GREAT FALLS — “She should withdraw from the mayoral race and acknowledge that her anti-American ideals are completely out of step with the vast majority of folks in Great Falls.” That is a direct excerpt from an online post by Great Falls City Commissioner Rick Tryon last week.
In the post, Tryon calls for the concession of mayoral candidate Jasmine Taylor over her unwillingness to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Taylor is running for the position against incumbent Cory Reeves.
VIDEO - TAYLOR AND TRYON:
Tryon believes such an act is not only un-American, but unbecoming of a city leader, given the position’s ceremonial role.
“What will that look like if she's at a community meeting full of veterans and active service members? And they all stand up and give the pledge of allegiance,” says Tryon.
Taylor, who admitted to me she doesn’t recite the Pledge, says the article is a smokescreen for the upcoming election, designed to be incendiary.
“The commission would rather we don't look at the fact that our water park is running at a deficit of $10,000 a month,” says Taylor. “There are real material things affecting our community, and they are not whether or not I'm going to say something that includes the words ‘under God’. That doesn't affect our budget.”
Taylor cites her years of volunteer work with numerous community organizations and work to counter white supremacy in Great Falls as caring actions which go above and beyond her decision to recite the Pledge.
“If you view standing and saying words, whether or not you believe in them is more patriotic than doing the work to clean up your community, doing the work to connect with people in your community, then we simply don't define patriotism the same way,” says Taylor. “My loyalty is to community and the people within our community."
"I would say that patriotism and nationalism are entirely different," she added.
Tryon, who is not up for re-election, openly backs the re-election of Reeves, and says Taylor’s decision to run is irresponsible.
“To claim that it's actual leadership, as she has done, to not say the pledge of Allegiance, I think is absurd,” says Tryon. “We're a patriotic community here, and we don't need leaders who aren't going to, be actual leaders of the majority of people in this community.”
Taylor believes there are more important issues to tackle such as the budget deficit, loss of library funding, and the homeless.
“Any conversation that is around this topic, the pledge, these other things that aren’t material, that are not tangible, those are not to the benefit of our city,” she says.
During our interview, Taylor challenged Reeves to a debate.
“The mayor should respect the citizens enough and respect our community enough to engage in a debate about these issues, to have discussions about these issues that will affect us.”
It is not the first time she has requested the Mayor to the stage. So far it has elicited no response.
Ballots for the Great Falls Municipal General election will be mailed on October 20th, 2025. The general election will be November 4th.
