Kathleen’s father is a World War II veteran, her mother worked in the Navy shipyards. When Kathleen was 11 years old, her mother Marie started to lose her memory, and was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at age 49. Kathleen and her father, Harrison were Marie’s caregivers until she passed away eight years later.  

After her mother’s passing Kathleen went on to college. She graduated with a B.S. in Resource Economics from U.C. Berkeley, and from Colorado State University with an M.S. in Recreation Resources. She soon landed her in Helena Montana, where she worked for the Environmental Quality Council crafting environmental policy, and soon met and married her husband, Tom.

When Tom was called to Iraq in 2009 on a foreign service assignment, Kathleen was approached to run for the MT state legislature. She won, served three terms and worked to improve healthcare access and affordability, created opportunities for MT working families, protected lands and waters, expanded medicaid women’s rights, created hundreds of small businesses and negotiated water compact that protected tribes and senior water holders across the state.

In 2017 she and her husband announced that she would not run for reelection so that they could travel the west together working with farmers and ranchers, days later her husband had a fatal heart attack. After helping her family heal from this devastating loss, she contemplated her next step. The national news gave her the answer. There was a need, she has the ability, so she stepped up and ran for office.

Kathleen hopes to soon become Montana’s second Congresswoman. Should she be elected her priorities include: growing and diversifying the economy, getting healthcare to all who need it, strengthening our education system and rebuilding a broken Congress so that it works for all of us.