From Montana.
For Montana.
Family man. Coach. Entrepreneur. Rancher. Veteran.
Fueled By
Personal Loss
When Russ and his wife Kate lost their oldest daughter, Madison, to leukemia at the age of 13, they saw firsthand how broken the American healthcare system was.
The pain of watching her suffer was matched only by the anger of watching politicians slash critical funding for medical research in the pursuit of more tax breaks for billionaires.
That moment changed everything.
It is why Russ ran, and it is why he has not stopped. No parent should ever have to watch their child fight a deadly disease in a system rigged against them.
A Montanan Through
And Through
Russ Cleveland is an Independent Democrat, a dirt-road Democrat from rural Montana, not beholden to the national party or D.C. insiders.
He is a Navy veteran, an entrepreneur, a high school track and football coach, and a cattle rancher. He is a proud husband and father to a brady bunch of seven incredible children.
Roots In A
Purple Montana
Russ grew up on a farm in the Bitterroot Valley with a deep respect for hard work and community. Always an athlete, he went on to play football and study electrical engineering at Montana Tech, until his desire to serve his country led him to enlist in the U.S. Navy as an Aviation Electrician.
He is proud to have deep family roots in a once purple Montana, with parents from Townsend and grandparents and great grandparents from the Flathead Valley.
Service To
Our Country
Russ served as an Aviation Electrician for the MH-53E squadron HM-14 out of Norfolk, Virginia. He graduated at the top of his class in technical training and served honorably until 2009 on active duty, and 2013 in the reserves.
The experience taught him what it means to be accountable to something larger than himself, a value that has guided his life ever since.
Accountable to something larger than himself.
Entrepreneurship
And Business
In 2013, Russ married his best friend and soulmate, Dr. Kate Cleveland, and together they built a family and a business rooted in service to their community.
After his military service he spent nearly a decade in banking, running a large portion of the Denver market for U.S. Bank. He fell in love with small business and later co-founded Rocky Mountain Kids, which quickly expanded to serve thousands of children across the region.
When the pandemic struck, Russ led the nation’s first remote learning centers, standing up virtual learning labs to keep children in school and their parents working. Through that work he also helped launch Universal Pre-K programs across Colorado.
Coming Home
To Montana
After the loss of their eldest daughter in 2020, Russ and Kate knew they needed to come home. They returned to Montana the next year and, like many working-class families, quickly found that the place that raised Russ had priced their growing family out of most options.
True to his blue collar roots, Russ rolled up his sleeves and made it work. He planted new roots in Saint Regis and built the family’s homestead and cattle ranch with his own hands, naming it Madison Ranch in honor of their daughter.
He spent his first three years back in Montana building multi-family affordable housing units in Saint Regis, aimed at meeting the needs of teachers and working class families in his community. Today Russ and Kate coach at their local high school and raise their children with the same sense of purpose that has carried them through tragedy and triumph alike.
It Was Never
About Right Or Left.
Russ grew up in a purple Montana, at a time when Montanans were neighbors first and political adversaries second. He ran a campaign that wasn’t about right versus left, but top versus bottom.
It focused on the things that hit every Montanan the same way: healthcare, affordability, and corruption. The race is over. Those three are not.