24 Facts About Scott Sales

Scott Sales is a state senator in the Montana Senate and serves as the president of that body.

Scott Sales previously served in the Montana House of Representatives, including a term as minority leader and as speaker of the House.

Scott Sales was born in Douglas, Wyoming, in 1960, and grew up near Boise, Idaho.

Scott Sales graduated from Boise State University in 1982, with a bachelor's degree in industrial business.

Scott Sales then worked for Hewlett-Packard and then a technology start-up, Extended Systems.

Scott Sales moved to Bozeman, Montana, in 1992, when Extended Systems established an office in the city.

Scott Sales spent three terms in the Montana House of Representatives; his district, State House District 68, covered the northern part of Gallatin County and most of Broadwater County.

Scott Sales was elected speaker of the Montana House of Representatives in 2007.

At the time Scott Sales became House speaker, he was relatively inexperienced; he assumed leadership of the chamber in just his second term and had never served as a committee chair.

Scott Sales presided over a House controlled by Republicans by the thinnest of margins: during his term, there were 50 Republican representatives, one Constitution Party representative who was mostly allied with Republicans, and 49 Democratic representatives.

Scott Sales was House minority leader in 2009, during a session when the House was evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans.

Once the spurious origin of the quotations were brought to light, Scott Sales said that he had "got them off the Internet" and had no intention to mislead.

Scott Sales raised a point of personal privilege in the House to apologize.

Scott Sales was ineligible to run for a fourth House term in 2010 due to term limits.

Scott Sales unsuccessfully ran for Gallatin County Commission in 2010, being defeated by incumbent commissioner Joe Skinner in the Republican primary election.

In 2011 Scott Sales was formerly the Montana state director for Americans for Prosperity, a Koch brothers-founded advocacy group.

Also in 2015, Scott Sales voted against privacy legislation introduced by Senator Daniel Zolnikov to restrict the state government's digital collection and use of individuals' data.

In November 2016, Scott Sales won an internal election among state Senate Republicans to be the president of the Montana Senate in the 2017 election.

Scott Sales's opponent was Senator Eric Moore of Miles City.

Scott Sales broke with tradition in January 2017 by deciding to not sit with the state House in the customary beginning-of-session joint sitting to hear speeches from members of Montana's congressional delegation, the chief justice of the Montana Supreme Court, the Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction, and a Native American leader.

In March 2017, Scott Sales said that he generally support privatizing the Montana State Fund, but said that he would consider supporting legislation to eliminate the fund entirely.

In debate, Scott Sales harshly attacked cyclists, calling them "some of the most self-centered, rude people navigating on the highways and county roads I've seen" and saying that there were "too many of them" in Montana.

Scott Sales' remarks prompted Derek Bouchard-Hall, the president and CEO of USA Cycling, to write an open letter to Scott Sales expressing disappointment.

In late December 2014, Scott Sales negotiated a settlement with COPP, in which he agreed to pay a $500 fine and expressed "regret" for "lack of judgment regarding my association with, and campaign use of," the group.