeared to have been reasonable as related to official DOI business."In October 2017, the United States Office of Special Counsel launched a Hatch Act investigation into Zinke's meeting with the Vegas Golden Knights.In a March 2018 Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Zinke said it was false that he had taken a "private jet anywhere," noting that the charter flights he took were on aircraft with propellers, not jet engines.As of October 30, 2018, the OIG had referred Zinke to the Department of Justice for investigation, including of whether he lied to the OIG about his involvement in reviewing a tribal casino project in Connecticut. The two Connecticut tribes claim that the Interior Department refused to sign off on the casino project after intense lobbying by MGM Resorts International and two Nevada Republican lawmakers. Zinke said the OIG interviewed him twice about the casino decision and that he was truthful both times. In late 2019, Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen stalled the probe into Zinke. Federal prosecutors had proposed to move forward with possible criminal charges against Zinke over his involvement in the casino deal. In doing so, Rosen also prevented the Interior Department's Office of Inspector General from making a report about the casino deal public.

Flying of Secretarial flag
Assuming his duties as Interior Secretary, Zinke ordered Interior Department officials to fly the official Secretarial Flag over the Main Interior Building whenever he was in the building, and that of his deputy, David Bernhardt, whenever Zinke was away and Bernhardt the highest-ranking official present. According to The Washington Post, "no one can remember [the flag ritual] ever happening in the federal government."

Trophy hunting
In November 2017, it was announced that Trump, on Zinke's advice, wanted to lift the import ban on elephant and other big-game trophies from Zambia and Zimbabwe to the United States. A passionate hunter, Zinke justified himself to critics by saying that he had his best childhood memories of hunting with his father and that he was anxious to promote hunting for American families. Trump and Zinke received considerable criticism for the decision. Critics feared that lifting the import ban would trigger a wave of U.S. hunters, and that the decision would be a major blow to the survival of the elephant species. Two days later, Trump put his decision on hold, saying that he wanted to better inform himself on the issue. In 2014, before the Obama Administration instituted the ban, U.S. hunters killed 671 elephants, 741 lions, 311 leopards, 1,412 Cape buffaloes and 32 rhinos, and shipped them to the U.S.

Greater sage-grouse
In 2017, Zinke took steps to unwind a 2015 plan that protected the greater sage-grouse. The Interior Department sought to change sage grouse habitat management plans in 10 states in a way that could open the sage-grouse habitat to mineral extraction and grazing. These proposals were welcomed by the oil and gas industry and condemned by environmentalists. In April 2021, a federal judge blocked this expansion of livestock grazing in Nevada across four hundred square miles (1,000 km2) of some of the highest-priority sage-grouse habitat in the West.

Migratory Bird Treaty Act
Under Zinke, the Interior Department adopted a restrictive interpretation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, issuing a guidance document stating that the killing of birds "resulting from an activity is not prohibited by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act when the underlying purpose of that activity is not to take birds." The move was opposed by a bipartisan group of 17 former top Interior Department officials, including seven former heads of migratory bird management at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who served in each administration from Nixon to Obama. In a letter sent to Zinke and members of Congress, the former officials wrote, "This legal opinion is contrary to the long-standing interpretation by every administration (Republican and Democrat) since at least the 1970s."

Interior Department employees
In June 2017, Zinke called for the elimination of 4,000 jobs from the Interior Department and supported the White House proposal to cut the department's budget by 13.4%. The same month, he ordered 50 Interior members of the Senior Executive Service to be reassigned, "forcing many into jobs for which they had little experience and that were in different locations." The scope of the move was unusual. One reassigned Interior senior executive, scientist Joel Clement, published an op-ed in The Washington Post saying that the reassignment was retaliation against him "for speaking out publicly about the dangers that climate change poses to Alaska Native communities." The moves prompted the Interior Departments' Office of Inspector General to launch a probe.In 2017, in a speech to the National Petroleum Council, Zinke said that one-third of Interior Department employees were disloyal to Trump and that "I got 30 percent of the crew that's not loyal to the flag". His remarks prompted objections from the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, Public Lands Foundation and Association of Retired Fish and Wildlife Service Employees (which called the comments "simply ludicrous, and deeply insulting") and Senator Maria Cantwell, the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources (who said that Zinke had a "fundamental misunderstanding of the role" of the federal civil service).

Budget proposals
In 2018, Zinke proposed budget cuts to the Interior Department for fiscal year 2019, mostly from the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Geological Survey. His proposed budget would also have cut the Land and Water Conservation Fund to $8 million from $425 million in 2018.

2018 wildfires
In August 2018, Zinke said that "environmental terrorist groups" were to blame for the wildfires in California, and that they had "nothing to do with climate change". Fire scientists and forestry experts reject that, attributing the increasingly destructive wildfires to heat and drought caused by climate change. Later that month, Zinke acknowledged that climate change played a part in the fires. He also said that preventing removal of dead trees has increased the amount of flammable material and hurt timber salvaging.

