Former firearms executive, author and Kalispell resident Ryan Busse tossed his hat in the ring for governor Thursday, possibly pitting him against Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte in November 2024.

Busse, 53, who is running as a Democrat, said he decided to seek the office after watching Montana, in his view, decline under the Gianforte administration.

“I think that we face, in Montana, an existential crisis right now with Greg Gianforte and the Republican supermajority,” Busse said Sept. 14, shortly after announcing his campaign.

Busse argued that Gianforte has raised property taxes, left the housing crisis unaddressed, threatened basic freedoms as well as women’s rights, and defunded public schools.

A former Republican, Busse said he is running as a Democrat after no longer feeling represented by the state GOP. While he said he doesn’t agree with the Democratic Party on every issue, many of the party’s ideas are more reflective of what Montanans want and need, he said.

Busse helped build gun manufacturer Kimber America in Kalispell from 1995 to 2020 as the vice president of sales, selling nearly 3 million firearms, according to his campaign. Leaving the industry in 2020, Busse published a memoir in 2021, entitled “Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America,” about standing up to the gun industry. *

But Busse’s campaign is not anti-gun. His campaign’s announcement video features Busse shooting targets with his sons, Lander and Badge.

The two boys were among 16 youth plaintiffs in the recent Held v. Montana lawsuit, which they won in Lewis and Clark County District Court. The youths argued the state had violated their constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment by allowing fossil fuel development and the release of greenhouse gas emissions.

Busse’s wife, Sara Busse, also featured in the video, is the new executive director of the nonprofit ImagineIF Foundation, which acts as the main fundraising arm for the Flathead County library system.

“These are people who are involved and care about their community up and down the line,” said Ron Gerson, chair of the Flathead Democrats.

Gerson described Busse as an excellent candidate, representative of Montana’s values. Gerson said he believes that a Busse-led state would return to protecting the individual rights of Montanans.

Republicans, meanwhile, expressed confidence that Gianforte could easily top Busse in a showdown.

“[Busse’s] joining a field with a very popular incumbent,” said Al Olszewski, chair of the Flathead County Republicans.

Gianforte has not yet formally announced his intention to run for a second term in office.

The current governor has some advantage as an incumbent when he does campaign, Olszewski said, pointing to the hold the Republican Party enjoys in the state. Former president Donald Trump won the state in 2020 with a 16-point advantage over Joe Biden, according to the Associated Press.

“From providing record funding for Montana schools and increasing teacher pay, to funding law enforcement and cracking down on drug traffickers, to paying off the state’s debt to make Montana debt-free in ‘23, to cutting taxes for Montanans at every income level, Gov. Gianforte remains focused on building upon what he committed to do and has proudly accomplished so far,” a spokesperson for the governor said in a statement.

Gianforte, though, is also facing a challenge from within his own party. Rep. Tanner Smith, R-Lakeside, announced his gubernatorial campaign in June, citing his disappointment with Gianforte’s policies as the main reason for his primary challenge.

“We won’t last under Greg’s leadership for another four years,” Smith said in June.

Montana Republican Party Chairman Don “K” Kaltschmidt described Busse as a member of the “far-left” in a statement released Thursday morning.

“Ryan Busse is straight out of the far left’s central casting — an anti-gun extremist and radical environmentalist who wants to shut down Colstrip, drive up Montanans’ electricity bills, and keep gas prices growing at Joe Biden-level highs,” Kaltschmidt said.

Running for governor is an effort to get Montana’s quality of life back, Busse said. His strategy is to meet Montanans face to face and where they are at, rejecting a “crafty, D.C. political theory of four dimensional chess,” he said.

While Northwest Montana is famously conservative, home to the powerful Reiger dynasty, Busse said he sees advantages to running as a Democrat who calls Kalispell home.

“Being in the middle of the people who need to hear this message, not living in a Missoula blue bubble, I think is really important,” he said.

The filing deadline to run in next year’s election is March 11.

Reporter Kate Heston can be reached at kheston@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4459.

• This paragraph has been updated from an older version to say the correct number of sales.