The beauty of this all happening in Montana is not confined to the state's unparalleled scenery. A century ago, Montana banned corporate campaign spending after the Copper King* era's gargantuan corruption. "Citizens United" revoked almost one hundred years of Montanans keeping corporate corruption at bay. Even given this kind of citizen activism, I've been surprised to discover that Montana's the closest to a functioning democracy of any state I've encountered. Stranger things can and do happen under those Big Skies than electing an underdog.

Candidate Curtis is no sacrificial lamb. She's adamant that she will be the next Senator from Montana. Here's a 35-year-old Butte high school math teacher who's proud to have made it to the middle class. She's committed to helping other people and families get -- or stay -- there too.

Why haven't we seen AMANDA CURTIS emblazoned on every other email? Beats me. At one stroke, she could be the key to Democrats holding the Senate, the first woman Senator from Montana (and only the second the state has ever sent to Washington) and meaningfully lower the average age of the Senate.

...
If Curtis wins her election, she's already destined to stand out from the rest of the senators on the Hill — and not just because she would be the first one sporting a nose ring. Curtis would be the youngest senator, having only turned 35 in September. And in a Senate that is 80 percent male, has an average age of 62, and is predominately filled by millionaires, Curtis would bring a vastly different set of experiences to the Capitol.

According to Curtis, that's exactly what makes her the right candidate for the job. "We all need to remember that Washington, D.C. is full of folks that have done incredibly well for themselves and when you send folks to Washington, D.C. who have done incredibly well for themselves, they take votes that tilt the playing field to the wealthy and against us regular working folk," she told the Montana Standard shortly after her nomination.

It's these same traits — youth, a more mainstream economic background, and an ability to identify with working-class voters — that make her a formidable challenger, even with just two-and-a-half months to campaign. (Daines will have spent a full year running for the office.)

It would be difficult to find two candidates more different than Curtis and Daines. She teaches math and has $23,500 in a retirement account as her sole financial asset. He's a former businessman whose tech startup was sold to Oracle and who has a net worth of between $8.9 million and $32.7 million. She supports abortion rights. He believes abortion should always be illegal, even if the pregnancy was a result of a sexual assault, and he cosponsored the "Life at Conception Act," which defines life as beginning at fertilization and will not only end abortion but many believe could make most forms of birth control illegal.
...