HELENA — Kyle Austin, the winner of the Libertarian nomination for Montana’s open U.S. Senate seat, says he has been trying to push back against the idea that the Senate election is a three-way race.
“You know, a lot of voters – once they get to know me, they actually like me,” he told MTN. “They see me as a candidate of the future.”
Austin is one of four candidates on the ballot, alongside Republican Kurt Alme, Democrat Alani Bankhead and independent Seth Bodnar – and of the four, he’s received the least attention from his fellow candidates and from outside groups.
(Watch the video to hear more from Austin.)
Austin, 43, is the owner of Pharm406, an independent pharmacy based in Billings and with an office in Butte, but which serves customers across the state. He also owns family farmland west of Havre, where he has grown wheat, barley and canola.
Austin says he’s serious about campaigning. He’s been taking alternating weeks away from his pharmacy business and traveling around the state – sometimes in a semitruck with his face and campaign logo on it. He says he’s primarily meeting with voters at public events like fairs.
“People are angry, people are upset with what's going on in our government, what's going on in the world,” he said. “They're looking for that new style of leadership that I can present and bring to the voters in Montana.”
Austin previously ran twice for Montana’s eastern U.S. House seat as a Republican, in 2022 and 2024. He says he saw those runs as a “dress rehearsal” for his dream of becoming U.S. senator or governor. However, while he describes himself as a lifelong Republican, he says he considers the GOP “corrupt” and not committed enough to conservative fiscal policy, so he switched tactics and ran as a Libertarian this time.
“No matter if you're a Democrat or a Republican, they have a spending problem in Helena, Montana, we have a spending problem in Washington, D.C., and that's where the conservative values of the Republicans have been lost,” said Austin.
The Montana Libertarian Party has remained at a distance from Austin. They endorsed another candidate, Tom Jandron, in the primary. When Austin won – by about 200 votes out of more than 3,400 cast – the party released a statement criticizing the state’s open primary system and accusing Austin of only running as a Libertarian to “take advantage of the MTLP’s statewide ballot access.”
Austin said during the primary he believed many Libertarians weren’t serious about trying to win elections. He says he believes he’s been able to make connections with Libertarians since the primary because of his conservative values, but that there were still some “far-left-wing” Libertarians who he wasn’t aligned with.
Austin says he wants to lean on his experience as a pharmacist and in agriculture. He’s proposed a plan he calls “Health Care 2.0,” which he describes as an overhaul of the health care system to eliminate wasteful spending and make sure money gets where it’s needed most.
Unlike the other three candidates, there haven’t been TV ads running for or against Austin, and he says he doesn’t plan to focus on traditional advertising. He believes he can still get his message through, particularly aimed at drawing Republican-leaning voters.
“It's really going to be the old-fashioned word by mouth, by those conservatives out there, by those Montana voters that said, ‘You know what? We are going to stand out and vote for an actual true Montana candidate this election,’” he said.
Austin’s campaign finance reports say he has contributed $250,000 to his campaign – $35,000 of it directly through a loan, and the rest through estimates of what he considers in-kind contributions, like the use of his personal vehicles and office for campaigning.
