Aaron Flint

Aaron Flint is the Republican nominee for Montana's open 1st Congressional District seat. A longtime radio talk show host and Army National Guard and Reserve veteran, he earlier worked for U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns and later as a state director for Republican officeholders. This is his first run for office, and he won the June 2 Republican primary with 50.1% of the vote.[1][2][3]

Flint is the grandson of newspaper publishers in Glasgow, Montana, according to Montana Free Press. He attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., before enrolling at the University of Montana in spring 2002, where he joined ROTC and the Montana National Guard.[2] His political career began in the late 1990s in the Washington, D.C. office of Sen. Conrad Burns, where he answered phones and constituent mail and later became Burns's legislative aide for energy policy.[2] He served in the U.S. Army National Guard and Reserves from 2002 to 2024, with deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan; Montana Free Press reports he was awarded two Bronze Stars.[1][2]

Flint worked as state director for then-Rep. Greg Gianforte (per Montana Free Press) and for Rep. Ryan Zinke (per Ballotpedia), and was communications director for Gianforte's 2016 gubernatorial campaign.[1][2] He has hosted statewide radio talk shows since 2009, including "Montana Talks," broadcast from KBUL in Billings, and has worked in local television and radio journalism for about 25 years; he took a leave of absence from the show to campaign.[2][3] He lived in Billings for many years before moving with his family to Kalispell in the summer of 2025.[2][3]

Flint entered the race after Rep. Ryan Zinke announced in March 2026 that he would not seek re-election. Zinke and President Donald Trump endorsed him, and the Associated Press projected on June 2, 2026 that he had won the Republican primary.[2][3]

Researched from the cited sources on 2026-10-21.