Mike Cooney

His grandfather, Frank Henry Cooney, served as the state's 9th governor of Montana from 1933 to 1935.

Growing up, Cooney played drums in local bands.

Michael R. Cooney (born September 3, 1954) is an American politician who served as the 36th lieutenant governor of Montana from 2016 to 2021.

He worked at the family business, Cooney Food Brokerage, from 1970 to 1977.

He graduated from Butte High School in 1972 and, intending to become a TV news presenter, enrolled at University of Montana to study journalism.

Before beginning his studies, he worked at KXLF-TV in Butte in 1972.

There, he met Max Baucus, who was campaigning for election to the Montana House of Representatives.

Cooney was impressed by Baucus, who was elected to the multi-member 18th District in first place, and when Baucus ran for Montana's 1st congressional district against Republican incumbent Richard G. Shoup in 1974, Cooney paused his studies to work for him.

He worked as an advance man, travelling to towns ahead of Baucus to prepare for his visits.

Cooney enjoyed himself immensely and "I decided right then and there that's what I wanted to do."

After Baucus won, Cooney returned to the University of Montana and changed his major to Political Science.

During the 1975 session of the Montana Legislature, Cooney worked for an insurance lobby group and enjoyed the legislative process.

Thus, when a seat in the Montana House opened up in the Silver Bow County-based 83rd District in 1976, Cooney decided to run.

He modelled his campaign literature on Baucus' and campaigned door-to-door, which was unusual at the time.

He later admitted that his family name may have helped him and quipped that when he was campaigning on the doorstep, some people thought he was collecting for the local paper.

The 21 year-old Cooney defeated two other candidates in the Democratic primary with 1,044 votes (54.52%) and was unopposed in the general election.

However, this was also a time of personal sorrow for Cooney, whose father died of a heart attack in August 1976, aged 60.

Cooney, sworn into office at age 22, became one of the youngest state legislators in Montana history.

He immediately received attention as he and another Butte-based legislator voted for Hamilton Representative John Driscoll as Speaker of the House instead of fellow Butte Representative J. D. Lynch, helping Driscoll to beat Lynch.

Cooney said that he thought Lynch would be able to offer "a little more diplomacy" with the Montana Senate, which was evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans.

He previously served in the Montana House of Representatives (1977–1981), as the secretary of state of Montana (1989–2001), in the Montana Senate (2003–2011), as the president of the Montana Senate (2007–2009) and ran unsuccessfully for Governor of Montana in 2000.

In 1977, Cooney sponsored successful legislation that declared Montana would process its own nuclear waste but wouldn't take waste from any other state.

He has called this his proudest achievement in the State House.

The Montana Legislature is part-time and Cooney had supplemented it with other work: at his family's company until 1977 and then at the Montana Energy Research Development Institute from 1977 to 1979, all the while continuing to work as an Executive Assistant for Baucus, who had been elected to the U.S. Senate in 1978.

He ran for re-election in 1978, defeating a single primary opponent with 1,577 votes (62.41%) and again ran unopposed in the general election.

In 1979, Cooney received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Montana and in that December, he married DeeAnn Gribble after five years of dating.

Cooney then felt the need to settle down in a permanent job, so did not run for re-election in 1980.

The Cooneys moved to Washington, D.C. in 1982 so that DeeAnn could attend Antioch School of Law and Mike transferred to Baucus' staff there.

After DeeAnn graduated, the Cooneys moved back to Montana and Mike joined Senator Baucus' Helena office as his wife joined a local law firm.

An old friend of his sent a $100 campaign donation after hearing Cooney defend Baucus' vote for the Gramm–Rudman–Hollings Balanced Budget Act of 1985 and Cooney decided to run.

He received permission from Baucus to run, though reluctantly, as Baucus did not want to lose him, so Cooney agreed to only campaign on evenings and weekends.

Cooney was unopposed in the Democratic primary and defeated the Republican nominee, State Senator Pete Story, by 174,917 votes (49.28%) to 163,830 (46.16%).

His victory was considered an upset as he was outspent by his opponent and Republicans had won the open gubernatorial seat, incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator John Melcher was defeated by Republican Conrad Burns and George H. W. Bush carried the state's four electoral votes in the presidential election.

Along with Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Nancy Keenan and Clerk of the Montana Supreme Court Ed Smith, Cooney was one of only three Democrats to win a statewide election in Montana that year.

Cooney continued working for Baucus until 1988, when he was encouraged to run for Secretary of State of Montana.

Cooney succeeded two-term Republican Jim Waltermire in the office, who had been running for Governor of Montana in the 1988 election when he was killed in a plane crash on April 8, 1988, after returning from a campaign event.

Cooney said that the office had been "fairly political" under Waltermire: several employees asked Cooney how much they would be expected to contribute to his campaign fund in order to retain their jobs.

Amongst other positions, Cooney has served as executive director of Montana Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies (2001–2006), division administrator of the Workforce Services Division at the Montana Department of Labor and Industry (2006–2015), director of the Montana Historical Society (2010–2011), and deputy commissioner of the Montana Department of Labor and Industry (2015–2016).

Born in Washington, D.C., Cooney was raised in Butte, Montana.

Cooney was the Democratic nominee for governor of Montana in the 2020 election, losing to Republican U.S. Representative Greg Gianforte.