Two political newcomers — 19-year-old Republican Lukas Schubert and 43-year-old Democrat Beth Sibert — will face off to represent the Evergreen and northeast Kalispell areas of House District 8.  

In what Sibert deemed as the battle of “the Berts,” the two candidates differ on most topics, from immigration to the state judiciary.  

Sibert grew up in Kalispell and works at Logan Health on the behavioral health unit and the patient rehabilitation unit. A homeowner and mother, Sibert’s children attend Kalispell’s School District 5.  

If elected, she said she would work across the aisle and bring more balance to the Republican-majority Legislature. 

Schubert, a recent graduate of Glacier High School and current student at Flathead Valley Community College, works in marketing and is secretary of the Flathead County Republican Central Committee. Schubert said his priorities are property taxes, illegal immigration and the judiciary, which Schubert calls “corrupt” and “far-left.” 

The judiciary is the main reason he decided to run, he said, as he also pointed toward the judges who tried former President Donald Trump, who was found guilty on 34 felony counts of falsified business records earlier this year.  

“I would absolutely be willing to work with Democrats if they want to help on some of these issues ... but I am not going to cave on my core principles in order to get Democrats to support me on some other thing. We need strong Republicans at the same time,” Schubert said.  

Sibert, alongside addressing the state’s affordability and housing crisis, is interested in finding a way to create a public transportation alternative in the Flathead Valley, increasing teacher pay by allocating school infrastructure needs to the state, expanding the Montana Disability Network and defending the rights that already exist in the state’s constitution. 

Schubert says he wants to keep Montana from becoming a “far-left, liberal” state, offering Colorado and California as examples. He is in support of partisan elections for judges, something he says will help fix the judiciary because people would vote the Republicans in if they knew they were Republicans. 

“The reality is, this state votes Republican, it votes consistently Republican... and I’m a Republican, so yeah of course I think that conservative and Republican judges are going to produce better results than liberal of Democratic judges,” Schubert said.  

Sibert disagrees, stating in a candidate questionnaire that the judicial branch is working to actively uphold the constitution. 

Like the judiciary, Schubert said the state needs to address illegal immigration, which Schubert said would help alleviate Montana’s housing shortage. 

“I can tell you anecdotally in my district, since I do a lot of door knocking, I’ve been to a couple apartment complexes, talked to probably four or five people at these complexes... not a lick of English. So, probability is that these people are not here legally if they can't speak any English, that’s just basic math,” Schubert said when asked for evidence of illegal immigrants occupying local housing.  

There are non-English speakers in the U.S. legally, including refugees, reunited families and students. 

Schubert also said that he was in favor of penalizing businesses that knowingly hire immigrants without documentation, implementing a state form of E-Verify and empowering local law enforcement to ensure that no undocumented individuals receive government welfare. 

Sibert, on the other hand, said immigration is a national issue that needs to be addressed, and accused her opponent of using harmful rhetoric. 

“The rhetoric that [Schubert] is using... it encourages people to be discriminatory toward minorities. Often there are a lot of immigrants here [seeking asylum], on the path to becoming citizens, so I think it's actually more detrimental to our community to be discriminating and looking out at people that are different from us or from a different country,” Sibert said.  

Sibert ran unopposed in the primary election in June. Schubert ousted Republican Rep. Tony Brockman in the primary, securing 1,502 votes to Brockman’s 1,017. 

Moving forward, both candidates hope to represent the Evergreen and Northeast Kalispell community in Helena come January. Last legislative session Evergreen was pinpointed as Rep. Brockman helped pass legislation that reserved money to build a sidewalk along U.S. 2.  

“The selection of your representatives should be picking the person who is the most qualified, the best candidate, and I don't think there's a 19-year-old anywhere in the country, or the world really, that should be elected to make decisions that impact people’s lives,” Sibert said. “However you feel about my opponent, he just doesn't have the experiences to make those kind of judgement calls.”  

Schubert, however, said his values align with the district. 

“I’m a conservative and I think that Evergreen and Northeast Kalispell is a conservative community, so I think the values match as good as they're going to get,” Schubert said. 

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

    Beth Sibert, Democratic candidate for House District 8, answers a question at a candidate forum hosted by the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024 at the Red Lion Hotel in Kalispell. (Matt Baldwin/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider