Steve is a lifelong sportsman and grew up in Bozeman, Montana. After attending public schools (K-12) in Bozeman, Steve worked his way through college at Montana State University and graduated with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering. He spent thirteen years in a management role for Procter & Gamble, and then returned to Bozeman in 1997 to work in a family construction business.
Daines was one of the youngest delegates at the 1984 Republican National Convention. “I was a big fan of Ronald Reagan. He was the first president I got to vote for,” he has said. Daines was also the president of MSU College Republicans.
In 2007, he and his wife started a website, GiveItBack.com, which urged governor Brian Schweitzer to return the state’s $1 billion surpluses to taxpayers. From 2007 to 2008, he was Montana state chairman for the Mike Huckabee 2008 presidential campaign and a national surrogate for Huckabee.