Wealth & Money Quote by Brian Schweitzer

Schweitzer’s line is policy pitched as family geography: the economy isn’t an abstract set of indicators, it’s the distance between generations. By repeating “grandchildren,” he frames growth as a retention strategy, not a brag sheet. The image is deliberately plainspoken - “driving across town” versus “flying across the country” - a gut-level contrast that turns demographic out-migration into a daily, relatable inconvenience. It’s not just about jobs; it’s about whether Montana becomes a place you’re from or a place you can actually keep living in.

The specific intent is legislative persuasion. He’s trying to yoke whatever agenda is coming - infrastructure, tax policy, workforce training, perhaps energy development - to a moral imperative: keep young people from leaving. That move also inoculates him against the usual suspicion of “economic growth” rhetoric. Growth can sound like it’s for developers and donors; he rebrands it as for grandparents.

The subtext is an anxiety familiar to rural states: brain drain, aging towns, and the slow hollowing-out that happens when opportunity clusters elsewhere. “Across town” quietly flatters the small-city ideal - community tight enough that family remains part of everyday life, not a holiday itinerary. It’s also a subtle rebuke to national economic centripetal force: if the market is pushing kids to Denver or Seattle, then state government has a duty to push back.

Contextually, this is Montana politics at its most pragmatic-populist: pride in place, suspicion of coastal gravity, and an appeal that makes economic development sound like keeping a promise to your own zip code.