Photos: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson Rally in Billings

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) rallied the party faithful in Billings, Montana late afternoon Friday. 

It was an important stop for the Speaker. While the US Senate race has garnered much of the attention, Democrats in Montana gerrymandered the two Congressional districts in hopes that they could pull off a win in the Western District. They were held off by Congressman Zinke, who defeated Democrat Monica Tranel in 2022. Zinke will likely defeat that same candidate once again here in 2024- but Speaker Johnson made it clear with his visit that Montana matters on the national stage.

I had the honor of emceeing Congressman Ryan Zinke's (R-MT01) event which also featured Gov. Greg Gianforte, Attorney General Austin Knudsen, and State Auditor and Congressional Candidate Troy Downing who is running for the Eastern Congressional district.

Our producer Travis Lee put together a writeup on Friday night after attending the rally. As Travis wrote, Speaker Johnson warned that the U.S. is under the "greatest collection of crises since World War II or the Civil War."  Yet he remains bullishly optimistic that the GOP will hold the House, take the Senate and the White House.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA): "Because I think we need to speak with clarity, conviction and consistency right now than we ever have before, because people are looking for the answers. What does it boil down to? I think it's individual freedom, limited government, the rule of law, peace through strength, fiscal responsibility, free markets and human dignity. Now under those things, there's lots of subcategories, but that's the essence of what made us the greatest nation in the history of the world. It's not even close. We're the strongest and most free, most successful, most powerful, most benevolent nation that's ever been."

Congressman Zinke, a retired Navy SEAL Commander who also served as President Trump's Secretary of the Interior, stressed that Montana Republicans need to win these two Congressional seats here in Montana to hold the House or to deepen the majority from the razor thin margin that exists right now.

The Billings Gazette also covered the rally, and featured a great line from Governor Gianforte: "Working together, let's send Speaker Johnson and President Trump a team they can work with," he said. "And let's fire Kamala Harris and together, doing that, we can make America great again."

Here's some more photos from the rally: