The Engine Room -- July 7, 2021

Monica Tranel: We call it: The Engine Room. The four rowers in the middle of the boat. Announcer: The middle four, the Engine Room. Monica Tranel: That's me, competing in the '96 Olympics. The Engine Room isn't for show ponies. No one sees your face. You keep your eyes in the boat and work as hard as you can. But the Engine Room is where the real horse power has to come from, and that's where races are won. I grew up on a ranch in Eastern Montana. I'm the sixth of ten siblings, and we all had jobs to do: build the fence, stack hay, feed the sheep. I didn't learn my work ethic in the Olympics... I took it there from Montana. I worked my way through college, and then law school. I've spent the last 20 years fighting for the people I grew up with: Montana ranchers and landowners. i've gone toe-to-toe with some of the most powerful corporations in the world and won.
Now, the Montana I love is slipping away. We're becoming the playground of the rich, where folks in the middle can't afford to live here -- no matter how hard they work. Let's face it: for decades, Republican economic policies have destroyed the middle class. That's why I'm a Democrat. But so many people I grew up with don't vote for Democrats anymore. They feel like Democrats look down on rural America, and don't value what we as Montanans contribute to this country. But that's not who Democrats are. Democrats have always stood up for the hard-working folks in the middle. We know Montanans are the Engine Room; we are the middle four. We keep our eyes in the boat, work hard, and we power this country. And we deserve respect, fair wages, and a decent place to live. That's the Montana I want for my girls. It's gonna take a lot of hard work, but we're the Engine Room, and that's what we do.