Montana Governor Greg Gianforte is changing his tune and is now agreeing to debate his opponent, Ryan Busse, in the lead-up to the November election.
Last week, Gianforte, a Republican, announced that he was declining to debate his Democratic challenger because he claimed Busse wasn't a "credible candidate."
Gianforte cited several reasons for that characterization, most notably that Busse had not released his personal tax returns.
On Tuesday, September 3, 2024, Busse released his tax returns to The Associated Press, which reported that he and his wife Sara Swan-Busse earned about $260,000 annually from 2014 to 2023.
Their main source of income before 2020 was from the firearms company Kimber Manufacturing, where Busse worked as a vice president, according to AP.
In recent years, most of the couple's income has come from Aspen Communications, a public-relations firm run by Swan-Busse, according to AP.
The governor's campaign manager, Jake Eaton, told MTN News the governor will now debate Busse, although the governor has not yet said which debates he'll participate in or how many.
MTN News invited both Gianforte and Busse to an October 1st debate inside the MTN studio in Great Falls.
Busse is the only candidate to accept the invitation at this point.
