About Llew Jones
Llew Jones, born in 1962, is the Republican candidate for Senate District 9. He currently represents House District 18, the northern half of Senate District 9, and has represented the Senate district before.
Jones is not new to public service. He has served seven terms in the Montana House and two in the Senate, with leadership roles along the way. At home, he spent six years as a Conrad alderman, served as director and president of the Chamber of Commerce, is a founding member of the Pondera Port Authority, serves on the Sweetgrass Development board, and is a founding member and president of the Coalition for Common Sense Use.
His legislative focus is the 4 Es: Economic Development, Energy, Education, and Environmentally responsible, common-sense multiple use of Montana's public lands. He has sponsored or cosponsored a significant share of Montana's fiscal policy and its economic development, energy and education innovation laws. Many organizations have recognized his work (see the Awards page).
Llew was born in Helena, adopted as an infant by Edward and Marjorie Jones, and raised in Conrad on a multi-generation family sheep, cattle and farming operation.
He has plenty of stories from those years: sheep camps, nights in old sheep wagons, lambing, calving, raking hay with an old 8N Ford, farming with old Case tractors, and herding sheep on foot and with working dogs.
He met Carole when she moved to Conrad from Missoula in 1980, and they became high school sweethearts. Llew was active in sports, student government, FFA and Honor Society, and graduated as salutatorian in 1981.
Llew earned a B.S. in Management and a graduate degree in Economics from Montana State University. After college, he and Carole came home to the family farm in Conrad to raise their three sons, Eddie, Daniel and Aaron. Their daughter, Dania, joined the family in 2000.
Llew kept learning, earning certifications as a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, Certified Novell Engineer and Certified Cisco Professional. With a great deal of help from Carole, he founded Jathco Systems, a successful computer consulting firm.
The Joneses also became active in other local businesses, including Pure Bliss Cycles, a Honda, Yamaha and Polaris powersports dealership, in 2004, and Frontline Ag, a John Deere dealership, in 2005. Llew and Carole are past recipients of the Conrad Chamber of Commerce's Businessman of the Year award. As Llew likes to say, "I never take on more work than my wife can do."
Llew and Carole, married 44 years, have always kept family at the center. They set strict academic expectations for their children, believing a good education comes first, and helped their kids, and many others, excel outside the classroom.
Llew coached his sons in wrestling and baseball, served many years as president of the Conrad Wrestling Club, and was head coach and organizer of the Montana National Wrestling team. All three sons won multiple state wrestling championships, attended Harvard and Brown, and are now building careers and families of their own.
Dania was a state champion in high school tennis and swimming. Llew and Carole also founded a north central Montana gymnastics club and coached youth swimming, youth shooting sports and girls' basketball. Llew has mused that "working with one daughter may be more challenging than working with three sons."
Dania took the family's academic expectations even further. She earned her associate degree before graduating from high school, finished her undergraduate degree in three years, and earned both a JD and an MBA from the University of Montana. She is now a lawyer. Llew and Carole have also coached all seven of their grandchildren.
With a proven record in business, a strong family track record and a "solutions track record" in public service, Llew is excited to take on the challenge of representing Senate District 9. His family-first focus, his business, economic and education background, and his experience chairing both Senate Finance and Claims and House Appropriations make him the right choice for Senate District 9.