Editor’s note: This is one of 12 profiles featuring a candidate in Montana’s Second Congressional House District primary race. The profiles are being published daily over 12 days and in alphabetical order. Each of the candidates were asked the same questions.
Ken Bogner’s journey into politics started on a U.S. military base in Iraq. He was a 9-11 generation teen who enlisted in the Marine Corps after graduating from high school in Miles City.
Out in the desert, on one of his two combat tours, Bogner started thinking about geopolitics and how it was that a small-town Montana kid found himself in a foreign land where people were trying to kill him.
Bogner was a combat engineer. He served the Iraqi border with Syria which Iraqis were trying to flee into. He built traffic control points to slow refugees and give security patrols a chance to search for smuggled weapons and contraband.
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“I knew I wanted to do something. I didn’t know what,” Bogner, a two-term state legislator said. “Then my younger brother was wounded in Afghanistan.” Chris Bogner, also a Marine, had been critically injured by an improvised explosive device.
“And my community, Miles City, stepped up,” Ken Bogner said. “They were sending care packages, started prayer chains, donated money, mowed my parents’ yard. I just felt so proud to be from Montana and Miles City. I wanted to give something back.
“And I did a legislative session as an aide. And I was asked to run for office myself, and that’s how I decided to give back. So, I ran in 2018.”
Bogner skips several steps in the telling of his journey. He attended Columbia University, one of the best schools in the country, and studied international relations. He then earned a master’s degree in public policy from Middlesex University, in London.
During his six years in the Montana Senate he was also a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor in the 2020 primary. His running mate was fellow state Sen. Al Olszewski. Their ticket lost to Gov. Greg Gianforte and Lt. Gov Kristin Juras.
Bogner’s legislative record has an international and privacy tilt. He successfully carried a law to ban purchases of Montana farmland by China and other foreign adversaries. Lawmakers also passed a Bogner bill banning the government from using facial recognition software for surveillance. His “right to try” law aims to empower patients to try alternative treatments.
“I’m the only candidate with both the military service and also the legislative experience, and there seems to be a lot of people who value that, especially with some of the bills I've passed,” Bogner said. “With the bill to prohibit foreign adversaries like China for buying our land. That's been very popular for the district as well as some medical bills that push back a little bit against the pandemic policies, which people seem to be very supportive of, as well as an election integrity bill and privacy rights bills that have passed. So, that experience of passing that comprehensive legislation has been very popular along with my military service district with a lot of veterans.”
Bogner travels his district campaigning in a 1966 Ford truck, which people in Eastern Montana seem to appreciate.
Political party: Republican
Age and place of birth: 37, Miles City
Home: Miles City
Occupation: Montana State Senator/military veteran outreach coordinator
Education: Columbia University
Military: U.S. Marine Corps, 2005-2009 (Two combat deployments to Iraq)
Political experience: Montana State Senator, Senate President Pro-tempore (2018-current)
Ways voters can contact you:
a.) Email: ken@kenbogner.com
b.) Address: P.O. Box 1012
c.) Phone number:
d.) Web page: kenbogner.com
Q. Identify two national priorities that are part of your platform, explain your position on each and tell voters how you intend to address both. If there’s an existing bill you support to advance your position, please identify it.
On my second deployment to Iraq while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, it was our mission to assist in securing the Iraq/Syria border. Iran was sending weapons into Syria to get smuggled across the border to be used on American troops. At the same time, refugees were flooding the border to escape the war. I have the experience of what it takes to secure a border. I will take these lessons to Congress to secure the southern border, stop the invasion of illegal immigrants, and eliminate the cartel’s massive drug trafficking operations.
I passed the bill to prevent the government from spying on its citizens with facial recognition technology as well as the constitutional amendment to protect against illegal search and seizure of Montanan’s electronic data. The U.S. government should not be spying on Americans, we need policies protecting against the monitoring of our personal communications, bank transactions, firearm purchases, and tracking of our location. I will bring legislation and vote to repeal the current laws that do this.
Q. Name two issues unique to the Eastern District that you will have to advance because no one else in the House will be familiar enough to do so. Explain how you’ll get the job done.
I passed the bill in Montana to prohibit our foreign adversaries, such as China, from buying our land here in Montana. Congress has failed to do this. You have probably seen a lot of campaign ads talking tough on China but I am the only candidate that has actually done something about foreign land ownership in our communities. I have gotten it done here in Montana and will get it passed in Congress.
I also passed the election integrity bill that prevents fraud by making every precinct in Montana subject to post-election audit. Election integrity is fundamental to our Republic. Our citizens must trust our elections; they need to know they are fair and the results are accurate. In Congress, I will bring legislation that gives states the tools to protect against fraud and provide confidence to the American voters.
Q. A rare earth minerals miner in Montana recently suggested that to sustain a domestic supply of metals essential to all things tech—semiconductors, batteries, advanced military equipment—Congress would have to act. Otherwise, China, which supplies about 80% of the rare earth minerals imported by the U.S., will continue the dominate supply. Consider the traditional basket of trade options—tariffs, subsidies, government purchases, federal leasing, and environmental laws—and suggest a policy approach to this challenge.
The federal government must implement policies to protect against lengthy and frivolous litigation that makes mining unsustainable because of the costs of being tied up in court. Unfortunately, this is the tactic used by those who want all mining and mineral extraction stopped; this is weakening Montana, America, and hurting our miners. It’s time for that to end.
Q. Explain how an import tariff consequential to sales of U.S. Corn and Soybeans to China affects the price of Montana’s top export ag commodity.
Taxes raise prices for consumers, the higher the price for consumers the lower the demand. Lower demand results in lower profit and production.
Q. President Joe Biden has suggested “codifying Roe,” in other words creating a national right to abortion. Explain your position on this issue.
I am pro-life. I do not support “codifying Roe” or a national right to abortion and I will continue to support positions that protect life. I believe in Federalism and that the states should determine their own laws as much as possible and not the federal government.
Q. What role would you assign yourself as a member of a slim House majority? Would you get behind policies or leaders that 90% of your party supports to advance the preferences of your caucus? Or would you use your dissent as leverage to advance positions most of your caucus didn’t support?
I would assign myself the role as the representative of the people of Eastern Montana. I will be accountable to the people of Eastern Montana and the people of Montana want a government that puts America first and I will support policies that do that.
Q. Would you have certified the electors from all 50 states as a member of Congress in 2021? Explain your decision while identifying any state whose electors you would have rejected.
States that had pending litigation with vote margins less than what is required for an automatic recount would not have received my vote for certification.