Remember the old song with the lyric, “I’m a cowboy who never saw a cow, never roped a steer cause I don’t know how?” Well, that’s self-proclaimed “rancher” and GOP Senate nominee Matt Rosendale’s story. Up until a few weeks ago Rosendale described himself as “a conservative rancher,” now he’s changing his social media profiles to declare that he’s a “Trump conservative and fighter for Montana,” because he’s been found out. Talking Points Memo:
Rosendale had been leaning more and more heavily into his rancher persona as a candidate throughout the GOP primary, using it in ads and on the campaign trail. But the real estate broker had previously publicly admitted that he leased out his land rather than ranched it himself, and documents obtained then by TPM showed he’d never actually owned any cattle.
In June, shortly after TPM reported about his seeming exaggerations, his campaign’s press releases stopped including their once-regular references to Rosendale as a “Glendive rancher,” referring to his adopted hometown. The campaign also removed the “rancher” description from his website’s tagline that month, according to cached versions of the site.
For what it’s worth, as of this article’s publication Rosendale’s campaign website still described him as a “rancher” on his Facebook and instagram bios. His other campaign materials still often refer to Rosendale’s “family ranch” in Glendive, which he bought in 2002 after a successful career in Maryland real estate.
