Zinke makes bid for new Montana seat following census data release

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Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke formed a committee with the Federal Election Commission Thursday, launching a bid for Congress six years after leaving the House to join the Trump administration.

Zinke’s newest committee, dubbed "Zinke for Congress," comes just days after Montana landed a second congressional seat following the release of the latest Census Bureau data.

Montana lost its second congressional seat after the 1990 census report.

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A commission will still need to draw up the new district lines, but Zinke’s filing show he plans to fundraise and run in the state’s second congressional district.

Zinke was twice elected to represent Montana’s current at-large district, first taking over in 2014 when then-Rep. Steve Daines was elected to the Senate.

He was the first Navy Seal elected to the House of Representatives, before joining Donald Trump’s cabinet in 2017.

Zinke resigned following ethics investigations into his use of chartered planes, though he was later found by the Office of Inspector General to not have violated any rules.

Though the boundaries for the state's second district will be drawn up once additional census data has been released, the district is expected to remain a Republican stronghold.

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Donald Trump won an overwhelming majority of the state’s vote, securing a 16 percent margin over Joe Biden.