Steve Bullock, Montana governor: ‘I was never going to run for the Senate’

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock is brushing aside talk that he should have instead run for U.S. Senate in 2020 rather than jump into an already-packed Democratic presidential primary field.

“This wasn’t an either-or … I was never going to run for the Senate, and I do think that I have both the skills and abilities as [an] executive to bridge some divides — that’s the kind of work that I’ve always done,” Mr. Bullock said on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” on Wednesday.

“Never been a legislator and have great respect for the senators, but this is something that never really got me excited,” he said.

Sen. Steve Daines, Montana Republican, is up for reelection in 2020.

Other potential Democratic U.S. Senate candidates in 2020 such as former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke and former Obama administration official Julián Castro are also running for president.

Former Sen. George Allen, who was elected to the Senate after serving as Virginia’s governor, has likened the pace in the chamber to a “wounded sea slug.”

“Having been governor, I would make more decisions in one morning than you would make all week in the Senate,” Mr. Allen said. “It is such a worship of process and partisanship, and they don’t get things done on time. It is the most collegial batch of folks I have ever been with, but it does move at the pace of a wounded sea slug.”