Missoula Businesses Face Harassment Campaign After Sponsoring Republican Fair Booth

MISSOULA, MT — Multiple local businesses that sponsored the Missoula County Republican Central Committee booth at the Western Montana Fair are facing coordinated harassment campaigns through false online reviews and social media attacks.

Loren Mostad, a real estate agent with Windermere Real Estate, said he received negative Google reviews and threatening Facebook messages despite not personally sponsoring the booth. Mostad was targeted because of his association with Windermere Real Estate, which was represented through former state representative Brad Tschida’s sponsorship.

“I have never met or had any dealings with either of the reviewers in any capacity,” Mostad said in an email to Western Montana News. “However the negative reviews on my business and my social media posting have a massive affect on my ability to help my clients buy and sell homes.”

The harassment campaign appears to target businesses whose banners were displayed at the Republican booth during the fair, including Skinner Sights, The Beauty Haven Co., Windermere Real Estate, and Family Dermatology in Missoula. Western Montana News also sponsored the booth.

Screenshots collected and reviewed by Western Montana News show repeated posts by Treyva Norton and dozens of others across multiple platforms. Norton, who admitted never working with Mostad’s business, wrote a lengthy negative review criticizing Windermere’s “very public and proud Trump fair sponsorship” and questioning whether potential clients should support the company. Western Montana News was unable to locate contact information for Norton.

Norton also engaged in extended Facebook harassment, demanding Mostad remove his company’s sponsorship visibility from the booth and threatening to report him to Facebook. When Mostad cited the REALTOR Code of Ethics regarding equal professional services regardless of political affiliation, the individual escalated the harassment.

“You don’t get to hang your company’s info under a big Trump flag and not expect a reaction,” Norton wrote in Facebook messages before Mostad blocked her. “Your threats say more about you than me.”

The attacks have resulted in Mostad’s Google business rating dropping to 1.0 stars from false reviews posted by non-customers specifically targeting the business over political associations. Family Dermatology has also received multiple one-star reviews from the same individuals who targeted The Beauty Haven Co. Western Montana News has identified approximately two dozen additional fake ratings left across the targeted businesses within the past 5 days since the fair ended, demonstrating the coordinated nature of the campaign.

At least one false review targeting Mostad’s business was removed by Google after being reported by Mostad and others.

Norton and others have also posted harassing comments on individual property listings for homes Mostad and other real estate agents are selling for clients on Facebook, forcing him and others to remove the comments to protect his clients’ transactions.

Mostad described the campaign as part of broader “cancellation culture” efforts targeting businesses that supported the Republican booth at the fair. The harassment extends beyond individual agents to impact their ability to serve clients in real estate transactions.

The Western Montana Fair traditionally features political booths from both parties as part of community engagement during the annual event. Business sponsorship of such booths has been a longstanding practice in the community.

Clancy Kenck, a member of the Missoula County Republican Central Committee executive board, said the harassment represents “a coordinated effort in Missoula to target businesses supporting civic events” and questioned “who is behind this anti-American activity that coordinates these smear campaigns.” The Missoula Republican’s booth quizzed fair-goers on their knowledge of city and county governance, the Montana Constitution and the U.S. Constitution.

“These businesses that purchased an advertising sponsorship for a Civic Trivia contest at the Western Montana Fair event should be applauded for spending their advertising dollars in such a civic-minded way,” Kenck said.

Troy Davis, owner of Family Dermatology, said his practice “was proud to sponsor a civics event at the fair” and called the targeting “disappointing.”

“Being targeted unfairly by people that were not patients of ours was disappointing. Targeting people like this is not only unfair but illegal,” Davis said. “Our patients know that we treat everyone with kindness and respect.”

Former state representative Brad Tschida, who also sponsored the booth, condemned the harassment campaign against businesses associated with the sponsorship.

“It shows a complete lack of character on the part of these individuals who targeted innocent people that included business owners and community members not even directly associated with the sponsorship,” Tschida said.

Former state representative Lyn Hellegaard, also on the committee’s executive board, said the pattern isn’t new in Missoula. When campaigning for City Council, Hellegaard said many businesses expressed support but wouldn’t provide sign locations or funding because “they were getting permits, anticipated getting permits or were selling or providing services to the city and didn’t want to jeopardize that.”

“The people I have spoken to while campaigning, that have lived here for 50+ years – pretty much all say it isn’t the Missoula they grew up in – it has turned into a very ‘mean’ city with little tolerance for any thought that doesn’t align with the left,” Hellegaard said.

The harassment campaign reflects broader concerns about political tolerance in Missoula, where Democratic candidates dominate city and county government. Hellegaard’s observations about businesses refusing to publicly support conservative candidates due to fear of city retaliation suggest a systematic intimidation that may discourage political competition and civic engagement from conservative voices.

The documented attacks on businesses for routine fair sponsorship demonstrate how this climate extends beyond electoral politics to basic community participation. When supporting a civic education booth at a county fair triggers coordinated harassment campaigns, it creates a chilling effect that could silence potential candidates or community leaders who might otherwise seek to bring more political balance to local governance.

The coordinated nature of the harassment—involving multiple individuals targeting multiple businesses across various platforms—illustrates how online tools can be weaponized to systematically discourage conservative participation in civic life, potentially limiting the diversity of voices in local political discourse.