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Category: City Desk

• Donavan Hawk
• YMCA
• American Civil Liberties Union

Donavan Hawk, photo by Paul Vang

By Paul F. Vang

For ButteNews.net

Donavan Hawk is one of those people who is hard to describe in just a few sentences.                                                                 

He is proud of his heritage as a Native American, but he’s a Butte guy to his core. He’s a political activist and a committed Democrat. Yet, he’s made good friends with Republican colleagues in the state Legislature and has gotten bills passed by getting bi-partisan support.

Donavan was born in Hardin, Montana, but grew up in Butte and is a graduate of Butte High School. He’s gotten in three years of college, but never graduated, because he started working as a lobbyist, advocating for health care, education, and Native American issues.

He comes by that activism honestly, learning it from his mother, Michaelynn Hawk, who was well known in the Butte community as an advocate for Native American issues, sometimes in collaboration with the American Civil Liberties Union.

Donavan got involved in local politics as a volunteer in political campaigns, continuing that involvement with the local Democratic party central committee, becoming chairman of the committee. Currently, he’s the National Committeeman for Montana’s Democratic party, meaning he’s one of two Montana representatives to the Democratic National Committee. He was heavily involved in the 2015 legislative session working on behalf of getting Medicaid expansion passed. He gives a lot of credit to Diane Sands, a long-time legislator and former state senator from Missoula for encouraging him to get more involved in politics and, he recalls, “bugging me to run for office.”

While all that was happening, Donavan also started a career with the Butte YMCA, as the Y’s marketing and public relations director, plus other assignments as they come along.

He also gives credit to long-time Butte legislators Ryan Lynch and Jon Sesso for giving him the final push to run for the legislature, with Sesso telling him, “It’s about time to get on that horse.”

Donavan got on that horse in 2020, getting elected to the House of Representatives, representing House District 76, winning the seat with 60 percent of the vote. He was re-elected in 2022, again with a similar margin of victory.

He is happy to report that his employer is supportive of his political activity, especially as the YMCA encourages young people to be active in public affairs. He says that when he was first elected to office, his work colleagues were ecstatic.

Life got a lot more complicated for Donavan Hawk in 2022. His mother had come down with cancer and moved to Washington to be closer to where she was getting her medical care. Another factor was that she was raising two grandchildren, the children of Donavan’s brother, who unfortunately is unable to be an effective parent because of addiction problems. Donavan was able to take a sabbatical from his job at the YMCA to go to Washington to help care for his mother. Unfortunately, she lost her struggle with cancer, and when Donavan came back to Butte to resume normal life, he came back with the children and is their legal guardian and father figure, a big change for a 40-something bachelor.

Donavan is grateful for all the support he has gotten from the Butte community through all this, especially during the 2023 legislative session.

It’s become clear to Donavan that serving as a Democrat in a legislature that is controlled by Republicans is a challenge, as the reality is that the majority can totally disregard anything that the Democrats desire. In his first session, in 2021, Donavan made a point to get acquainted with Republican legislators so he could make some friendships and personal connections. He also notes that the legislators from Butte have a long tradition of working together. In addition, at the beginning of legislative sessions, all the legislators from southwest Montana get together to identify regional priorities for the session.

It is this collaborative effort that has made it possible for Donavan, and others, to get some legislation passed, though he underlines that it takes a lot of initiative to be successful. He sponsored an amendment to a budget bill to provide $6 million for the Southwest Montana Veterans Home in Butte. He worked in collaboration with Sen. Ryan Lynch who was on the Senate finance committee, and Sen. Jeff Welborn (R-Dillon), and they successfully passed that amendment, though, unfortunately, Governor Gianforte vetoed the measure.

Donavan plans to run for a third term in the Legislature, though this time he will file to represent House District 72, instead of 76. Under Montana law, candidates for the state House of Representatives must live in the county, but not necessarily in the district they represent. Senate candidates must live in their Senate district, however. If elected, his district would be most of Butte west of Montana Street. District 76 is mostly east and southeast Butte.

Donavan’s goals for the next session include avoiding the so-called culture wars. In the last session, he had a front-row seat for culture wars, as his seat on the house floor was near LGBTQ activist Zooey Zephyr of Missoula, who was expelled from the House floor by the House speaker. Seeing a police SWAT team come to the legislature was unimaginable.

His focus is to go to Helena and try to make things better, be focused on real issues, and not get bogged down on cultural issues. His priorities are public education, healthcare, and organized labor, “The things that actually matter.” He also believes the legislature needs to address ongoing issues at the state psychiatric hospital at Warm Springs and the state prison, saying, “I see a lot of problems that need to be addressed.”

While Donavan is heavily involved with politics, he doesn’t have any long-term goals to hold public office beyond the Montana Legislature. He would, however, like to see more younger people run for office, though it’s a big challenge. “Most of the people in the legislature are either retired or independently wealthy. It isn’t easy, without employer support, for younger people to take five months out of their lives every other year.”

In addition to being a legislator, Donavan is a member of the Silver Bow Kiwanis Club and is also on the board of KBMF, the local non-profit radio station. “I like to be involved with the community and working with people.”