$1,119
more per month than January 2021, for the average Montana household
Senate Joint Economic Committee, December 2024
John Maxwell
Our future is worth the fight.
Running for the Montana House so everyday families can afford a home, raise their kids and build a future here in Billings.
A campaign for the rest of us.
- Home prices +66%
- Income +26%
- $1,119 more every month
- $13,428 more every year
- Montana home prices +81.2%
- 46.6% of renters cost-burdened
- Helena's tax cut $161 a year
A working-class kid, running against the machine.
I was born and raised in Billings, and I have paid the same bills you have. I dropped out. I got knocked down. I spent a stretch of 2018 living in a trailer without a paying job while I helped liquidate the family business and buried my grandfather. I know what a bad year looks like from the inside because I have had one, and it wasn’t that long ago.
I installed guardrail for most of my twenties. I’ve run heavy equipment for William Civil out of Bozeman. Now I consult on projects for a construction company in Billings, and I work with guys who can tell you the price of a bundle of shingles this week and what it was in the spring. My opponent runs his own firm here in town. His name is on the door. He defends murder and homicide cases and he’s good at it, and the life he’s built is the kind of life a career like that builds. It’s a long way from where most of this district actually lives.
None of that makes me better than my opponent. What it makes me is closer to the problem. When the people writing the affordability laws haven’t felt any of it in twenty years, you end up with a $161 tax cut sold as help and a paycheck that still doesn’t cover the month. HD 47 doesn’t need another polished résumé in that room. It needs someone who’s actually lived on this side of the ledger.
Hard work should still mean you can provide, get ahead, and build a life worth passing on.
What it actually costs to live here now.
$13,428
more per year, just to keep breathing
Cumulative inflation of 21.8% since 2021, against 20.7% nationally
81.2%
rise in Montana home prices since the start of COVID, the steepest of any state
FHFA House Price Index, 2025 analysis
$161
a year. That's what Helena's big income tax cut gives back to the median earner
HB 337 — $13.43 a month, against $1,119 a month in new costs
My thoughts on politics
Standing with Montana families.
Montana needs change, no matter which party we come from. The problems facing Montanans are everyone’s responsibility in Helena.
I’m running because getting ahead is becoming harder for my family and so many others, and that pressure reaches into every part of our lives. We need to work together so families have room to live and room to grow.