Flint Touts Working-Class Republican congressional candidate Aaron Flint is using his first two general-election advertisements to emphasize his working-class upbringing, military service and support for skilled-trades education as he campaigns for Montana’s 1st Congressional District.
Flint’s newest ad features his mother, Karen, recounting how she raised him as a single parent while working two jobs. She says Flint began working at a young age to help the family, later took restaurant jobs to pay for college and eventually joined the Army.
The ad connects that biography to Flint’s affordability message, with his campaign arguing that his background gives him firsthand experience with the financial pressures facing working families. Flint has made lower taxes and reducing housing, energy and health-care costs central parts of his campaign.
The spot follows Flint’s first general-election ad, released in late August, which focused on skilled trades and workforce education. In that ad, Flint said he worked multiple jobs growing up, helped his mother keep the lights on and put himself through school before entering military service.
Flint has called for expanded trade and apprenticeship programs, including shop classes in high schools, and has argued that Montana needs more workers in construction, manufacturing and other skilled occupations.
That message has also become part of his pitch on housing affordability. Flint argues that expanding the state’s skilled workforce could help increase home construction and ease some of the supply constraints that have contributed to higher housing costs.
His campaign has received support from several trade and business organizations, including Montana’s Carpenters Union Local 82, the Montana Contractors Association and Montana Equipment Dealers. Flint’s campaign has pointed to those endorsements as evidence that his workforce message is resonating with groups tied to construction and the trades.
The two advertisements together establish a consistent early general-election theme: Flint is presenting himself as a candidate shaped by working-class experience who wants to expand vocational education, strengthen the trades and focus on household affordability.
Flint is facing Democrat Sam Forstag and Libertarian Nick Sheedy in the Nov. 3 general election for Montana’s western congressional district.
By: Montana Newsroom News Wire