Three years ago, Montana did something nobody in Washington thought was possible.
In a state most Americans picture as cowboys and Yellowstone reruns, a group of legislators, think tank researchers, and ordinary people who were tired of watching their hometowns become unaffordable passed the most aggressive housing reform package in modern American history. National media called it the Montana Miracle. The Beltway types couldn’t believe it.
Kendall Cotton is the man who built the policy machine that made it happen. He runs the Frontier Institute in Helena and chairman of the Land Liberty Movement.
He started with a map.
Not a manifesto. Not a lobbying campaign. A map that showed exactly which neighborhoods were off-limits to starter homes, duplexes, and ADUs. The kind of data that makes it very hard for a city councilor to look you in the eye and say the regulations aren’t the problem.
That map led to legislation passing with near-unanimous support from both parties.
This week, Kendall joins us to explain how it happened and the advice he would give someone who’s tired of being locked out so they can start the fight in their own state tomorrow.
