BOZEMAN—Young Montanans turned out in downtown Bozeman Tuesday night in a show of support for former President Donald Trump, just three days after an assassination attempt on Trump at a Pennsylvania rally. Passing downtown restaurant windows and wide open garage doors on a full-swing Montana summer night with a colorful display, the group had a message: America is back.
Walking along the sidewalk, young Trump supporters engaged with shop and restaurant patrons, shaking hands and showing their enthusiasm for the country in the wake of the shooting, which wounded Trump and killed two bystanders.
The Story
Cries of “Vote Trump! Trump, Sheehy!” could be heard from the band, sporting American flags, the Gadsden colors, and Trump flags, as they walked up Bozeman’s Main Street.
The attempt on Trump’s life has galvanized support for the former President — from unlikely places. In the wake of the shooting, billionaire industrialist and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, model and rapper Amber Rose, among countless other unlikely sources of support, endorsed Trump’s candidacy.
Tech mogul Marc Andreesen and investor Ben Horowitz joined in, too, in what Silicon Valley insiders are observing as a tidal shift in MAGA support throughout a leading economic sector.
Bozeman Energy Matching the RNC
Smiling supporters in Bozeman, spent a warm summer night asking observers who they planned to vote for in November and discussing down-ticket candidates. The display was upbeat and electric, much like the surprisingly celebratory RNC convention in Milwaukee this week, where observers expected a somber atmosphere in the wake of Saturday’s assassination attempt at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania.
‼️‼️TRUMP RALLY IN BOZEMAN ‼️‼️
— Bridger Young Republicans (@BridgerReps) July 17, 2024
Thank you to everyone who came out to support President Trump at the rally in Bozeman. We stand strong and united, even in the face of adversity!!! 🇺🇸 #mtpol #retiretester #mtnews #Trump2024 #MAGA pic.twitter.com/EQt1fLt1Q9
Passing cars unleashed honks, to volleys of “Trump, Sheehy! Trump, Sheehy!”
Is MAGA the New Youth Movement? 
Burgeoning Gen Z support for Trump: reckoning with housing affordability and wage stagnation
A young, American flag-toting woman in Bozeman told The Big Sky Prospector she sees a change in sentiment about open support of Donald Trump’s MAGA movement. She feels encouraged, knowing she is not alone, she said. Gleeful car horns and shouts echoed in the background.
To her, the free-flowing cheers and honks of support in response to the walk were unsurprising.
Strikingly, in Bozeman, a liberal bastion in deep-red Montana, negative reactions were outliers against a tide of enthusiasm.
Meanwhile, seated on a Main Street park bench, two young women looked on, each with a fresh bouquet of flowers from a farmer’s market a couple blocks away. Noticing the flags, their faces lit with smiles. One young woman waved, while the other snapped a photo on her phone.
Public support for Trump, on a downtown “blue” Bozeman street, is a portent of a generational tide shift. Affection for Donald Trump is striking among Gen Z, an unexpected challenge for Democrats.
Young voters have been hit hardest by the nation’s housing affordability crisis, saw high school and college years disrupted by COVID lockdowns and campus unrest, and entered the job market amidst record inflation and stagnant wage growth. Their prospects pose an existential problem to status quo Democrats and old-line Republicans.
And now, energy around former President Trump is palpable, days after the attempt on his life on July 13th.
Galvanizing Youth In Montana
Montana Senate candidate Tim Sheehy, whom Trump endorsed in February of this year, joins the former President at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week, where Republicans broadcast a big-tent message of unity around the former President. The upbeat convention stands in contrast to what was expected to be a darker, more somber event in the wake of Saturday's assassination attempt on Trump.
Currently, Democrats hold a majority in the US Senate by just a two-seat margin. With millions in out-of-state funding pouring into Montana over Democrat Senator Jon Tester’s vulnerable seat, Montana’s position at the hinge of the Senate is holding the nation’s attention. Come November, Montana’s electorate, possibly with a new generation of energy behind it, will decide its makeup.
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