Former cattle rancher now herds constituents

Age: 26

Alma mater: University of Montana

Occupation: Scheduler for Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont.

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Washington Examiner: Can you tell me a little about how you ended up coming to Capitol Hill?

Galt: After I graduated college in Missoula, I got a job with then-Congressman Denny Rehberg in his Helena office, so when he lost and Steve Daines was elected, I applied for a job with Steve and in that interview, they asked if I was interested in going to D.C. I was young, single and didn’t have anything, so I figured why not? So I came out here and worked for Steve for about a year, then I went off the Hill to a nonprofit and was working in event planning. When Congressman Zinke looked very promising to be coming to D.C., I reached out to his campaign just to get my name in the hat for doing scheduling when he won. Luckily, he won and I was lucky enough to get to come back to the Hill and work for him.

Examiner: You’ve spent a lot of your career in offices for Montana representatives. What’s it like working in an office where the state only has one representative and dealing with people who live over such a broad area?

Galt: It’s challenging. I do his D.C. scheduling and his Montana scheduling and I handle his agriculture issues. So it’s beyond challenging. Not only are we getting requests from Montanans who are coming to D.C., usually it’s just you have one area of your state that people are coming from, we have people from all across the state who are constantly coming to D.C., so it’s trying to manage to meet with the Montanans here, meeting with the Montanans in the state, then when he’s out here, juggling committee hearings and votes. There’s really not enough time in the day for that poor man to meet with everybody and it is a constant challenge to try to puzzle piece everything together to make sure he hits every place in Montana, which is almost impossible in a two-year term.

Examiner: Your aunt was the first woman elected to Congress. Did that play into our decision to come work on Capitol Hill?

Galt: Absolutely. Jeannette Rankin was my grandma Louise’s sister-in-law, so just growing up with my grandma always talking about her, being the first woman elected and coming out here and being part of Congress when they didn’t even have women’s restrooms for her to use when she was out here and on the floor. The stories of just overcoming everything. I never knew Jeannette, but from stories my Grandma Louise told, she was very, very involved in politics. My grandma also became one of the first female county attorneys in the state. I just come from a very long line of powerful females in my life, but that never really had anything to do with it. Whether you were a female or a male, it was just how hard you worked. It was always really strongly ingrained in me that if you work hard for what you want, that’s all that matters.

Examiner: You’re also a fifth-generation rancher. Any lessons you learned with that that you apply to your job on Capitol Hill today?

Galt: I was going to say it’s a lot like maybe managing cattle because you can’t really tell them which way to go, you just kind of have to yell at them sometimes [laughter]. I mean, it’s hard work, that’s definitely one thing. I grew up with that work ethic of ranching. I’ve watched my father and my grandfather and my uncles and my brothers just work really hard for the ranch and for the family. And you have to have a very strong work ethic to be on the Hill. It’s long hours and sometimes ungratifying work, so it’s nice to have had that in my background so coming out here was a natural transition. You just keep working really hard for what you want.