Amanda Curtis in 2014 MT Senate debate
On Social Security:
Against privatizing Medicare and Social Security
In this time of elections being won by those with the largest bankrolls, it is a relief to have a candidate who indeed is "one of us" and who understands what day-to-day life is like for the vast majority of Montanans. Curtis stands for transparency
and accountability in government, evidenced by her daily YouTube posts as a state legislator from Butte during the 2013 Montana legislative session. We knew on a daily basis what Curtis was doing and, most important, what she was thinking.
Curtis will work to ensure that Montana's public schools remain high quality and that financial accessibility to post-secondary education is attainable. She is for keeping our public lands public. She supported and voted for Medicaid expansion.
She will work to ensure that women are free to make their own health care decisions. She is against privatizing Medicare and Social Security. She is a determined advocate for workers' rights.
Source: The Missoulian OpEd on 2014 Montana Senate race
Sep 2, 2014
On Gun Control:
Supports expanding background checks
An advocate for gun control, Curtis attended a 2013 Mayors Against Illegal Guns Rally to pressure Sen. Max Baucus to support expanding background checks.Conservatives have pounced on her writing in a socialist newsletter, along with her video diary.
In one entry, she said she had to stop herself from "walking across the floor" to "punch" Republican legislators who voted to make gay sex illegal in Montana. In another, she wore a hooded sweatshirt to commemorate the death of Trayvon Martin.
Source: ABC News on 2014 Montana Senate race
Aug 22, 2014
On Abortion:
100% pro-choice voting record
NARAL Pro-Choice America and NARAL Pro-Choice Montana issued a statement congratulating the Montana Democratic Party for having
made "a strong choice in nominating Amanda Curtis as the next Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate." Curtis, we learn, "has a 100% pro-choice voting record with NARAL Pro-Choice Montana."
Source: LifeNews.com on 2014 Montana Senate race
Aug 20, 2014
On Budget & Economy:
Economy that works for all of us, not just for the richest
Speech Accepting the Party's Nomination: "For the next three months, we're going to cross this state--towns small and large--and we're going to talk to people. We're going to share this vision--of an economy that works for all of us,
not just for the richest Americans, but beyond that we're going to listen because there's a hunger--a hunger for people to have leaders who actually listen for a change.
Source: 2014 Montana Senate campaign website, AmandaForMontana.com
Aug 16, 2014
On Civil Rights:
Outspoken advocate for labor unions and women's rights
Montana Democrats have chosen a promising young state legislator to replace John Walsh in a U.S. Senate campaign she has little chance of winning but which party leaders hope can pull disgruntled voters to the polls for other races, including the state's
lone congressional seat.First-term state Rep. Amanda Curtis, 34, is a high school math teacher in Butte who won the endorsements of Montana's teachers union for her opposition to charter schools as well as the Montana Sportsmen Alliance before
Saturday's party convention in Helena. Democrats are hoping her outspoken support for labor unions and women's rights will energize the campaign against U.S. Rep. Steve Daines.
Curtis sponsored several bills that didn't make it through Montana's
Republican-controlled statehouse. Among them was legislation to increase the mandatory percentage of Montana workers hired for state public works projects. Contractors, especially in the energy industry, opposed the measure.
Source: Washington Times on 2014 Montana Senate race
Aug 16, 2014
On Corporations:
Wall St. is doing great; recovery hasn't reached rest of us
Curtis appealed to working-class voters and portrayed Daines as being in the camp of corporations and the wealthy. She said her Senate campaign would focus on issues that include campaign finance reform, tax reform and funding for schools
and infrastructure that would create jobs. "This is the worst job market in a generation, but the stock market is doing just fine. Wall Street is doing great," Curtis said. "This recovery has not reached the rest of us."