Calendar omissions
In October 2018, FOIA requests revealed that Zinke's calendar, which was supposed to cover the Secretary of the Interior's activities, contained glaring omissions. Zinke met with lobbyists and business executives on a number of occasions. Reporting from September 2018 noted that the calendars of his activities were "so vaguely described... that the public is unable tell what he was doing or with whom he was meeting."

Departure from office
On December 15, 2018, Trump announced that Zinke would leave "the Administration at the end of the year"; he later tweeted that he would name the new Secretary of the Interior the following week. According to The Washington Post, Zinke had submitted his resignation the same morning. Zinke himself later posted a statement on Twitter, saying, "I cannot justify spending thousands of dollars defending myself and my family against false allegations…It is better for the President and Interior to focus on accomplishments rather than fictitious allegations." His resignation came just a week after former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly's departure was announced.
Zinke was facing several federal probes, including the "Montana land deal" in which a foundation of Zinke's and the chairman of energy firm Halliburton, David Lesar, were accused of wrongdoing in relation to a development project in Zinke's home town of Whitefish, Montana. The DOJ also was investigating his use of personal email.In May 2020, Zinke criticized the investigations that led to his departure, saying they were politicized and that such investigations would result in only billionaires being able to afford to serve in a public office.

Later career
In January 2019, Zinke began a new job as the managing director of Artillery One, a cryptocurrency investment firm founded by investor Daniel Cannon, saying that he was "going to make Artillery One great again." In an interview, he said, "I'm focused on cybersecurity, protection of infrastructure and emerging countries that can act as a test bed for new technologies. There is some suspicion that blockchain does not really work. We think it does and we want to showcase the utility and flexibility of the model." The company is working on a test bed project in Kosovo, where Zinke served during his time in the U.S. Navy. Zinke also took consulting jobs with several energy firms.

2022 congressional election
In June 2021, Zinke officially announced his candidacy for reelection to the U.S. House of Representatives. He sought election in Montana's 1st congressional district, which was reconstituted after the 2020 census. Montana had been split between two districts from 1919 to 1993, but for the next three decades had been represented by a single member.
Zinke narrowly defeated Democratic nominee Monica Tranel to return to Congress. He represents the western third of the state, including Missoula, Butte, Bozeman, Kalispell, and his hometown of Whitefish.

Tenure
Syria
In 2023, Zinke voted against H.Con.Res. 21, which directed President Joe Biden to remove U.S. troops from Syria within 180 days.

Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023
Zinke was among the 71 Republicans who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 in the House.

Personal life
Zinke married Lolita Hand on August 8, 1992. Both had been married before; Hand was a widow with a young daughter. He and Hand also have two children together.Zinke splits his time among Washington, D.C.; Whitefish, Montana; and Santa Barbara, California, his wife's hometown. Politico reported that he no longer resides at his Whitefish house and spends more time in Santa Barbara. Zinke is Missouri Synod Lutheran.

Electoral history
See also
Environmental policy of the Donald Trump administration
List of members of the United States House of Representatives in the 115th Congress by seniority
List of Montana state senators
Political appointments of Donald Trump#Department of the Interior
United States Senate election in Montana, 2018
Whitefish Energy
Passage 6:
Louisiana State Treasurer special election, 2017
The Louisiana State Treasurer special election took place on October 14, 2017, to elect the state treasurer of Louisiana, with a runoff election to be held on November 18, 2017, if necessary. Incumbent Republican State Treasurer John Kennedy was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016.  First Assistant Treasurer Ron Henson replaced Kennedy as treasurer, and served until the special election. Henson did not run in the special election.Under Louisiana's jungle primary system, all candidates appeared on the same ballot, regardless of party and voters may vote for any candidate, regardless of their party affiliation. If no candidate receives a majority of the vote during the primary election, a runoff election will be held between the top two candidates. Louisiana is the only state that has a jungle primary system (California and Washington have a similar "top two primary" system). Republican candidates received over 65% of the vote as John Schroder and Derrick Edwards advanced to the runoff. Republican John Schroder defeated Democrat Derrick Edwards in the runoff.

Candidates
Republican Party
Declared
Angele Davis, businesswoman and former commissioner of the Louisiana Department of Administration
Terry Hughes
Neil Riser, state senator and candidate for LA-05 in 2013
John Schroder, state representative

Withdrew
Julie Stokes, state representative

Declined
Ron Henson, incumbent state treasurer
Rob Maness, retired United States Air Force colonel and candidate for U.S. Senate in 2014 and 2016

Democratic Party
Declared
Derrick Edwards, attorney and candidate for U.S. Senate in 2016

Libertarian Party
Declared
Joseph D. Little

Jungle primary
Runoff
Passage 7:
Kevin Aguiar
Kevin Aguiar (born September 7, 1972) is an American politician who represented the 7th Bristol district in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He was first elected in a 2008 special election following Robert Correia's resignation to become Mayor of Fall River, Massachusetts.From 2002 to 2009, Aguiar served as a member of the Fall School Committee. He was defeated for re-election in the 2012 Democratic primary by challenger Alan Silvia, who succeeded him.
Passage 8:
Mike Aguirre
Jules Michael Aguirre (born 1949), more commonly known as Michael Jules Aguirre, was the City Attorney for the City of San Diego, California, from 2004 to 2008.
In 2013, he was a candidate for mayor in a special election following Mayor Bob Filner's resignation. He lost to Kevin Faulconer, placing fourth in a field of eleven candidates.

