MEET MATT RAINS
MEET MATT RAINS
Skip navigation menu
Matt Rains’ Montana roots run deep.
His great, great grandmother settled in Ennis 160 years ago and today Matt and his wife Whitney continue the family legacy on the Birdtail Ranch. His grandparents were pioneers in Montana ranching, bringing the first Quarter Horse, Charlie Russell, to the state and earning induction into the American Quarter Horse Association’s Hall of Fame.
Matt graduated from Simms High School, attended West Point, and served as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot and officer in Iraq and South Korea.
After the Army, he became a photojournalist covering humanitarian crises, as an engineer he ran million dollar power plant inspections, and then returned home to help build Montana’s agricultural future.
As Chief of Staff for the Montana Farmers Union, he helped create a USDA-certified meat-processing co-operative in Montana so producers could keep more of their hard-earned money and Montanans can know where their beef is from.
He advocated for policies that support the livelihood of families, identified recipients for community grant program funding, and worked on projects supporting kids in FFA and 4H programs because the future of agriculture will someday be in their hands.
He’s running for Congress because too many Montana families are barely making ends meet, and we need better paying jobs to keep up with the rapid increase in cost of living. Farmers and ranchers are being squeezed by harmful trade policies, healthcare costs keep climbing, access to our public lands is under threat, and veterans still aren’t receiving the care they’ve earned. Most importantly, Montanans are being priced out of being able to live where they grew up.
Matt has never backed down from a fight–and he’s not about to start now.
“I’ve broken the wildest colts and been awakened by artillery shells landing just yards from my bed in Iraq. I’m pretty fed up with extreme politics. As a fifth-generation Montanan and West Point grad who has served his country, I’m tired of Ryan Zinke taking advantage of Montana and never delivering anything that helps the people who put him there.”