Source: Helena Independent Record on 2014 Montana Senate race
Aug 16, 2014
On Drugs:
Medical marijuana law is over-restrictive
Curtis has come out in support of "reasonable" gun control legislation that would expand background checks, and has criticized a 2011 medical marijuana law passed by the state Legislature as over restrictive, and pushed to increase hiring of
Montanans for state public-works projects, according to the AP.
Source: The Hill e-zine on 2014 Montana Senate race
Aug 16, 2014
On Education:
Math teacher and unabashed backer of public schools
Curtis, a 34-year-old math teacher at Butte High School, an unabashed backer of labor unions, public education and the "working class,"
is seemingly fired up at the chance to take on Steve Daines, the freshman Republican congressman who has had front-runner status for months in the Senate race.
Source: Billings Gazette on 2014 Montana Senate race
Aug 16, 2014
On Environment:
Big supporter of protecting access to public lands
She's a big supporter of protecting access to public lands, she said, and "keeping the government out of our bedrooms and our doctor's offices." She sponsored several bills that session, including one aimed at increasing the percentage of
Montana workers hired for public works projects. She was a vocal opponent of other bills she said amounted to a "full assault on people" by taking aim at free, public education, workers' rights and access to courts and public lands.
Source: Billings Gazette on 2014 Montana Senate race
Aug 16, 2014
On Government Reform:
When wealthy in Congress, playing field tilts to wealthy
"I might have the chance now to go across the state and say with a loud, aggressive voice that Steve Daines is wrong for Montana," Curtis said.
Not because he was successful in business and earned millions, she says, but wrong in part because Congress has enough of those people already.
"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 folks," she said.
Source: Billings Gazette on 2014 Montana Senate race
Aug 16, 2014
On Health Care:
ObamaCare: don't throw the baby out with the bathwater
Curtis has supported a state expansion of Medicaid--something Republicans who control the Montana Legislature have blocked--and says now there are good things and bad things about the
Affordable Health Care Act, also known as ObamaCare. "I'm not a person who will throw the baby out with the bathwater," Curtis said.
Source: Billings Gazette on 2014 Montana Senate race
Aug 16, 2014
On Gun Control:
Common-sense solutions like expanding background checks
Speakers at a rally at the Capitol urged Sen. Max Baucus to change his stance and support expanded background checks before people can buy guns. The Democratic senator voted against mandatory background checks earlier this year. State Rep. Amanda
Curtis, D-Butte, told how at age 17, in May 1997, she and her family were awakened by a call from the police in the middle of the night telling them to come to a Billings hospital. They learned her 16-year-old brother had shot and killed himself playing
Russian roulette at a party.
"I would be willing to bet that every single one of you that's here today either has been directly affected or knows someone who has been directly affected by gun violence." Curtis, who is considering a race for the
U.S. House, called for common-sense solutions. "If Montana has 2.5 times the suicide rate of states with comprehensive background checks, maybe we should try that out," said Curtis, a high school math teacher.
Source: Billings Gazette on 2014 Montana Senate race
Jul 23, 2013
On Civil Rights:
Repeal state ban on sodomy; make gay sex legal
38 legislators in the Montana state House voted on Monday to keep sex between gay people illegal, a fact that elicited a stinging rebuke from state Rep. Amanda Curtis in a video:"The good news," according to Curtis, is that that the bill--designed to
repeal a law that targets gay individuals--will move forward in the state House after a 60-38 vote. "The bad news is that there are 38 people in the House who think that's how their district wants them to vote, or they are not listening to their district
and believe so strongly that gays should be felons that they have a moral obligation to keep it that way."
Curtis said it was hard for her to hold herself back from walking "across the floor" during debate on the bill in order to "punch" her colleague,
state Rep. Krayton Kerns, who "insinuated that if you are gay you do not have a moral character." In 1997, the state Supreme Court ruled that the 40-year-old ban on sodomy was unconstitutional, but the state legislature has yet to repeal the statute.
Source: Huffington Post on 2014 Montana Senate race
Apr 9, 2013
Page last updated: Dec 06, 2018