Brian David Schweitzer (4 September 1955-) was the Democratic Governor of Montana from 3 January 2005 to 7 January 2013, succeeding Judy Martz and preceding Steve Bullock.
Biography[]
Brian David Schweitzer was born in Havre, Montana in 1955, the grandson of Russo-German immigrants on his father's side and Irish immigrants on his mother's side. He went to high school in Canon City, Colorado before working as an irrigation developer in Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America, coming to speak Arabic. In 1986, he launched a ranching and irrigation business in Whitefish, Montana, and he worked for Bill Clinton's Department of Agriculture for seven years. He was unsuccessful in his 2000 bid for the US Senate, narrowly losing to Republican incumbent Conrad Burns by a margin of 51% to 47%. However, he went on to serve as Governor from 2005 to 2013, combining progressive values with populist rhetoric and Western ideas of self-reliance. As Governor, he vetoed 95 bills, including Republican anti-abortion legislation and anti-medical marijuana legislation. He regularly polled at 60%+ in popularity, and, from 2009 to 2012, Montana achieved the country's highest rate of increase in the proportion of its population with college degrees due to his support for education. Schweitzer also supported universal healthcare, expanding energy production, gun rights, and gay rights. He left office in 2013, and he backed Martin O'Malley's presidential bid in 2016 rather than run himself, despite mulling over presidential bids in 2012 and 2016.