Early life
Aguirre was born to Julio and Margaret Aguirre. His father was of Spanish and Mexican descent and his mother is of Mexican descent.

Early career
Aguirre worked as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Department of Justice and directed a grand jury investigation of pension racketeering. He was then appointed as assistant counsel to the U.S. Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. After leaving government work, Aguirre set up his own firm specializing in securities fraud.In the 1990s, Aguirre continued his securities practice and his electoral campaigns. In 1990, Aguirre allied with the Chicano Movement to file a successful federal voting rights lawsuit to overturn San Diego’s redistricting. In 1993, Aguirre successfully defended the United Farm Workers Union in Yuma, Arizona, in a case with lettuce grower Bruce Church. Aguirre took over the defense of the case after UFW President Cesar Chavez died following two days of testimony. Aguirre finished the jury trial, which the UFW lost, but he succeeded in getting the case overturned on appeal.In 1996, Aguirre went to court to throw out a 1995 contract between the City of San Diego and the San Diego Chargers football team. In the contract, the city agreed to issue $60 million of bonds to renovate the football team's stadium, and, in a controversial clause, promised to constantly maintain the stadium as a state-of-the-art venue. The city had also agreed to guarantee the sale of 60,000 game tickets at prices to be set by the Chargers. Aguirre’s suit and the ensuing scandal surrounding the maintenance clause compelled the city to renegotiate with the Chargers in 1998.

City Attorney
Aguirre ran for San Diego City Attorney in 2004, in the midst of a financial crisis and investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Scandal had erupted in the summer of 2003 over a pension deal that municipal employees received between 1996 and 2002. Workers were given increased benefits during this period, but the city did not contribute enough to municipal pension funds to cover the increased benefits. The resulting deficit of some $1.4 billion left the city’s finances in shambles and made it virtually impossible to issue municipal bonds. Aguirre ran as a "clean up the mess" outsider, with support from Democrats in the officially nonpartisan race, and won with 50.4% of the vote. A 2008 Wall Street Journal article praised Aguirre’s efforts to address the City of San Diego's hundreds of millions of dollars of unfunded pension liabilities.In October 2007, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that during the California wildfires of October 2007, Aguirre had called for an evacuation of the entire City of San Diego. Aguirre was heavily criticized for the idea but said that the paper had distorted his position. Aguirre's claim was that he had written a memo to the San Diego Mayor at the height of the fires, advising that the city should draw up a voluntary evacuation plan in light of federal regulations, the immediate threat of the fire, as well as concerns over weather conditions and air quality.As City Attorney, Aguirre filed a legal action to force a developer to reduce the height of an already constructed office building near an airport. Federal Aviation Administration officials had later determined that the height of the building posed a threat to public safety, even if a city building permit had been issued. In 2009, a California Superior Court judge affirmed the City Attorney's position by determining the developer had no legal right to erect the building to the unsafe height, and the top several stories were ordered to be removed from the building.In 2005, immediately upon taking office, Aguirre attempted unsuccessfully to overturn a city grant of $900 million in pension benefits to police and other city workers, which Aguirre contended had been illegal.Aguirre sued Countrywide Financial in July 2008 over lending practices  and convinced a federal multi-district litigation judicial panel to move all Countrywide Financial foreclosure cases to the jurisdiction of the City of San Diego.
In 2008, Aguirre ran for a second term as City Attorney but was challenged by several other candidates. The president of the San Diego City Council Scott Peters ran with the backing of city unions, while Superior Court Judge Jan Goldsmith was backed by the Republican political establishment. In the five-candidate nonpartisan primary election in June 2008, Aguirre qualified for the general election by coming in second place after Goldsmith. In the general election on November 4, 2008, Aguirre lost to Goldsmith: 59.5 percent to 40.5 percent.

After leaving office
After leaving his post as City Attorney, Aguirre returned to private legal practice by forming the law firm of Aguirre Morris & Severson, along with two colleagues from the City Attorney's office: Mia Severson, who had headed the City Attorney's civil litigation division; and Chris Morris, who had headed the City's Criminal Division. Aguirre also started the National Center for Regulatory Reform, which has issued extensive reports on the Market Crash of 2008.
Following the resignation of Mayor Bob Filner in August 2013, Aguirre declared his intention to run in the special election for mayor to replace him. In the primary election held November 19, 2013, Aguirre came in a distant fourth with 4.44 percent of the vote, and thus did not advance to the runoff election held in November.In 2014, Aguirre represented a woman named Ruth Hendricks who was challenging the $4.7 billion settlement deal for the failed San Onofre nuclear plant in San Diego County. His questions during the settlement approval process were not addressed. By 2015, his questions about backchannel dealings between regulators and utility companies were being taken more seriously, as criminal investigators seized notes from a secret meeting in Poland where the framework of a San Onofre deal was first discussed.

Electoral history

Answer: United States Secretary of the Interior