Montana’s incumbent Republican Governor Greg Gianforte revealed earnings exceeding $23 million over the past four years up to 2022, drawn predominantly from investments, as per tax documents disclosed by his campaign. Gianforte, a former tech executive vying for a second term, previously spent over $6 million of his personal funds on an unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign in 2016. Following a successful bid for Congress in a special election in 2017, Gianforte triumphed in the governor’s race four years ago by investing more than $7.5 million to defeat Democrat Mike Cooney by a significant margin, based on campaign finance filings.
Challenging Gianforte in the upcoming election is Democrat Ryan Busse, a former executive in the firearms industry. Gianforte has already contributed approximately $47,000 to his own campaign during the current election cycle, the records indicate. The governor’s tax returns reveal that a substantial portion of his income since 2019 has been generated from investment returns, in addition to his annual governor’s salary of about $120,000.
In a statement, Gianforte’s spokesperson Anna Marian Block mentioned that the decision to disclose the tax returns was rooted in a “commitment to transparency” with the people of Montana. Glimpses from previous disclosures indicate that since 2005, Gianforte has amassed over $265 million in income, with a significant portion of this sum resulting from the sale of his Bozeman-based company, RightNow Technologies, to Oracle Corp. for $1.8 billion.
Despite attempts in 2020 by both Democrats and Republican primary contenders to paint Gianforte’s substantial wealth as a drawback, their efforts proved fruitless. On the other hand, Busse’s campaign has chosen not to release his tax returns for public scrutiny.
Montana Governor Gianforte Earns External Income During Campaign for Re-Election
