Knudsen Files For Re-election
Montana’s Attorney General Austin Knudsen has announced he will be running for re-election so that he can continue to fight drugs and crime in our communities, fight the Biden agenda and fight for Montanans’ freedoms and liberties. As the head of the Montana Department of Justice, the state’s top legal and public safety agency that includes the Montana Highway Patrol, Division of Criminal Investigation, and State Crime Lab, Knudsen has led the charge in Montana against drugs and violent crime. The Attorney General’s Office has played a key role in national fights against the Biden administration’s mandates on energy and economic policies, failure to secure the border, and attacks on gun rights. Within Montana, his office has increased prosecutions of the worst criminals in the state.
“It’s been an honor to serve Montanans as their attorney general. I ran in 2020 because as a county prosecutor, I saw firsthand the damage drugs and violent crime were doing to communities across the state, and how little was being done at the state level to turn the tide. We’ve made tremendous progress at the Department of Justice over the last three years increasing resources for law enforcement and strengthening laws to crack down on drugs, human trafficking and sex offenders, but the fight isn’t over,” Knudsen said. “President Biden has been a disaster for Montana. He has abdicated his duty to secure the border, allowing drugs to pour into our country, making the fight against crime in Montana more difficult. His administration and its allied anti-gun activists attack the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms. And his energy policies are draining family budgets and making our nation less secure. It will take years to undo the harm he has done – but I’m committed to getting the job done for Montanans and humbly ask for their support to do so.”
Under the leadership of Knudsen, the Montana Department of Justice has: * Strengthened Montana’s human trafficking and sex offender laws by closing loopholes and enhancing penalties to protect survivors and lock up sex predators for longer prison sentences; * Established mandatory minimum prison sentences for fentanyl distribution and created a penalty for up 100 years for dealers whose drugs kill another person; * Made unprecedented resources available to local law enforcement agencies and county prosecutors including specialized prosecutors, additional narcotics and major case investigators, drug-detecting canines; and * Secured a $2.1 million grant to eliminate the backlog of untested and partially tested sexual assault evidence kits collected from around the state and hire an investigator to bring unprosecuted rapists to justice; * Increased prosecutions of the worst of the worst criminals: cop killers, child sex predators, murderers and rapists.
