Things are about to get unusually western for Democrats in Montana’s more competitive U.S. House seat.

One month after pledging to fight for more of the state’s rural vote, Democrats have fielded not one but two western House district candidates with ranch roots and military experience.

Russell Cleveland, 40, of rural Stevensville, who has been a candidate since March, drew a challenger Thursday in Simms native Matt Rains. Both tout ranching family roots and Republican parents. Cleveland is a former aviation electrician in the U.S. Navy. Rains is a West Point graduate and Army Black Hawk helicopter pilot.

Cleveland lives on a ranch property near St. Regis. Rains, 45, lives on a production livestock ranch near Simms, which isn’t in the western district. Members of the House don’t have to

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