National Attention: Griz Athlete On How She Broke the Big Story

Lily Meskers, the University of Montana student athlete and student journalist who broke the big story now getting national attention joined us on the radio Tuesday morning.

She broke the big story about how a group supporting Democrat Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) was offering to pay student athletes to endorse his political campaign. The female athletes in particular objected to endorsing Tester due to his vote against protecting women's sports.

Conn Carroll with the Washington Examiner shared her story on X and that tweet has already received nearly 100,000 views.

Lily Meskers: "I think me and a lot of the girls on the team honestly shared a really similar reaction to this. Why would we endorse something that fundamentally goes against us? As women athletes, you know, we work really hard to get to the level that we're at to be Division One athletes, and to have biological men take away these positions from us, it's really frustrating. And so when we got this email from Tester asking us to endorse him as athletes, it was kind of like...well, where is your endorsement for us? Where is you standing up for us as female athletes?"

Meskers, a Junior studying Journalism at The University of Montana, says she believes elected officials should be held accountable. 

Lily Meskers: "People describe Tester as a moderate person, but this vote against the protection of women and girls sports was not a moderate vote. I think most of Montana would absolutely agree with that. You know, this is not a moderate vote. This is a direct hit against women's sports."

We also talked with Meskers about her background in track and her experiences in Montana. You really gotta listen to her- she has a great story.

Full audio: